Books are able to give children a way to escape from reality, a way for them to learn life lessons, or even build relationships in a whole new way. This short video explains the magic books can do for children. http://youtu.be/86YLsEfKA4U It gives them power, to explore, learn, and interact with the world in a whole new way.
After reading Betsy's and Tanya's blog posts, I have to say I completely agree with them. Reading to children is vitally important to their growth, imagination, and learning. But when they can connect with a book, and feel as though it relates to them as an individual it makes all the difference. Even as adults, we have favorite books and stories, and these are based on things we like and things we feel a connection to. It is far more difficult to pay attention and learn something from a book we have nothing in common with or that we do find engaging. So why should we expect anything different from a young child? As a teacher, it is crucial to find books to use in the classroom that your students can relate to. Books are a wonderful tool, but work so much better when applied properly.
As a student, connecting with a book can be a powerful thing. That child now has something in common with a fellow classmate that maybe they did not share before. The book could also be applied to other lessons throughout the school day to make it more interesting. There are endless possibilities in which stories can be used in the classroom and I think is absolutely necessary that we continue to use them in this setting.
Meier also mentions the advancement of language skills from reading stories to children. She gives the example of the little girl in the car with her mother and wanting her rice cake. She asked one way and her mother told her to wait, but when asking in a way she remembered hearing from a story her mother pulled over and got her the rice cake. Her mother was impressed with her daughter's use of the language she had learned and wanted to reward her. Books are full of new ways to use language, and that is just another benefit, especially to children of multicultural or bilingual families. They are learning ways to adopt these uses of languages into their lives and apply them. And all it takes is just finding the right story for them to be able to connect with and expand upon.
Love the way you wrote this. To add to the gain in language skills it is a fact that we in America judge intelligence based on language skills. It is critical that we are able to use language correctly and reading is one of the best ways to do that.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Making connections to books is so important for a child's growth and development, especially in language skills! Tanya is absolutely right in saying that we automatically judge people's intelligence based upon their use of language and reading is one of the key ways in which we can improve these skills and our intelligence overall.
ReplyDelete"As a student, connecting with a book can be a powerful thing." I 100% agree with this statement. I feel as though being able to connect with something gives a sence of belonging
ReplyDeleteShelby I agree with you. I wrote about Rodriquez's book but I also like this one. I agree that reading to students is important and that it should be put in more schools. If the teachers learn more about the student trying to learn English and teach both English and the language that they speak it not only keeps the intimacy of their language but can make them feel comfortable as well. Also the students that already know English, teaching with different languages can help them adapt a second language as well. Good post Shelby!
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