ARTICLE REPORT“Emergent Literacy”By Ruth A. Wilson, Ph.D.
...uch a strong essence of the importance of language in a child’s environment everywhere he or she goes. Ruth started her article out with a synopsis of her daughter, Carol, and how she learned how to read by simply accompanying Ruth at her library job. Just by merely listening to her mother read to her, looking through the books, and being around such a text rich environment, Carol ultimately learned how to read and surprised her mother when she asked to read her a story. Ruth also talks about the denotative definition of the word literacy. She speaks of its definition as being “the ability to read and write” even though she does not quite agree with the description at hand. “Discussions about the topic sometimes suggest that people fall into one of two categories-those who are literate and those who are illiterate (Wilson)”. She also brings up quite a few successful methods to encourage emergent literacy in children that go beyond books. She talks about role-playing and make believe games that children play which she describes as “sociodramatic” activities. Another method she speaks of is the presence of “literacy objects” such as blocks, posters, magazines, cookbooks, coupons, pencils, etc. Just as we discussed in class, there are infinite ways to provide text and language rich environments in the home. I genuinely enjoyed her idea of “folk practices”, which is what she describes as parent-children ...