Literacy of Young Children This article looks at

The article begins by reviewing what studies have shown about families where children already know how to read and write before they enter school (530). It points out that parents of early readers read to their children and are responsive to their childrenÆs attempts to read. They were usually readers themselves, and began reading to their children while they were still infants. Reading and writing materials are always available for children in such families, and reading and writing are highly prized.

The article then suggests that teachers continue the family-like setting in the classroom to further the childrenÆs literacy skills (530). They suggest using drawing, drama, and oral discussions to help children further develop their language abilities. Making literacy a pleasant activity rather than a learning chore is suggested.

For the parents, Strickland and Morrow (530) sug

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It stresses that the home is the first learning environment for the child and the teacher needs to involve the family to get them to make everyday activities into literacy learning activities for their children, at the formal and informal level. The article then looks at the teacher as a professional resource and makes suggestions for ways in which she can enhance literacy learning opportunities for her students (577). Suggestions for teacher-led activities include a grocery coupon exchange to teach children to read the names of products they use at home; the development of a lending library for the classroom; develop a writing briefcase, filled with pens, pencils, glue, scissors, tape, construction paper, and all other implements necessary for writing and drawing projects which could be checked out through the classroom library; and the use of videotapes of teacher storytelling sessions which can be used to demonstrate the use of this technique to parents. The paper next deals with the teacher as community contact, and how the teacher can have different community members come into the classroom and demonstrate to the students how important reading and writing skills are in their particular job. For instance, various mem
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Strickland Morrow, Enz Searfoss, Enz SearfossÆs, Stanford University, Escondido School, Fredericks Rasinski, Literacy Ideas, Readers Writers, Reading Teacher, literacy skills, Searfoss Lyndon, involving parents, assessment process, childrenÆs literacy, parents assessment, children read, read write, parents assessment process, parents help, parental assessment, reading writing, involving parents assessment, children read write, reading writing skills, skills start school,
Approximate Word count = 2304
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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