Evidence of Emergent Literacy

My main placement school puts a lot of emphasis on literacy through a number of activities. There are literature circles at every grade level, which amounts to a book club of six students, lead by adult volunteers. There is a "book-buddy" program where fourth graders read aloud to second graders (books chosen by the younger student), and third graders read to kindergartners. By the time you are in third or fourth grade, you are dying to be the reader and have that responsibility. It is the most 'Adult-like" role the students play. And finally the intermediate grades participate in the Global Reading Challenge as well. These school-wide activities augment what happens in each classroom.

My fourth graders are read to everyday from picture books that generally have a meaning that pertains to something else going on in the school day. With all the lost pencils and personal items lost in the playground, I read I Lost My Bear by Jules Feiffer. Ironically, that book became "lost", but later was found inside a child's desk. I also read Aunt Isabella Tells a Good One by Kate Duke to introduce elements of story-writing to start our unit on narratives.

When visiting other classrooms  at the school, I dropped in on a first grade literacy unit where the children were divided in groups and working at different stations; one table group was making books from a pre-printed paper which they colored, folded and added text to, another group was using reading rods building words that mostly did not yet exist, yet another group was individually reading to the teacher and a fourth group was in the leveled library reading silently (sort-of). This was a timed activity, where each group rotated through all of the workstations. In the third grade class I visited they were just finishing up a writing lesson with the teacher asking the question "What do good writers need?" The ansewer was this list "pencil, ideas, quiet, paper, words, audience, help, and time". Finally in the Fifth grade class the teacher was reading a chapter book to the students that was a historical novel based in the 17th century America. The students were all busy working on other projects (finishing up things) while the teacher read. When she stopped at the end of the chapter, they begged for more, even though from the oputside you would not sense that the students were engaged. It reminded me of listening to a radio drama while doing some other task.

I think for the first time I am not taking reading and writing for granted.