Emergent Literacy

          Today we discussed emergent literacy and the different strategies that are used to encourage students to become emergent readers.  We discussed the importance of parent involvement and how support from home is a major benefit to the child.  After all, like the popular saying goes, the parents are the student's first teachers.  I believe that is not only support from the parent but support from the family as a whole.  We discussed buddy reading and shared reading.  These two concepts can also be applied at home perhaps with an older sibling playing the role as the teacher doing read alouds.
          We also had the pleasure of watching part of a dramatic play!  Angela and Rhea shared with us a brief excerpt of a play they had performed last semester.  Although it was only a piece of the play, they were able to give us a great example of how dramatic play would be carried out.  Dramatic play is important in the classroom because it is not only entertaining, it works well in other areas.  It helps students get out of their shell, it helps to reinforce the story that was read, and it allows the teacher to assess the child's understanding of the story.
           We also discussed the use of technology in the classroom.  Technology is everywhere in today's world.  Even children as young as four years old know how to operate cell phones and computers.  I should know!  I have a tech savvy four year old!  And so, technology is a very useful tool when carrying out lessons in reading.  The use of power-point and reading resource sites are beneficial to the teacher working as a teaching aid, and as well as beneficial for the student once he or she has been engaged.
          Emergent literacy is a very interesting concept in the process of teaching reading.  There are many different effective strategies to successfully guide the child to fluent reading. However, in the end we must find the ones that works the best with each student!