EDRG 3321

Ch. 1 summary
Literature can not only instruct children but also invites them to explore new and fantastic worlds. Books help personal development to occur in children as well as language, cognitive, and social development that will influence them well into adulthood. Each child is different in how he or she interprets and responds to what has been read. The variety of materials available range from picture books to biographys to poetry, each with unique purposes such as cause and effect. Children learn to respond to literature either efferently to focus on information, or aethetically, to explore what they feel or think from the words they read. As children advance through the stages of development, their responses become more sophisticated, their understanding of their world expands, and hopefully, through family and good teachers, they develop a life-long appreciation for reading.

Values are beliefs we have and consider to be very important to us and who we are internally and how we appear externally. These may have been instilled at an early age by family or learned through experiences and they make us who we are. I value family most of all and it probably came about when my parents divorced and the only thing I could count on during that difficult time was my mom and my brother. As I spent time with my husband and his family, I really came to appreciate family and the traditions that went along with it. I think the importance and value of family can be taught by older members of a family when they are always there for each other and pass down and maintain traditions within the family year after year. I try to show this to my own sons by always being there for them and doing whatever I can for my whole family. I always tell my sons that friends come and go,but your brother will be your brother forever.

EDRG 3344

Students can best learn language arts if they are given the opportunity to utilize many resources in order to broaden their abilities in reading and writing. Some such resources would be to read a story and then compare it to a movie about the story, doing hands on activities to make the story come alive for them, and discussing parts of the story such as the beginning ,middle, and end of a story. Language arts involves listening when a story is being read, talking about the story and sharing ideas, reading the story either aloud or silently, writing and the components of writing such as prewriting and revising, viewing information to integrate visual learning with literacy, and visually representing what they are learning or have learned. Children use phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic systems in Language arts so that they are pronouncing words and decoding words when reading, they are combining words and adding prefixes and suffixes, they learn meanings of words and study synonyms, anatonyms, and homonyms, and they modifiy their language according to situations. It is in these ways children assimilate the new material being learned or accommodating new information the build onto existing knowledge. By providing opportunities to build on skills already possessed, children can better learn the language arts through media, writing and reading activities, and discussion.