...Term Paper Psyc 400, Spring, 2015 Title of Paper: Factors Contributing to Literacy Skills in Children from Low-Income Families In American society, education is considered by many to be an equalizing force for people from all walks of life. It allows the nation’s best and brightest to distinguish themselves from their peers through intellectual merit - at least in theory. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation does not live up to the ideal, especially for children from low income families. Children who are already growing up with the disadvantages of poverty are further hindered by underfunded and ineffectual primary schooling, setting them even further behind middle and upper class children. Before beginning a discussion of the factors or strategies contributing to early literacy, it is important to first establish that there is in fact a discrepancy between low-income children and their more affluent peers in the first place. A review of the research literature is required to lay certain inaccurate stereotypes to rest, such as the notion that poor children are simply lazier students, and do not face additional difficulties with the acquisition of literacy skills. A comprehensive empirical study by Babuder et al (2014) explores the relationship between poverty and reading skills in children, with the results being unanimously negative. The study goes beyond assessing the reading skills of the children, and measures the basic phonological and semantic skills needed...
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...Early literacy plays a major role in the development of young toddlers and children. It is proven that language and literacy helps improve upon the manner in which a child succeeds in school, as well as later in life. Literacy and language skills promote healthy learning experiences, academic achievement, as well as enhanced ability to succeed in adult life. Studies have proven that when a child’s experiences with language and literacy are more limited, the more trouble they will have learning to read. There are several issues with the establishment of early literacy, as well as several outcomes. Some of the things that are important in developing literacy are setting standards of high importance, standard curriculum, and teacher preparation. There needs to be principles set into place that require standards for early literacy in K-12 programs across the nation. The development for these standards has been somewhat of an issue, and is being continually set into place over the last several years. There is a national effort being set forth by programs such as The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). There needs to be schedule and availability, as well as the tools needed for these children in the appropriate settings. As long as there is an effort to involve oral language development, phonological awareness, print knowledge and use and writing, there will be a step in the right direction. Once these tools are offered widespread, there needs to be...
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...In her article, Debbie Harwood highlights the importance of incorporating critical literacy practices in literacy education in order to teach and encourage children to think critically, question texts and transform themselves or the world around them (Harwood, 2008). Critical literacy’s aim is to encourage children to be aware of the underlying nature and the purposes of literacy, as well as the different worldviews through which literacy can exert and maintain power (Harwood, 2008). It is important that we as educators teach and encourage children to use critical literacy skills as they engage with texts, and to encourage them to explore and learn about multiple perspectives, as well as to question what they read in order to uncover and recognize...
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...The Benefits of Literacy In Germany and The United States of America Germany and the United States of America (USA) share common thoughts on the significance of a well rounded literacy education. Their approaches toward students’ gaining a literacy education are singular. Both countries are discovering the importance of the relationships between an early childhood education and a literacy education. Struggles are happening within each countries education system with the rise in population of Immigrants and poverty. Learning literacy skills to read symbols, numbers, alphabets, and words are necessary for individuals to live in any society. As you read further, you will learn of the importance and difficulties of attaining a literacy education for both Germany and the United States of America early childhood students. Every child that is born learns the first skills of literacy from their caregiver or parent. Children learn to speak by watching the adults around them. Miller (2007) believes these actions are part of cultural learning. (p. 18) Young infants are learning most of their behaviors unconsciously. Albert Bandura (cited in Boyd & Bee, 2006) defines the observation done by infants and children as observation learning or modeling. (p. 31) The first skills that are learned by children at home are the most important skills that help them become great students in the classroom. Literacy skills are not formed in the same manner as speaking. One does not learn to...
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...CONTENT AREA LITERACY IMPORTANCE Tracey Turner EDUC 525A Instructor: Craig Carter December 7, 2014 CONTENT AREA LITERACY IMPORTANCE Literacy is an important aspect for success in life in general. An individual’s success in the classroom, in their career, and in their quality of life is directly related to how literate that individual may be. Literacy is more than the ability to read, but how an individual uses written information to function in life. Literacy was traditionally thought of as just the ability to read and understand what has been read. Now, the term literacy is being thought of in terms as a much wider range of skills related to subjects such as science and math. Changes in society and advancements in technology have brought about rising skill requirement in every aspect in life. To be successful in every area, one must be literate in every subject being taught. The success of the school will also be related to how well the school is equipping the students to have strong literacy skills. Regardless of the subject being taught, literacy is an important aspect for success in that subject. In order for a student to fully comprehend in every subject, they must have strong literacy skills in that subject, not just in reading. “The ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to build a student's comprehension, writing skills, and overall skills in communication.”(Alber, 2014). The incorporation of reading instruction and strategies into content area...
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...T he National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; 2008) was convened with the purpose of “summarizing scientific evidence on early literacy development and on home and family influences on that development” (p. iii). The project was aimed specifically to influence educational policy and practice as well as to “determine how teachers and families could support young children’s language and literacy development”(p. iii). The NELP report provides an initial framework for considering the effectiveness of parent and family literacy programs on young children’s literacy acquisition, but there are several important pieces to the puzzle that remain to be addressed. The charge to the NELP was to determine what instructional practices promote the development of children’s early literacy skills. Toward that end, the panel posed four questions: 1. What are the skills and abilities of young children (birth through 5 years or kindergarten) that predict later reading, writing, or spelling outcomes? 2. Which instructional approaches or procedures contribute to gains in children’s skills and abilities that are linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, or spelling? 3. What environments and settings are related to improvements in children’s skills and abilities that are linked to later literacy outcomes? 4. What child characteristics are related to gains in children’s skills and abilities that are linked to later literacy outcomes? To set the foundations for their study, the...
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...The Early Childhood Education Education is an asset for every person and probably the most important pert is when it starts, at early childhood. This decides the child's attitude to education throughout life and its capacity to learn. Children start to learn early in life and though it may not be realized that even during the first few months of life the child begins experimenting with language. The attitudes towards literacy develop during this period and all important concepts of literacy expand during these years through the care of the adults and various forms of print that they chance to meet. This important form of literacy is composed of several key components according to the experts on literacy and this first of these is phonetic awareness. This is an understanding that speech contains many units like spoken words, syllables and sounds. The children gradually become familiar with names of letters, their shapes and sounds. Over a period of time they also develop the capacity to take every spoken word apart in terms of sound and also combine sounds to form words. (Promoting Literacy Activities in Early Childhood Settings) The children have to hear and say the parts of the word and then only they can learn to read it. They have to understand the importance of each sound in a word, as this is the only way they will learn to say the word properly and not develop too much of an accent or slang which will hurt the ability of individuals to understand it. For this purpose...
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...E13 Early Childhood Literacy Assignment 04 Modeling, Providing and Facilitating Early Childhood Literacy “Many people believe that children learn to read and write in kindergarten or first grade; however, the foundation for literacy skills is laid years before children enter school. Emergent literacy, much like any other cognitive skill, begins at birth” (Zero to Three, 2014). Because literacy skills begin at birth, it is important that the adults in a child’s life are aware of how they can encourage and further the development of these skills. When working on literacy skills with young children, educators should act as a model, provider and facilitator. It is a common phrase that “children are like sponges,” meaning that children listen and watch everything that we do. What they see and hear from others around them is often portrayed in their play and their vocabulary. For this reason, it is important that teachers model attitudes and behaviors in speaking, listening, writing and reading (Machado, 2015). One way to model literacy with young children is to engage in conversation with them. According to Machado (2015), when adults engage in conversational exchanges with children they provide them with opportunities to draw conclusions, infer cause-and-effect, evaluate consequences, evaluate what is happening and much more. It is easy to respond to children’s comments with “I see” or “Wow, that’s great,” but when adults make these comments it ends the conversation, not encouraging...
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...Project Harvard Graduate School of Education HARVARD FAMILY RESEARCH PROJECT NO. 1 in a series SPRING 2006 Family Involvement IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION The family seems to be the most effective and economical system for fostering and sustaining the child’s development. Without family involvement, intervention is likely to be unsuccessful, and what few effects are achieved are likely to disappear once the intervention is discontinued.1 —Urie Bronfenbrenner This brief is dedicated to Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005) whose pioneering research influenced the work of Harvard Family Research Project. Introduction Family involvement matters for young children’s cognitive and social development. But what do effective involvement processes look like, and how do they occur? This research brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement—that is, the research studies that link family involvement in early childhood to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works. The conceptual framework guiding this research review is complementary learning. Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) believes that for children and youth to be successful from birth through adolescence, there must be an array of learning supports around them. These learning supports include families, early childhood programs, schools, outof-school time programs and activities, higher education, health and social service agencies, businesses...
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...great deal of time and establishes important relationships." (Ulrich 12) When combined, these factors directly and indirectly influence the physical and emotional development of children. Negative impacts of environment on early upbringing have been shown to affect many areas, including behavior and academic performance, social and emotional issues, as well as actual physical development of the brain. Urie Brofenbrenner defined this relationship between development and the environment in his "Proposition 1" which went on to say, "especially in its early phases, and to a great extent throughout the life course, human development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate environment." (Brofenbrenner 38). In this early work Brofenbrenner explains the ecological model of human development, and his Proposition 1 explains the importance of the environment in the process of early human development. The Urban Child Institute states “A child’s early home environment has a profound effect on his well-being.” and goes on to demonstrate the link between “negative home environments” (Urban Child Institute 44) during early upbringing with deficiencies in language and behavior, as well as issues with school readiness and cognitive development in a child’s...
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...XRAYING SCHOOL READINESS FACTOR AND PRACTICE OF CHILDREN INFAMILIES (A CASE STUDY OF SOUTHEAST NIGERIA) BY AZUKA UGO ozone4k@yahoo.com FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL) UMUNZE, ANAMBRA STATE NIGERIA Abstract The study Xraying School Readiness Factor and Practice of Children in Families (A Case Study of Southeast Nigeria) adopted a survey research design. The population comprises of educated families in southeast Nigeria. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used in determining the sample size. Sample size of 2,500 was determined by sampling educated families from each of the selected State, local government, and villages in Southeast Nigeria. Forty six item questionnaires were used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using frequency, and mean. The findings include: environmental factor, finance, parental practices among others are factors that determine child readiness and practices in southeast Nigeria; Recommendations on appropriate School Readiness Factor and Practice of Children in Families n southeast Nigeria were made based on the research findings. KEYWORDS: xraying, school readiness, practice, children, families Introduction (Background of the study) Readiness is a term used to describe preparation for what is next to take place. School readiness factor and practice of children are the preparation, practice and teaching to the individual child to be ready for school in the family, though according to experts, readiness has no single definition...
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...Emily strickland Dec 13, 2015 Final assignment 1. The classroom literacy observations relates to standard 3 observing, documenting, and assessing to support young children's and families. Based on observing classroom literacy and interaction between children and teachers, a few of the key elements states that understanding the goals, benefits, and uses of assessment. Understanding and practicing responsible assessment to promote positive outcomes for each child. By evaluating the classroom and the needs of the children including interests there is an understanding of what literacy materials can be placed throughout the classroom. The 5 booklists relates to standard 1 promoting child development and learning. By understanding and applying understanding of the different books and establishing if the book is developmentally appropriate for them that can reflect both positive and negative learning. With both special topics such as death, or divorce that can be an upsetting and even hard experience to explain to a child or to go through as well as diverse topics such as culture that can show differences in background. Each book either placed on shelves, or in the library give children opportunities to engage with. The literature study relates to standard 5, using content knowledge to build meaningful curriculum. I chose this standard because designing activity plans require the ability to create developmentally appropriate practices such as activities that are meaningful,...
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...Information Literacy With information being so readily available at the click of a button, is information literacy a necessary to tool to have and/or succeed? College students have multiple search engines, blogs, and social media sites that they obtain information from on a daily basis. These sites are the go to sites for students when completing academic work. According to Russell (2009), “students easily abandon the system of academic information available through their institution in favor of more intuitive sources like Google Scholar” (p. 92). This paper will analyze the importance of information literacy as it relates to the Scholarship, Practice, and Leadership Model. Loss Concept of Seeking Information William Badke, emphasizes that “showing students the magic is the key to getting past resistance to information literacy.” As simple as information literacy is to understand, students are resistant to becoming proficient in information literacy. It can be argued that students have become complacent with the convenience of acquiring information via smart phones, iPad, and smart watches. It is not commonplace for students to utilize journals and information that are peered-reviewed. In Williams Badke’s article, Information as Tool, Not Destination (2008), he suggest that students should know learn how maneuver through information to have a better understanding of it and to be able to identify the problem. Often times, students find it hard to research information...
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...What is Emergent Literacy? Emergent Literacy is the reading and writing concept, behavior and dispositions that precede and develop into conventional reading and writing. Recently the term “reading readiness” has given way “emergent literacy” by which we mean the many skills children need for reading and writing. From the time they were born and continuing through the preschool years, each child picks up in his or her own way. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are all part of emergent literacy. Literacy really begins when an infant coos or babbles, then hears those sound repeated by a responsive and loving adults. These early conversation, which can make adults feel a little silly, and a gentle introduction to spoken language and will soon change into soon change into the sound and rhythms of language. Adults encourage these beginning steps in to language by singing, saying nursery rhymes, doing finger play and sharing picture books. Reading Readiness vs Emergent Literacy Reading readiness has been defined as a point at which a person is ready to learn to read and the time during which a person transition from begin a non-reader into a reader. Other terms for reading readiness include early literacy while emergent literacy is how young children interact with books when reading and writing, even though they could not read or write in the conventional sense. According to piaget theory of cognitive development the concept of reading readiness refers to the...
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...Analysis Athletes spend 40 hours a week on sport related activities decreasing time for academic pursuits and productive activities. This time is spent with other athletes and coaching staff which impairs personal development and social integration. The rigorous schedule leads to physical exhaustion and nagging injuries. This hampers attention to educational pursuits and goal attainment. Educational Importance Colleges and universities have a duty to provide the best educational experience possible for its students. Education should not take a backseat to sports on campuses across the country. Individual, multilevel, and culturally relevant curriculum and programs should be developed to promote personal, social, and academic success for student-athletes. These programs need to ensure that athletes can compete not just in sports but in life. Reference Comeaux, E. & Harrison, K. (2011). A conceptual model of academic success for student athletes. Educational Researcher, 40, 235-245. Ensuring Early Literary Success Summary This article examines the importance of reading competency for children. Reading and literary skills are essential for success in academic curriculum. The popular view is that mastering alphabetic principles, spelling, and understanding writing translates...
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