David Kerbow, a researcher for the Center for School Improvement at the University of Chicago, discusses the development of phonemic awareness and the value of reading aloud to children.
In their literacy development, children progress through several categories of phonological skills. The earliest and easiest tasks involve rhyming, identifying words that rhyme, and thinking of rhyming words. Intermediate tasks involve the blending of phonemes (for example, /i/ and /n/ = in) and syllable splitting (separating the first phoneme of a word from the ending sound: /b/ /at/). The most difficult tasks involve the complete segmentation of phonemes and manipulation of them to form new words (Griffith & Olson, 1992; Hall & Moats, 1999).
Children's parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators play an important role in ensuring that children successfully progress in their literacy development. Children's literacy efforts are best supported by adults’ interactions with children through reading aloud and conversation and by children’s social interactions with each other (McGee & Richgels, 1996). It is imperative that caregivers and educators in all settings are knowledgeable about emergent literacy and make a concerted effort to ensure that children experience literacy-rich environments to support their development into conventional literacy.
Of utmost importance is reading aloud to children and providing opportunities for them to discuss the stories that they hear (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999). Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, and Wilkinson (1985) state, "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This is especially so during the preschool years" (p. 23). Reading aloud to children helps them develop in four areas that are important to formal reading instruction: oral language, cognitive skills, concepts of print, and phonemic awareness. Development of these skills provides a strong foundation to support literacy development during the early school years (Allington & Cunningham, 1996; Hall & Moats, 1999; Holdaway, 1979).
Children who are read to develop background knowledge about a range of topics and build a large vocabulary, which assists in later reading comprehension and development of reading strategies. They become familiar with rich language patterns and gain an understanding of what written language sounds like. Reading aloud to children helps them associate reading with pleasure and encourages them to seek out opportunities to read on their own. Children also become familiar with the reading process by watching how others read, and they develop an understanding of story structure. Repeated readings of favorite stories allow children an informal opportunity to gradually develop a more elaborate understanding of these concepts. By revisiting stories many times, children focus on unique features of a story or text and reinforce previous understandings. In addition, rereadings enable children to read emergently (Sulzby, 1985b; Sulzby, Buhle, & Kaiser, 1999).
All children need to have high-quality children's books as a part of their daily experience (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999). Storytime can include a variety of reading materials, including "books that positively reflect children’s identity, home language, and culture" (International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998, p. 9). Children benefit from having access to a wide range of literacy materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and a variety of writing materials. The library media specialist at school or the children’s librarian at the public library can help identify a variety of materials, including picture books, rhyming books, alphabet books, short stories, and chapter books.
Literacy-rich environments, both at home and at school, are important in promoting literacy and preventing reading difficulties. In literacy-rich home environments, parents and caregivers provide children with occasions for daily reading, extended discourse (extensive talking or writing), language play, experimentation with literacy materials, book talk (discussion of characters, action, and plot), and dramatic play (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999; International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998). In literacy-rich classrooms, teachers incorporate the characteristics of literacy-rich home environments, but they also use grouping for learning, developmentally appropriate practices, and literacy routines; in addition, they have classroom designs that continue to encour age reading and writing (McGee & Richgels, 1996) through learning centers and engaged learning activities. In their joint position statement,Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1998) confirm that the first eight years of a child's life are the most important years for literacy development and that developmentally appropriate practices at home and at school are crucial for ensuring that children become successful readers.
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RESPONDING...
The issues presented in the article are, to some extent, exemplifications of Charles C. Fries’ Three Stages of Reading. The discussions of David Kerbow on the development of phonemic awareness and the value of reading aloud to children inevitably relate to Fries’ model that illustrates the interplay of a child’s experience, oral language and ability to interpret the written or printed symbols of that language. It is in this note that an overlap takes place with that of Fries’ model and the idea underscored by Allington & Cunningham, 1996; Hall & Moats, 1999; Holdaway, 1979, which narrates that reading aloud to children helps them develop in four areas that are important to formal reading instruction: oral language, cognitive skills, concepts of print, and phonemic awareness.
This blog then aims at discussing the ideas presented by Fries and other experts mentioned above insofar as the value of reading aloud to children is concerned. This will also present some implications of some points raised in the discussions made by Kerbow to school system and economic issues faced in the status quo.
Initially, Kerbow’s discussions bring promise to teachers, parents and caregivers who are perceived as responsible for the child’s early learning. They are made aware of how huge the impact of reading aloud to children will be and so they must be guided to do appropriate actions in order to facilitate the development of their children both in terms of reading and learning. As highlighted in the article, parents and teachers are advised to practice extensive talking with the children, reading large colorful books to them, and exposing them to literacy-rich environments so that they become successful readers. However, there are questions that I wish to raise in this CRP. If parents and teachers are aware of the benefits their children could get out of these activities, do they follow them? If they do, how often? And are their efforts appropriate and enough? Moreover, are families even capacitated to provide their children with what the experts refer to as literacy-rich environment? And if they are, how fitting are these materials?
These issues call for responsibilities of varied sectors of the society, not just the families, but also the academe and the government. Let’s face it! If it is a universal goal to educate our children, then it must not be the sole responsibility of the parents or the teachers but of everybody as well. Locally, the Philippines is faced with countless problems in the field of education and most of these are attributable to its economic adversities. Taking into account what the article presents as far as exposure of our children to literacy-rich environments is concerned, our nation is deemed incapacitated. Poor families thrive in both rural and urban areas. Inasmuch as most parents are not able to provide their children with proper nutrition, they could not give them with good reading materials and worse, because they are not educated themselves, they could not help their children out in their learning. This nonetheless poses a challenge to the government to consider prioritizing the improvement of education by starting with the small contexts—provide families with books and strengthen preparatory and grade school learning. Further, providing extensive training to teachers of the said levels is also critical to realize this. The government should also initiate a program that will involve training of parents to reinforce children’s learning at home (i.e. how to read aloud to the children, what books are appropriate, how to facilitate discussions of the story, and many others). By doing this, parents will be made fully aware of how crucial their responsibilities are to ensure their children’s reading development.
In general, it is understood that the paradigm proposed by the experts in the article on the effectiveness of reading aloud to children has been a product of extensive researches. Also, they stress how critical exposure of children to literary-rich environs is. However, there are a lot of factors that must be considered in its application. In the Philippines, the availability of materials that make up a literacy-rich environment is a crucial one. The question of whether families have books to read to children and how appropriate these materials are is something to reckon with. Further, one as equally important is the ability of the parents to reinforce their children’s learning at home. They must be at least trained how to read aloud to their children and how to facilitate discussions about a story so that they would be able to instill in them the value of reading and aid them in their future academic and even life challenges.
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