At the site where I am conducting my fieldwork, I spoke with the two professionals in the field of literacy who could best help me with this assignment. One of the professionals is the Director of a Library and the other professional is the Literacy/Reading specialist at the library. As I interviewed the Director, I asked specific questions like-What did she feel the library is doing in the community to help promote literacy in young children in the community in which they live and reside. She gave me some insights into some of the programs that are being offered in her library. She said that the library works in conjunction with the city and helps to sponsor programs for the promotion of literacy in the family by having a Book-A-Thon at the local Community Parks and Rec. This was just done at the end of March of this year. The event is open to all children and their families. The library is sponored by a group of people called The Friends of the Library that helps the library periodically with donations from fundraising events that assists in the purchasing of new material so that the library will have updated and new items for use by the children and the community. They are planning on having future reading clinics that will help not only the young, but adults also that has had difficulty in reading throughout their lives. She stated that the library has volunteers that come in and give their time to help at risk students who may need help with their reading skills because young children are falling far behind in their reading skills before they even reach the 3rd or 4th grade. When the students are started at a younger age in tutoring, they seem to do better in their skills after a few months if they come to the tutoring sessions and work hard at it.
In my 2nd interview of the day, I interviewed the reading specialist at this site. Ms. P says that she loves her job and that she has been doing this job over 15 years. She says that she loves working with th young children doing storytime with them. She says that over the years, she has reached a lot of children not only at the site where she works, but also within the different Headstart classrooms throughout the city. I wanted to interview Ms. P because many years ago, I was a teacher in a classroom that she came to visit and her method of teaching the students was fun and exciting for the children and I saw that she really has a way with the students. She uses puppets, books, music, just to name a few items that helps her to reach out to help the students in their reading skills. Ms. P even uses art to help promote reading skills with the children and I asked her what does the making of art have to do with teaching reading. She says that while the children are working on art projects, it gives her the opportunity to listen to how the students use their words and then she can give them gentle correction without breaking their concentration on the project but at the same time help them to pronounce words correctly. She also lets the students have opportunities to "read" to the rest of the group wheile they are doing storytime. She says this helps students develop confidence in their skills in fluency and pronounciation.
She has said that it is sometimes very challenging to work with the children at times because some of the students who are kindergarten and grade school age really do not have anyone at home that is really helping the student so therefore it makes her job just slightly harder so she is trying to get the parents involved in the storytime by promoting more Mommy and Me programs during the day for stay at home moms and then she wants to do more evening events for those who can come with their children after work hours.
I look forward to spending more time with these 2 ladies who between the two of them have over 40 years experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment