Emergent Literacy

This weeks reading focuses on Emergent Literacy. Two perspectives that are focused on in emergent literacy are "emergent literacy" and "reading readiness".

Emergent literacy focuses on social environments where reading and writing are purposeful. Through these contexts children can gradually grasp how to create these form through writing and understand the reading forms. This differs from the reading readiness perspective which focuses on preparing students to read.

The reading readiness perspective teaches students how to read and other skills that are deemed necessary to be able to read. These skills include reading from left to right, skipping, recognizing shapes and colors, and cutting in a straight line with a scissors.

Of these two perspective the reading readiness perspective is the traditional perspective. I believe that large motor skills like skipping are irrelevant in teaching a student to read and write. The most important thing is exposing young students to numerous forms of print that they can connect with. Creating an environment where students can explore anything imaginable can engage a student's motivation to begin reading and writing.