Teachers' Role in Early Literacy (community involvement in early Essay

Teachers' Role in Early Literacy (community involvement in early childhood education) - Essay Example Encouraging children toward literacy can be achieved through the interactions of the teacher with the play environments and through an understanding of how those imaginative results of play are part of the learning process towards textual based interactions. The theories of Vygotsky and Piaget on symbolic play support the idea that in creating play scenarios and adapting to roles, young children are engaging language towards literacy. Teachers can create appropriate environments in which children are observed at times or played with by the teacher in order to encourage literacy. In an examination of the nature of play as it relates to the development of literacy, this paper will explore the ideas of Vygotsky and Piaget as they can be associated to teacher participation in play environments with the intention of supporting early literacy. Literacy and Language Machado (2012) discusses the term literacy and breaks it down into four concepts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, a ll of which are connected by the thinking process. The processes of interpretation are closely related to visual literacy as what is seen is then interpreted through textual concepts. This means that as a teacher in an early childhood environment, it is important that the overlap of language arts be explored through a variety of interactions. Machodo (2012) goes on to discuss how when children are introduced to reading skills or learn reading skills on their own before kindergarten, the interest in reading should be directed towards understanding the interrelatedness of all of the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. While sight recognition may be the source of early reading, interrelationships between the four key concepts are crucial for competent early literacy. There are a great many approaches to interacting with children in order to encourage literacy at an early age. Christie (1991) did a study in which imaginative function was used for four year olds who were first told to draw pictures, and then to ‘write’ stories through their own imagined concept of writing. The children then ‘read’ their stories, creating a literary connection between their drawings and their concept of storytelling. Reciting Halliday’s model, Christie (1991) stated that â€Å"the lifelike context of discourse directly affected the texts produced by the children† (p. 198). Children related their experiences in having been read to with producing their own stories that followed similar themes even though the text was imagined by them as they had yet to have grasped the written language skills to actually write the story. Children respond to literacy in relationship to how they perceive textual tools around them. In placing children into a village type atmosphere, they related stories about their roles in relationship to textual contexts by producing letters in the post office, mommy writing checks and so on (Christie, 1991). In o rder to extend this adaptation of textual roles in relationship to their environment, the teacher should have literary materials, such as papers and marking instruments at each play center in order to encourage the interaction of play and literacy. Vygotsky and Piaget Concepts in play as they relate to early literacy were explored by Vygotsky and Piaget, linking symbolic play to â€Å"