ERICA LONG spoke of Re: Whole Language to DAN TRIPLETT on 07-31-96
EL> I am a Year 1 teacher in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and upon
EL>realising  
EL> I have not delurked on this echo, thought I would introduce myself.
 
Very nice to have your input here.  Thanks for the reply.  Is a Year 1 
teacher the equivalent to kindergarten?  (5 and 6 year olds?)
EL> Immersion in language is absolutely fundamental. I usually tell the
EL>parents  at the beginning of the school year that I can tell the
EL>children who have   been read to regularly in the years before they
EL>come to school. In the lower  socio-economic area where I teach ,
EL>sadly, I can also tell the children who   come from homes where oral
EL>language is poor. If oral language, as you say,   is not learned
EL>narturally the patterning for literacy does not follow.
This is so very true.  And the children whose parents continue to read 
to them regularly learn to decode so fast.  Sadly, those children who 
don't have as much language experiences and whose parents don't read to 
them much struggle all year long.  (Not in all cases but in most).  I 
send home a monthly "Read Aloud" calendar and have parents and children 
record the books they read together.  I send home a monthly reading 
certificate as well.  At the end of the year I return their monthly 
lists.  
Parent will ask me what they can do at home to prepare their children 
for kindergarten.  I tell them to do 3 things:  Talk to your child; 
Listen to your child; Read to your child.  
EL> I teach phonics, phonemics, chunks, cues, word banks (ie sole role
EL>mole etc  a la Margaret Peters/Duncan Cripps) and next week I will
EL>begin a spelling   program called Quota (designed on sounding out
EL>words, sight words, and the   most common words), oh and most
EL>importantly a love of language. 
Please share more of the Quota program.  And how do you approach the 
teaching of phonics?  
EL> I always send my children home on the first day of school thinking
EL>they can   read and therein lies half the battle. Their interested
EL>relatives, afterall, 
EL> have been telling them all sumer holidays that when they go to
EL>school they   will learn to read.
Yes....I have a big book I have made that the children "read" on the 
first day of class.  Then they take home a little book that they have 
made.  I think it's important for them to see themselves as readers 
(because that is what they are).  
Thanks again for sharing....
Dan Triplett
dtriplett@juno.com
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