Arianna loses the (fake) sweep and replaces it with matching each spoken word with the correct written word...OMG!
"It's easy...You just have to listen. Watch...Don't help me...Pete . the. Cat .Takes. the.Train...Cat"
We count the words, we clap the words, we do it again and she nails it every time!
She knows that the five spoken words must match with the five written words.
I know you must be thinking that this isn't really a big deal... but I disagree! This is huge!
Ari has created a new schema around how reading works today. She is matching each spoken word with a printed word; evidence that the numeracy milestone/concept we educator types refer to as: one-to-one-correspondence is now being applied to literacy issues.
She has somehow tuned into the space between each word and mastered the ability to count words she hears in a sentence... Or at least this is what I think she has done.
I want to deconstruct the glorious event so I ask, "Ari, how did you get so smart?"
" It's like the egg story (Emily Gravett's "The Odd Egg" that we read - over a year ago) and remember when we were making cookies and we cut out the egg word. (also took place over a year ago) It's like that...you have to say egg -E G -G that is egg, and that is the way it works.
Now I decide to video Ari reading the whole Pete the Cat Takes the Train book to her new doll, Leoni. I am thinking that I will get more evidence that Ari has mastered some of those "concepts about print" and a whole new day is about to begin. Hmm...
Here is what happened next:
She gets her doll all comfy and settled, then starts her story. To my surprise, she retells the whole story (according to Ari, of course), sans her new found discovery about how reading works. Ari was now all about the drama and big effects. All her her energy was channeled into her story retell.
Except for the title and title page, Ari's reading is all about the (fake) sweep again. She is back to using flowing speech instead of the halting word by word approach she applied to the title page. She occasionally presses on the black squiggly lines really hard or stabs at the page for emphasis. Her voice is raised or lowered to match the character's voices or to make a point about some dramatic action in the story.
I try a little fancy teacher talk..."What about the little spaces between the words Ari? Can you find the "Pete" word?
She looks at me with a slightly annoyed expression- ignores me any carries on with her story.
Now I have a lot to ponder! Could it be that Ari is telling me that the story line is paramount in this whole reading experience... not the matching of each word to each spoken word?
Sure, this matching the number of words to the number of spoken words is a nice trick.
And telling me that she can tell that Pete says "Pete" and not cat because Pete starts with "P" and cat starts with "C" makes any grandma proud, but in Ari's world, it is just a nice touch.
And it is certainly isn't the story.
I took a picture of Ari reading to her new doll.
She is focused on making eye contact with the listener (her doll) and using lots of facial expression and gestures. The pictures in the book cue her story telling but she makes an effort to show the listener that the actual "talking stuff" is bound up in the black squiggly lines.
It occurs to me that with this much energy going into:
1.engaging the listener, (Leoni the doll),
2.remembering all the details of the story,
3.working in the drama that the story requires,
4. remembering all the correct sequence of events
5. pulling off the funny ending,
well, no wonder remembering that "each spoken word should match each written word", would get dumped.
Ari has reminded me that Reading is NOT decoding...print -rich is one thing, but STORY- RICH is the BIG THING!
I am telling you all this because I am so interested in how kids make sense of squiggly lines and I think that there may be others out there who are also interested.
However, when I picked up the January, 2016 issue of the Atlantic and read the article, How the New Preschool Is Crushing Kids, I was desperate to talk to someone/anyone!
The article described the American preschool classroom today as an environment where pedagogy and curricula embrace common core state standards that promote a greater portion of the day to completing "seat work". There is extensive use of tightly scripted teaching known as "direct instruction" to teach pre-academic skills to three, four and five year olds. They describe today's pre-school environments as the "New Grade One".
I won't "spill the beans", about the results of this approach because it is so heartbreaking. Let's just say that the article reveals that requiring very young children to finish their "seat work" before they can play is resulting in less inquisitive, less engaged kids than those of earlier generations. It describes children who lack the language skills needed to retell a simple story or to use basic connecting words and prepositions. Making analogies, exploring the environment, and engaging in activities that extend the child's sense of wonder and curiosity are replaced with test taking and skills and drills.
Canadian early-childhood educators are to be celebrated for their solid understanding of early childhood development and the important role of play, language development and play-based early literacy experiences.
B.C. early educators do not believe that pre-school and kindergarten are the new Grade One!
Educators in B.C know that play serves literacy. Play provides a platform for narration and socio-dramatic play. The roles that shared stories inspire, reveal a child's understanding about relationships. Through "story" they learn how to deal with all sorts of novel situations resulting in self-regulation and understanding of new concepts
Early literacy experiences that are play-based in their design, provide opportunities for questioning, wonderment, curiosity.
A book helps anchor conversations, and keeps those conversations going.
This is what we want! It is through all those turns taken in a conversation that new understanding are consolidated and vocabulary grows.
Ari, let's continue to play, role-play and retell our favourite stories every single day. That is what early-literacy is about...NOT teaching reading. Unhurried learning is everywhere and it is fun for both of us. Grand conversations happen when we "book chat" together. It isn't a tiny thing that the language of play connects to the language of literacy! It's a very BIG DEAL! I just love learning with you.
I
Signing off.
Grandma, Donna aka, The Book Lady
Remember friends: Three Stories a Day- Anchor Conversations and Play!
