Week 4 Blog Post

The topic of emergent literacy was one that I was quite unfamiliar with because I had always seen the topic as one that applies more to Child Development majors. I realize now, though, that the topic is very important for me as an Elementary teacher as well. By definition, emergent literacy is the process by which young children begin the process of learning how to read and write. This usually occurs within the child's home environment within the family and continues through pre-school and a little bit beyond. It is very interesting to think about how children develop as readers and writers. When they are young, children often babble and try to imitate what the people around them are saying. We see this often when parents try to get their babies to call them by name saying "momma" or "daddy". As children grow, these learning patterns are extended to different facets of reading and writing. For example, many children may ask, "what is this?" because they want to learn new vocabulary for speaking. In addition, they may try to write or draw pictures to imitate people they see writing. It is very interesting to see the writing development of a child because it often follows a sequence of scribbling, simple letters, and then words, and often including simple words they know how to spell, such as "cat" or "dog". In order to provide an environment for emergent literacy, parents and teachers should talk to the children and inform them of certain words and vocabulary, as well as daily routines. Always challenge the child's limits and try to introduce them to as many new things as possible. In addition, encourage them to read books and talk a lot, and to also draw pictures and attempt writing. Challenge them to draw a picture about a story that they know and then force them to explain it to you to build reading comprehension skills. For teachers especially to build literacy within their learners they should try to find a variety of activities for their students to do to become literate. Make sure that they have a variety of experiences with reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to get a balanced level of literacy.
Cultural capital is also another subject touched on in the reading. Due to the great amount of diversity in the world now, we are all exposed to different cultures each day. Cultural capital refers to the experiences that each child brings with them to a situation that allows them to succeed more than someone from a different background. For example, Americans are typically more familiar with everyday life in the USA than non-US residents, so when there are ESL learners in the classroom, they may have trouble understanding slang words that Americans understand fine. Another example that is more personal for me happened when I studied abroad in Spain last summer. When I went to school in Spain, I was very inexperienced with the schooling and way of life there, so it was much more difficult for me than the other Spanish students. With more cultural capital, I would have been able to participate in those classes closer to the high level of participation I have in our class today.