We made it Thanks to all!!

I learned a lot about early literacy and how to go about advocating for it. I know I will think more about why I am reading a book to a child or the materials I provide for them to learn with. I also learned alot about myself and how very much I want to lead my own classroom. I think it is one of the most rewarding jobs one can have. I have enjoyed this class even though the research paper was very challenging for me. I learned that I can push myself to do what is needed even if I don't quite understand it. I learned that anything is possible with modivation and the need to suceed. I have 3 classes left and am looking forward to graduating in the near future. I want to congratulate all of my classmates and wish you the best in your teaching careers. It was great working with you.

Interaction with Children and Families

During the past 2 weeks I have observed children and families in a Head Start Program. I observed parents dropping off thier children and talking with the teachers about thier concerns and thier childs morning. There was  parent that was volunteering in the center and she read some books to the children. They were 3-5 year old children and they were very interested in the new book. The parent interacted with the children very well and animated the words in the book to keep the children's attention.

I asked the parent if thier child enjyed being read to at home and what her thinking was about teaching literacy from a young age. She said that her little girl loves books and that she reads to her everynight possible. I asked her how important  she thought that providing opportunites for reading and writing was? She said that she thinks it is very important and she wished all children had these materials and opportunites avaliable to them. I interacted with the children by helping them during journal time. I could tell the children that had crayons and utensils avalible to them and were being worked with at home. I knew this because thier drawings were way more detailed and advance than the children less fortunate. I also saw parents that dropped their children off that needed flyers read to them by the teacher because they lacked much literacy skills such as reading and understanding the print.

One insight that I learned was that famlies are all differnt and have different priortites. Some are very involved in thier child's education and others are more work oriented and they seem to use school as a daycare. I think for this reason is is most important to advocate for early literacy and let the parents know how important it its to read to thier children and expose them to print and writing utensils. Another insight that I gained was that children love to learn. When the new book was read to the children they were so excited and attentive. It is up to us as parents and professionals to give the children opportunites to read, write, and learn by providing a print rich environment.

Interviewed professionals and the director

I interacted with the ECE Teacher and the director at Head Start. I asked the director about how they incorporate literacy in thier classroom. She said that they have writing utensils in every center. They also read to the children and allow free time with the books too. I asked her about parent involvement and she said that they send home activites for the parents to do with their children and have them sign and return it to the teacher. The director also showed me their word wall and for each letter they have the children's names under them to go along with the first letter of their name. They also have many words under each letter to help the children identify sounds and words associated with the differnt letters.

I also got to talk to the speech therapist that comes and gets some of the children to work on thier speech. I asked her how she was able to help the children with thier speech. She said they read and draw and just talk about the pictures and she tries to find something they are interested in such as trains to get them to talk more. She talked about the improvement that takes place during one school year and often the children are able to get out of speech because they are able to speak more clearly and no longer need the extra help. I enjoyed spending time in the classroom and also speaking with the speech therapist.

I worked in a Head Start room and observed the teacher and her co-workers this last two weeks. It was interesting to see how they arranged their classroom to encourage early literacy. They had a writing center, journals, paper and pencils available in every center. They also worked with the children as a group and individually. The children were learning and engaged in this very organized child friendly setting. Teacher talked to me about the importance of early literacy and how her children have grown over the school year by being exposed to books, utensils, and print. She said that they use to get RIF books. These are books that are free in children living in poverty. This has been taken away from this head start program at the current time. This is one thing that I am going to advocate for. Children need books. I learned how to expose children to print by placing the materials in their play area for them to experiment with. I looked and every center had paper with writing on it. Some was names and some was just random scribbles.
The children loved being read to and participated in the story by raising hands and adding their thoughts about the story. If children become great readers they will have a better educational experience. This is a very important topic that needs support from teachers, parents, and the community.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a Director and a teacher in a Head Start classroom. I asked them about early literacy and how important it was to a child's education. They had many good ideas to promote early literacy in the classroom and how to get parents involved with their children in regards to reading and writing. 

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• Insights gained from your interviews regarding current advocacy efforts and needs in your area of interest within the field of early childhood
• I gained insights that the need for early literacy is great. There are many parents that have low reading levels and have to be walked through paperwork that concerns thier child. Also many children live in environments that do not include bedtime stories and writing untensils outside of the school environment. This puts more work on the teachers to teach the children how to read and write. The director and the teacher both expressed concerns with parent involvement because in many cases the parents are too busy to work with thier child or just do not have the know how. The director and the teacher were very helpful to confirm my interest in the topic of early literacy and the importance of it. 
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• How these interviews may have influenced your decision about which area of interest and topics to choose for your research paper
• These interviews confirmed to me the importance of early literacy and how it affects the children's educational experinces for the better. It is so important to start the love for reading and introduce children to writing and environmental print at an early age. 
• Which area of interest you are thinking of focusing on for your paper as well as the related three specific topics
• I am writing my reasearch paper on the imprtance of early literacy and the three topics I am going to use is parent involvement, the importance of a print rich environment and having appropriate materials for children to utilze and teaching all children the love for reading and writing.
• Questions you have for your colleagues related to your area of interest and/or three topics
• If anyone has other topics that are related to early literacy they would be appreciated. I was a little unclear on what the topics should be. Thanks