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