Instructional Strategies for Literacy Development in Young Children - Essay Example

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN Early childhood education can playa major role in enhancing the readiness of students for school and future success in academic fields. In seeking to enhance the literacy development among children, various strategies are utilized. The appropriateness of the strategy utilized is based on the age of the learner and the condition in which the learning is to take place. Different approaches are utilized among different age groups of children in seeking to enhance literacy development. The application of different strategies is essential in seeking to ensure that maximum results are achieved through an intervention. The applied intervention must meet the requirements of the learner in seeking to achieve specific outcomes. Language enhancement instructions are employed in seeking to enable the children learn a language in rider to be able to communicate with other members of the society. This approach can be utilized for toddlers who are less than three years old and commonly involves adults seeking to encourage children to speak. This can be undertaken through engaging the children in activities which involve direct communication (Dunst, Simkus, & Hamby, 2012). Speaking to children for example is a way through which children with and without disabilities can be introduced to language enhancement interventions for literacy development. This approach is comprehensive because of the active involvement of grown up and other individuals with proficient understanding of the language being learnt. The language can be exchanged between the children and the adults who are assisting the children to learn. Another effective strategy which can be utilized for enhancing literacy development among toddlers is phonological awareness. This involves the utilization of various activities which are aimed at understanding that the language and words develop from sounds which children commonly make. It is common as children begin developing language skills to pronounce certain syllables for long words. Encouragement of these pronunciations enhances the children’s literacy leaning activities by activation of the phonological memory (Ziolkowski & Goldstein, 2008). Through this memory, the children are able to remember a sound, which marks the beginning of understanding of the social environment, and early development of literacy skills. Children with disabilities can utilize this literacy development strategy in enhancing language development during the early stages, although those with mental impairments might take longer to develop the phonological memory. Toddlers can be encouraged to develop literacy skills through the utilization of storytelling as a way of learning. Children tend to listen carefully and grasp ideas when trying to retell the story that has been told to them by other individuals. This approach is effective in the literacy development among children with and without disabilities because of the capability to involve several literacy skills development (Dunst et al., 2012). This strategy combines sound recognitions, oral language and comprehension skills to ensure efficiency in the development of literacy skills. The utilization of this strategy therefore becomes one approach which produces most positive outcomes, making the children literacy skills become advanced quickly. Literacy skills learnt during the early ages of below three years become essential for the children in future as it enables them to perform better once they get to the next stage of school. As children grow physically, more complex approaches are utilized in seeking to enhance the literacy development towards reaching comprehensive levels of understanding of the language, for better communication. The application of code-based instructions presents one approach that is advanced to be effective and appropriate for children in school going ages (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2010). The older children can be encouraged to develop and identify words from sounds which are provided. The utilization of this approach is an extension of the phonological awareness approach which is applied at earlier stages of life for similar purposes. The capability to decode different objects presented to children becomes essential towards ensuring effectiveness in the learning of the essential skills applicable within this strategy of literacy development among older children. Emergent literacy can be facilitated among school going children through the utilization of storybook reading. Literacy within the society and among children is continuously becoming more relevant in the modern society. This strategy involves teachers becoming focused on ensuring that the students are encouraged to read once they become able to read. This approach is one of the most appropriate for children in their early grades in schools, and those with reading difficulties, this strategy can also be effectively utilized among children with learning disabilities and communication disorders (Ziolkowski & Goldstein, 2008). This approach is essential in the development of oral language among children as it provides substantial benefits to children who have delays in language development, especially children from low-income societies. This strategy has been established as an effective approach for encouraging the segmentation of skills learnt in previous stages for oral language and reading. Through the utilization of this strategy the assessment of the skill level can be easily conducted. Another effective approach for teaching children in the early school going age in the utilization of systematic instructions. The utilization of this approach has been fundamental in ensuring the inclusion of the five components of literacy learning skills; phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, phonics and comprehension. This is the fundamental approach utilized in schools and has been ingrained into the school curricula. Through the utilization of this strategy, a sequence of teaching is employed where easier and commonly utilized words are taught before others. When utilizing this strategy, multiple activities aimed at ensuring practice, are commonly utilized in seeking to enhance the capability to master and learn new literacy skills. The main advantage for the utilization of these methods is the capacity for the teacher to assess the progress made by each student independently. This can be effective when teaching literacy skill to children with various disabilities. Differentiated literacy instructions refer to the development of tailored instruction strategies aimed at ensuring the requirements of different individuals are met through the instruction provided to a group. Within the literacy teaching environment, children commonly come from different backgrounds, and this creates discrepancies in their levels of understanding. The application of differentiated literacy skills present an approach for ensuring effectiveness in the applied literacy strategies (Tomlinson, 2003). The requirement for differentiated literacy instruction remains obvious because individuals have different capabilities. This approach is ensured through application of different teaching methods and segmentation of learners into small groups. Teachers commonly differentiate teaching environments in seeking to ensure the satisfaction of the learner requirements, based on interest and readiness to learn. The aspects of differentiated literacy instruction remains based on the premise of variance in instructional approaches as way of adapting to the discrepancies existing between learners. The aspect of differentiation will be based on three fundamental instructional activities of process, content and outcomes for students. Content of the teaching is differentiated through providing the learners with different support materials for understanding the same content (Tomlinson, 2003). While students can be directed to read certain contents, students with disabilities can be encouraged to do the same through reading buddies and video demonstrations aimed at enhancing their skills. The process utilized in the delivery of literacy teaching is aimed at ensuring that students make sense of the material provided to them. These students are modified in seeking to enhance the understanding and comprehension by those with learning disabilities. Those with disabilities can be provided with assistance in providing direction and additional demonstrations. Demonstrations and other visual aids can also be utilized to capture the interest of the students to the content being taught in class (Santamaria, 2009). The outcomes of the differentiation strategies enables the teacher to make assessment of the progress made by the students. The element of differentiation can result in the students developing different products based on their understanding of the concepts and other aspects of the literacy learning. Support materials like videos and audio material also serve to create interest and increase active participation by the students in the learning. References Dunst, C. J., Simkus, A., & Hamby, D. W. (2012). Children’s Story Retelling as a Literacy and Language Enhancement Strategy. CELL Reviews, 5(2), 1–14. Lonigan, C. J., & Shanahan, T. (2010). Developing Early Literacy Skills Things We Know We Know and Things We Know We Don’t Know. Educational Researcher, 39(4), 340–346. Santamaria, L. J. (2009). Culturally responsive differentiated instruction: Narrowing gaps between best pedagogical practices benefiting all learners. The Teachers College Record, 111(1), 214–247. Tomlinson, C. A. (2003). Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Responsive Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Ziolkowski, R. A., & Goldstein, H. (2008). Effects of an embedded phonological awareness intervention during repeated book reading on preschool children with language delays. Journal of Early Intervention, 31(1), 67–90.  Read More