They can also thoughtfully integrate books into learning centers and other areas to encourage discovery and exploration. Read alouds with infants and toddlers can happen at any time! Early childhood educators can include read alouds in daily routines and in planned activities and play throughout the day. At the same time, children can learn how these people, ideas, and things relate to one another, which is the critical background information for literacy development in the future. Through read alouds, children can learn the names and meanings of the objects, actions, people, and ideas all around them. Two of these competencies are vocabulary knowledge and world knowledge (Wright 2018–2019). Reading aloud helps develop essential competencies infants and toddlers will need to become skilled readers later on. Or, they may invite a toddler to “read” to them, promoting vocabulary and comprehension. They might share a few pages of a text, responding with words to a baby’s gestures or babbles. In fact, teachers should think of read alouds as an important source of serve-and-return interactions with young children. They involve pausing to ask questions and offer explanations, reactions, and comments. Engaging read alouds go beyond reading a book from cover to cover. To build engagement, the reader varies their voice and pace they use eye contact, gestures, props, and more (Morrison & Wheeler, n.d.). Read alouds are an instructional practice during which adults read texts aloud to children (beginning from birth). In her classroom, 3-year-old Javier plays with blocks as she reads Llama Llama Misses Mama and repeats the words from a story that he knows by heart. Katherine, a toddler teacher in the same program, knows this well. It is a favorite among the babies and toddlers in this program. This separation anxiety is new, and the book offers a comforting approach to adjusting to a new setting. Leda chose this book because she has noticed that Charlotte becomes upset when her mom drops her off each morning. Leda reads Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama Misses Mama, and Charlotte listens with rapt attention. Leda and 11-month-old Charlotte settle into a rocking chair in a cozy corner of the room.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |