In fact, many researchers believe that the most important aspect of any childcare and early education setting is the amount of talk actually going on between children and their caregivers or teachers (Hart & Risley, 2002). The talk not only strengthens language skills—the social and emotional bond between adult and child is also strengthened. Landry (2004) suggests ways for teachers to facilitate language development in the classroom by modeling rich vocabulary, using open-ended questions, and giving children adequate time to respond. Above all, children must be encouraged to talk, for rich talk enhances children’s competence with and enjoyment of language. Developing Language and Literacy Through Enhanced Storytime The early childhood classroom is a vibrant place. Children paint, draw, build, create, and think in a room filled with books, print, and visual stimulation. However, instruction is often marked by one-way questions and responses, rather than reciprocal questions with two- or three-way responses between adult and child (Dickinson, et al., 2004). From the time children are learning to talk, they begin to acquire comprehension skills that they will apply to reading later on (Snow, 2008). An interactive storytime invites children to talk about the stories so that both they and others hear what they understand. As the conversation takes place, the adult reader introduces and models appropriate speech, and children take on the roles of both listener and speaker. In this way, children begin to formulate ideas as questions, statements, directives, and so on. A language foundation is made stronger when children are able to talk about things that are somewhat remote from their everyday lives.
Reading to children enhances their awareness of unfamiliar areas of experience as they link concrete and abstract ideas in their lives. The most exciting learning and teaching environment is multidimensional. It supports social and emotional development, rests on a solid classroom organization, and follows a clear instructional path and curriculum. Cozy Corner Storytime is designed to complement such an environment by providing something critical to the learning experience of all children—a language- and play-rich interaction with literature.
More to Explore For more information on how to turn “thin conversations” into “thick conversations” during preschool read-alouds, explore “Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day! Tips for Preschool Teachers” from the U.S. Department of Education. Visit https://www.ed.gov/early-learning/talk- read-sing .
13
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs