The Pleasure and Power of Literacy

  
Home  

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. From the Classroom
3. From the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum
4. From the Past
5. Some Book Suggestions
6. Newsletter Information

Introduction

Welcome to a new school year and to a new, and streamlined version of the Early Childhood Newsletter. We intend to publish eight times during the 1999/2000 school year. We will feature issues relating to the teaching of Language Arts. We will continue to represent the voices of teachers, children and parents as we explore the following topics: Connecting the Rhythms and Patterns of Language to Print, The Writing/Reading Connection, The role of Predictable Books, Domestic Literacies, Literate Play, Where Phonics Fits, The Right Book at the Right Time.

Return to Table of Contents

From the Classroom:

Teachers have many language and literacy stories to tell, collected from their experiences with children. Sharon Davidson, from Forest Hills School in District 8 calls these experiences "gifts" the children give her. She tells a wonderful story with a message about the power and pleasure of literacy. A child in her kindergarten class was lying on the floor on his stomach, pencil and paper in front of him, deeply engaged in what he was doing. All of a sudden he stood up with a shout. "Look, Mrs. Davidson, I've got The Power, I've got The Power!" On the page was an unsteady, but unmistakable letter. The first letter of his name.

What a gift he gave Sharon. He understood the power of the written word and his joy at having that power put a whole new spin on Sharon's thinking about teaching reading and writing. It isn't enough to teach children to decipher the code, to answer a set of questions about a text. Understanding how empowering the acts of reading and writing can be, to use that power to make connections between the world and the text, to use print to make positive changes in the world and to enjoy the world more fully is what it means to be literate.

The classroom affords many opportunities for children to come to understand the power of the written word, to see how reading and writing work to accomplish things. There are everyday tasks like attendance and reporting to the safe arrival committee, filling in order forms for hot lunch, writing notes to send home. There are also one-of-a-kind events that occur in the community of the classroom and the school. Perhaps the children feel a concern about a specific problem on the playground and need to write a letter to the principal about it. An invitation needs to be written to "an expert" to come and help with a class project. A classmate is in hospital and needs cheering up. Teachers need to be looking for those opportunities, always asking, "Where is the literacy in this?"

This practical approach to teaching reading and writing, embedding the learning in real life experiences, is not a new strategy. In these newsletters we will feature the words of educators from the past who have influenced our present practices. This issue features Susan Issaacs, a British educator in the early part of the 20th Century who understood the world to word connections well.

Return to Table of Contents

From the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum:

"Language is . . . the most powerful tool students have for giving significance to their experiences, and for making sense of both the world and their possibilities in it." P.3.

"Students will be expected to regard reading/viewing as sources of interest, enjoyment, and information." p. 62

Return to Table of Contents

From the Past:

Susan Isaacs was one of the founding members of The Malting House School for Young Children at Cambridge in 1924. Her book, Intellectual Growth in Young Children, is based on data gathered from a three year period at that school. The following excerpt is taken from page 45.

Early Childhood Centre News Early Childhood Centre News is published by the Early Childhood Centre, Faculty of Education, Bag Service #45333, Fredericton, NB E3B 6E3. We welcome your submissions. Please sign your letters and include your mailing address and telephone number. Editors: Anne Hunt, Pam Whitty, Pam Nason Design: Beth Simon The same practical policy was followed with regard to reading and writing. I have described how the children wrote out the weekly menus and the lists of who washes the plates tomorrow. Everything of this kind that could be managed by the children . . .was turned over to them. Sometimes they wrote (or typed) letters ordering materials. The ladders, for instance, that were ordered by the children, ...were late in delivery. And when the children kept saying, "Oh, when will the ladders come?" I replied, "Well, will you write a letter to Mr. Smith, and ask him how soon he can deliver them?"

The technical processes of learning to read and write thus fell into their proper places as aids to recording and communicating. The value of this was found later on when every one of the children grew eager to master these tools.

Return to Table of Contents

Some Book Suggestions:

Many of our readers will already know about Janet and Allan Ahlberg's The Jolly Postman; or Other People's Letters. It is a delightful example of a book for children that is about writing and reading and how they work in the everyday world. Here are some further suggestions of books you might want to share with your children.

Ahlberg, Allan. Tell Us a Story. Candlewick Press, 1996. This little book, one of the Red Nose Reader series, plays with literary conventions. The rhymed stories Dad tells at bedtime are hilariously mixed up. Simple text, speech balloons and cartoon-like illustrations make this a book a very young reader can master.

Bradby, Marie. More Than Anything Else. Orchard Books, 1995. This is a vignette from the childhood of Booker T. Washington. Booker, like Sharon's student, understood the power of being literate. This is the story of how he learned to read "the song the marks (on the page) make."

Hoban, Lillian. Arthur's Prize Reader. Harper Trophy, 1978. This story, written in a controlled vocabulary for young readers, is about a collaboration between the two main characters to use their growing reading abilities to accomplish their goals.

Little, Jean. Once Upon a Golden Apple. Viking, 1991. This "fractured Fairy tale" told by the father and boisterously edited by his two older children, also contains a second story starring the family dog, in the illustrations.

Return to Table of Contents

Newsletter Information

Editors: Anne Hunt, Pam Nason and Pam Whitty