Literacy Development Summary And Analysis

Literacy is the concept where writing and reading is a way of making, interpreting and communicating meaning. It is important that as educators there is an understanding of how children develop as literacy learners in K-2 classrooms so that appropriate support can be provided to strengthen their development. These types of support include reading aloud, storytelling, scaffolding and promoting vocabulary. This allows educators to accommodate their teaching practices to suit the individual needs of learners when working with linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds.

To effectively develop children’s oral language it is essential that educators implement strategies such as reading aloud to support their literacy development. Reading

In engaging children in storytelling, educators are enabling them the opportunity to “practice and develop their literacy skills and learn to understand themselves, others and the world around them” (Galda, 1998; Purves, 1993 in Kong and Fitch, 2003), which is achieved through the delivery of the story. It is vital that throughout storytelling, educators engage children through the use of “voice, gestures, body language and facial expressions” (Fellows & Oakley, 2014, p. 93), as through this “storytelling connects to their language and increases their understanding of the story” (Isbell, 2002). Storytelling presents children with new vocabulary and encourages their expressive language, therefore it is an educators responsibility to expose this towards children. In doing so, a child’s storytelling experience assists them in creating their own story writing. This can be further enhanced through re-enactment allowing children to “use new words and learn how to fit them into sentences” (Fellows & Oakley, 2014, p. 255). Through the role playing of these new words educators can help model the correct use of words depending on the context so that the children can grasp and extend their knowledge on the meaning of the

As an educator it is important to acknowledge all students’ level of English acquisition and sociocultural experiences particularly those who have English as a second language (EAL/D) as they will not have had the same “continuous exposure to English vocabulary nor the same ‘prior knowledge’” (ACARA, 2014). In the beginning phase of language learning, EAL/D students will go through an “observational period” (Gillanders, 2014) in which they decide to listen to their new language rather than speaking it. As educators, it is our responsibility to implement strategies to guide EAL/D students in developing their English proficiency. Language is better learnt through visual reinforcement for EAL/D students so it is important to represent the word in different contexts so that EAL/D students can connect the visual with its written word, making meaning of its use and therefore remembering and comprehending their new vocabulary. As an educator, various strategies would be implemented to build on the language skills of EAL/D students. These include teaching in context, practice, preparation and revision. When teaching, EAL/D new words it is crucial that as an educator, these words are taught in context rather than isolation as “words and phrases only mean what they mean in the context of the sentences and texts they appear in”