Wk 9 Reading Blog

What? 

·       For this week the reading that I chose to read that was related to literacy in early childhood was Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom (Edwards & Willis, 2000). I chose to read this reading as it looks at how the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education focuses on integrating visual and verbal literacies to teach children. I am very interested in the Reggio Emilia approach and so I wanted to read this article to see how they help children to develop literacy skills through using different forms of literacy.

·       The reading that I chose to look at that was related to numeracy in early childhood was Do Re Mi, 1-2-3: That’s How Easy Math Can Be: Using Music to Support Emergent Mathematics (Geist & Geist , 2008). I chose to look at this reading as over the past weeks I have looked at how music can be used to support literacy development and so I wanted to see if music could be used to support numeracy development in early childhood settings as well. I also am a very musical person so this reading has helped me also to know how I can use my musical skills to teach children.

So What?

The main arguments I found to be important from Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom (Edwards & Willis, 2000) are:

·       Integrated verbal and visual literacy in an early childhood setting involves children being challenged, innovated, using their creative skills and having freedom to use many different forms of communication tools to be able to learn and gain literacy skills (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 263).

·       Young children aspire to be able to use the forms of communication that their families can use and that are used their cultures. For example, using types of technology such as computers, talking, drawing, writing, being able to share ideas and memories and being expressive (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 259). In an early childhood setting it is up to teachers to be able to provide children with a variety of literacy related experiences ranging from technology to art so that children will be able to learn to use their literacy skills in a number of different settings.

·       During infancy, children can learn to use gestures and verbal expressions, while in kindergarten; children can build on their previous skills and learn to make meanings with pictures, and learn how to write letters and eventually words (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 259).

·       Infants and young children often like to be global and holistic in the ways that they communicate and they like to use several types of communication at once to get their message across (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 259). For example, a child could draw a picture and also use gestures to talk to their mother /father and then the mother can ask them what they want and then the child will verbally communicate exactly what they want to tell their mother/father (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 259). This shows that children like to use many different types of literacies of symbolic representation from their culture when communicating such as using gestures, dramatic play, using words and using arts (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 260).

·       Mixing media and technology to communicate and learn can also help children to gain literacy skills as they could read a story book while listening to the story on headphones (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 260).

·       The Reggio Emilia approach helps children to be able to develop and use their symbolic, expressive and communicative skills in the best way possible (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 260). In the Reggio Emilia approach children are able to express and communicate in a variety of different formats such as music, painting, using different materials, technology, verbal languages and play (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 261).

·       Children are able to communicate their ideas to their teachers and the teachers help them to be able to record these ideas (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 263). These ideas that they communicate can then help the children to be able to develop more complex ideas (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 263). The teachers can then use these ideas that the children have about a certain object/issue and create lessons for them from this such as drawing pictures of their ideas and using technology to record their ideas (Edwards & Willis, 2000, p. 260).

The main arguments I found to be important from Do Re Mi, 1-2-3: That’s How Easy Math Can Be: Using Music to Support Emergent Mathematics (Geist & Geist , 2008) are:

·       There is evidence that experiences provided in early childhood settings that involve music, such as singing or using an instrument, can help with brain development (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 20). From research studies, it is also suggested that if children, starting from birth, actively participate in musical experiences, this can help their numerical development as they can learn mathematical concepts such as creating patterns (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 20).

·       Music contains many mathematical concepts in the elements, such as steady beats, rhythm, tempo or speed, volume and harmonies (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 21). The mathematical concepts in music include space, sequencing, numbers and counting and creating and using patterns (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 21).

·       Numerical experiences that parents can engage their babies in through using music can be using rhythm as parents and rock their babies to the rhythm of songs or they can sing to their babies (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 21).

·       Early childhood educators can integrate the concepts from music and mathematics in daily experiences for children, for example teachers could read a nursery rhyme to the children and then they can help children to recognise the patterns in the song and the beat of the song (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 21).

·       Through using beat, children can learn to count (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 22). Though using melody, rhythm and beat together, learning experiences can be created for children using music to help children to recognise and explore patterns (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 23).

·       Children can also learn to count through learning the tempo of songs which is counting the beats per minute (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 23).

·       Children like many different styles of music (Geist & Geist , 2008, p. 24). So this is something to consider when creating learning experiences for the children involving music and mathematics as not all children are going to enjoy the same type of music.

 

 Now What?

The implications I have been able to make from Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom (Edwards & Willis, 2000) are:

·       As an early childhood educator I will be able to take into consideration that children can learn to gain literacy skills in many different forms of media and technologies. So I will need to be able to create experiences for the children that include many different types of media such as photography, painting, drawing, dramatical play etc to be able to help children to learn to communicate and use literacy skills.

·       I need to understand that children learn to use literacy skills in many different ways and that not all children learn the same way which is why I need to provide different experiences to cater for all children’s learning to support their literacy development.

·       I need to understand that they learn to use literacy skills differently at home and so I need to be able to know how they use literacy skills at home so that then I can help scaffold the knowledge that they already have.

·       Sometimes during classes I could have different types of people coming in such as artists, photographers etc to be able to show children how they can create things to be able to express and communicate want the children want to say and show.

·       I can also encourage children’s parents to be able to provide their children with many different literacy related experiences at home so they too can support their child’s literacy develop in the best way that they can using the materials that they already have at home.

·       Encourage children to be able to feel free to be able to express and communicate in any way that they want to with using different kinds of media, materials and technology as children can communicate in many different ways.

The implications I have been able to make from Do Re Mi, 1-2-3: That’s How Easy Math Can Be: Using Music to Support Emergent Mathematics (Geist & Geist , 2008) are:

·       To support children’s mathematical development through using music, I will need to understand the kinds of mathematical concepts that I can teach children through using music in learning experiences.

·       I will need to be able to make the experiences fun and enjoyable as well as educational.

·       I can help parents also to be able to know how to help support children’s mathematical learning through using music.

·       I will need to understand the different musical elements that I can use to be able to support children’s mathematical development.

·       I will need to provide the children with many different styles and types of songs as not all children will enjoy the same kinds of songs or music and I want to be able support all of the children’s learning styles.

·       I can also read stories to the children that have rhythmic patterns as children can learn to recognise and create patterns through stories such as nursery rhymes of poems.

 

References

Edwards, C. P., & Willis, L. M. (2000). Integrating visual and verbal literacies in the early childhood classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 27(4), 259-265. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:ECEJ.0000003364.99437.5d

Geist, K., & Geist, E. A. (2008). Do re mi, 1-2-3: That's how easy math can be: Using music to support emergent mathematics. YC Young Children, 63(2), 20-25. Retrieved from <http://search.proquest.com/docview/197597007?accountid=10910>