Literacy Planning and Resource: 1429177

Introduction

      The development of children is an interesting stage but instilling some skills to them is challenging if one does not understand their mind (Duncan, H. 2013). This, therefore, calls for expertise among the teachers and educators as they need someone who understands their psychology and how to teach them effectively. Further, teaching children requires the application of various skills that will ensure the children acquire the skills needed. A developmental approach should be employed among children rather than a one-time approach because learning is a process and children are being prepared for future life (Duncan, H. 2013). Another advantage of the developmental approach is that each stage of learning builds from the previous one and thus a child builds himself or herself up till perfection.

  One vital literacy skill to be taught in children is how to explore a text. Text exploration refers to the deconstruction of a text by trying to understand its structure and its contents or its meaning (Lindsley, O. R. 2019). To help children explore a text, questions are asked to help the child understand it. The questions are; is the text time related, which sections are in the text, are there comparisons or contrasts in the text, what are the details and descriptions, and is there anything unusual?

    To help a child understand if the text is time-related is asking them questions in which time is used, whether past, present or future. There are things to look for in such a sentence that will help the child understand the time used (Konrad, M et al 2017). Deconstructing the time aspect in a sentence helps a child understand and appreciate the time. Methods to be used here are asking questions and interactive reading such that children will be able to express themselves and understand the time used (Lindsley, O. R. 2019).

     Next is teaching the child sections in a text. This involves knowing distinct parts making up the text (Flynn, N. 2017). Methods here include the use of demonstrations such as writing a text on manila papers and asking them to show the parts making up the text.  Some other texts are either contrasts or comparisons which entails showing a similar relationship or a difference. Teaching children this develops their ability to think and understand issues. Methods here will include using groups where one will identify contrasts and other comparisons. Lastly, in-text exploration is to know the details and if there is the use of any unusual thing. Children are taught to understand what is being communicated and what is normal or abnormal in the text (Flynn, N. 2017).

       Other literacy skills that children need to teach are how to build their vocabulary capacity also known as word level, sentence level focus, and text level focus, acknowledgment of letters, skills in narration, awareness in print, print motivation, and speech and sound organization (Flynn, N. 2017). Flynn further says that various methods can be used to help a child develop the aforementioned literacy skills and they vary from child to child and also different age groups.  Further, there are six components of literacy that a child ought to develop. These are; ability to hear which discrete sounds make up a word, which sounds go hand in hand with which letters, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and lastly ability to write (Moorey, M. 2013).

     Proper planning is essential in this task. This entails how the lessons will be planned, what methods of teachings will be used, how to address the various learner needs, and how to tackle any challenges that may arise (Bos, C et al 2015). Besides, children are easily distracted and cannot concentrate for long. This will need the use of interesting and child-friendly teaching methods that will be somehow entertaining to them and cause them to concentrate (Flynn, N. 2017). This paper has been done to show the skills that will be employed by teachers to equip children with literacy teaching skills and what methods will be used to ensure that it is effective and impactful. Besides this, when teaching children and helping them acquire literacy skills it is essential to observe them, learn from them so that a conclusive and helpful approach is designed for them.

   Equipping children with literacy skills is done in stages. As the child is young their ability to grasp a lot of content is small but it increases as the child grows (Konrad, M et al 2017).    

     According to a report done in 2017 by Konrad and others, they found out that observing children is important to the education instructor in two ways; first, it helps in guiding what to teach them and not waste time teaching them things they already understand. Secondly, it helps to develop a learning method and content that will be right and meaningful to the child at the moment. Further to this, children are different even if they may be in the same age bracket. This means some will capture things either faster or slower than others. With this understanding, it calls for different methods of teaching and which will not disadvantage either slow or quick learners.

    Teaching children is different from teaching adults because teaching them is the foundation stage and therefore needs discrete attention. This is, therefore, a stage that can be easily broken or if done well the children can acquire these skills. Besides, being the foundation stage, literacy skills are very essential in development (Ekalestari, S. 2017). Research shows that children who have good literacy skills perform better not only in school but also in life. Further, they have a high sense of belonging and image and thus can easily be good citizens, leaders both self and in the corporate world, and employees.

     Various age groups at different developmental stages have different needs in terms of literacy. The first age group is where a child pretends to be reading but can develop literacy skills by retelling stories previously read to them. At this stage, the child can only recognize and read a few words and are below 6 years of age (Ball, J et al 2012). To develop his or her skills the child will be helped to gain the ability to recognize and name letters and play with writing materials. Further, the parallel talk will be used to build up the child language repeating the child’s words even though some may be incoherent.  The children will also be encouraged to ask questions, and instructions will be associated with books available for them to relate

    The next stage is where a child can distinguish the relationship between words and letters. As the lead teacher, I aim to help the child develop skills such as phonology, knowledge in letter-sound, and how to segment and blend. The skills that will be applied here are which will expose the child to hear various sounds, print, and tracing.  The child will be given much time to be able to interact with these issues. Books which are not are chosen, with large fonts and pictures to stimulate interest will be used. Further to this, the use of writing letters, learning the alphabets will be incorporated too. The practice is essential at this stage and so the children will be allowed.

    Thirdly is where the child gains fluency and then a child can learn new things and are the age of 7-8 years.  A child here can read simple stories. The focus for this age group is vocabulary increase and putting meaning into a context. Reading aloud will be included by repeating and monitoring their reading daily. Engagements in talk or conversation with the child are one method that will be helpful to help them learn new words. Explanation of new words will be done when they are encountered during reading sessions.

    One teaching skill that can be employed is the use of reading aloud methods. This involves encouraging children to read some texts or stories aloud. Before the session, the teacher or educator will prepare by anticipating in advance for possible answers that children may ask how to answer them, follow up questions, control mechanisms and encourage dialogue concerning the book being read at the moment (Lindsley, O. R. 2019). With some children being naive and shy this method is good to allow the child enough time to read to help them gain confidence. Further, to this, reading aloud can be used interchangeably where the educator reads first and by and by allows the child to gain control over time. The environment to be used should be quiet also to capture the attention of the child and avoid distractions from outside noises. In such a kind of reading tone is crucial too. If there are sounds of animals the educator should mimic the animals so that the child can know these sounds.

    Early preparation of read-aloud sessions for impactful results is necessary. This is where (Bos C. S et al 2015).

         In their 2015 journal, Bos C. S et al say that the effectiveness of reading aloud can be enhanced by the use of gestures, voice change, and dramatization among others. They continue saying that bringing a text or book to life by use of these actions has been proved to improve a child’s capacity in literature development. Voice change helps a child differentiate various emotions in the book or text and animals that may be in the book and the sounds they make.

     Ball, J, and others have identified the use of fun as a good strategy to be incorporated into their learning. This can be done by playing word games that will encourage them to learn sounds, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling among others (Ball, J et al 2012). Learning should not be too formal and thus playing but still learning can be a useful tool. This kind of literacy learning has been identified to help children love literature as a part of life and important.

   Children who are older and have substantively developed some literacy skills should be guided to gain control over the skills they are developing. This can be achieved by gradually allowing them to gain control over reading. At a young age, teaching is mostly centered on the tutor having full control of learning and children little control. As the age of the children progresses teachers need to gradually release their grip on control and allow children to drive the process. This is done by guiding their reading, encourage self-reading, and encourage independence

     After the application of all these strategies, there is a need for monitoring and evaluation which happens at all stages of learning. Monitoring and evaluation are essential to gauge if the child has been able to capture what has been taught if desired skills have been imparted and it can also help to know if a child has a special need requiring more attention. In monitoring, it can be done in two ways either from the student to the teacher or the other way round. It can also be done on an individual basis or a group basis. Teacher-directed monitoring or follow up can be done by use of feedback strategy where a child is asked on what he or she thinks needs to be improved.

   Learning Resource

References

Ball, J., Paris, S. G., & Govinda, R. (2012.). Literacy and numeracy skills among children in developing countries. Learning and Education in Developing Countries. doi:10.1057/9781137455970.0007

Bos, C. S., Mather, N., Silver-Pacuilla, H., & Narr, R. F. (2015). Learning to Leach early literacy skills—Collaboratively. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 32(5), 38-45. doi:10.1177/004005990003200505

Developing early literacy skills: Principles and practices. (2017). Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Educational Needs, 107-124. doi:10.4324/9780203964361-12

Duncan, H. (2013). Improving literacy skills for children with special educational needs. doi:10.4324/9780203470404

Ekalestari, S. (2017). Foreign language teaching methods for children. doi:10.31227/osf.io/4d3kv

Flynn, N. (2017). Language and literacy for children who are English language learners (ELLs). The Literate Classroom, 87-99. doi:10.4324/9781315270647-9

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Lindsley, O. R. (2019). Precision teaching: By teachers for children. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 22(3), 10-15. doi:10.1177/004005999002200302

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Moorey, M. (2013). Building oral language skills to support literacy and academic attainment of primary school children. http://isrctn.org/>. doi:10.1186/isrctn85746281

Reading with children: Quality literature and language development. (2016). Language and Literacy Development in Early Childhood, 95-110. doi:10.1017/cbo9781316442791.007

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Vieira, I., Moura, A., Terton, U., Bilby, M., & Barros, M. (2018). Designing Gamified E-learning applications for children with down’s syndrome – The case of teaching literacy and language skills. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education. doi:10.5220/0006684701020113