Literacy Research

Kristen Rigsby EDU T&L 642.07 Literacy Research Paper 02/08/2012

Even before young children are able to read print, they are already making meaning and developing a basic comprehension through their encounters with books. This characteristic is crucial in aiding children in their development of literacy from its beginnings on to the higher literary levels. Educators must make themselves aware of how children use books and other print materials in order to develop a thorough understanding of how children illicit emerging literacy and comprehension behaviors. Gaining insight into the minds of these youngsters and their approaches to print seems to me to be a strong foundation in an educator’s ability to develop successful methods of constructing meaning through text. Of the three articles I chose to represent early childhood and their successful approaches to literacy, two involved an approached known as interactive read-alouds, tested mostly in the kindergarten classroom. The first article I choose stems back further into a child’s earlier years depicting their approaches to books from their twos to fours. As stated before knowing where children begin their early reading and comprehension skills is a great framework for these educators to develop approaches to reading in the future.

Comprehension for children at the toddler age level is significantly different as compared to a child enrolled in kindergarten who has developed an understanding that the print within the pages tells a story, and that different letters are used to form words and make sounds. Children begin to construct meaning from birth and continue to develop this ability through their experiences with their caregivers as well as other adults who play a significant role in their daily life. When books present themselves in a child’s life they seem to go through phases in how they approach the stories within developing distinct phases of book usage. Children’s first experiences with...