The Importance of Early Literacy

Pearson Foundation Early Childhood Education Perception Poll Summary of Results:

1. Most Americans recognize that early childhood literacy is a very important issue that receives too little attention or priority.
2. There is little awareness about the severe and lifelong consequences associated with the lack of early childhood literacy skills – especially the fact that many children never catch up.
3. Most Americans have little understanding of the “literacy gap” that disproportionately affects children from low-income households.
4. All Americans agree that reading to kids under 5 is the best method to develop early childhood literacy skills. What they don’t know is a majority of low-income families do not have books for children in their homes.

Most people believe that early literacy is important but I am not sure that they understand just how important it is. If a child is behind when they start school they may never catch up. They will always be struggling to lessen the gap and never quite be at the same learning level as their peers.

The median income for a Kindergarten teacher in the US is $51, 867, according to Salary.com. The average salary for a Preschool teacher is $28,000 according to Indeed.com. The average salary for a high school teacher is just slightly higher than a kindergarten teacher at $53, 988 (salary.com). Granted the averages are based on the country as a whole and could differ greatly depending on the area in which you reside. Why am I bringing up salaries? Because it is important. Look at how low the salary is for a preschool teacher. If early literacy is as important as the studies indicate shouldn’t preschool teachers be compensated for the work they do? Most children start kindergarten at age 5. All Americans that participated in the poll agree that reading to kids under 5 is the best method to develop early childhood literacy skills.

Here some bullet points on what is expected of a preschool teacher:

• Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
• Attend to children’s basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, and changing their diapers.
• Teach basic skills such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
• Establish and enforce rules for behavior, and procedures for maintaining order.
• Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
• Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, storytelling, and field trips.
• Observe and evaluate children’s performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
• Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems, and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
• Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children’s progress and needs, determine their priorities for their children, and suggest ways that they can promote learning and development.
• Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.
• Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
• Teach proper eating habits and personal hygiene.
• Serve meals and snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
• Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
• Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students’ varying needs and interests.
• Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to children.
• Demonstrate activities to children.
• Arrange indoor and outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, and safety.
• Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
• Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
• Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
• Organize and label materials, and display students’ work in a manner appropriate for their ages and perceptual skills.
• Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops in order to maintain and improve professional competence.
• Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
• Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
• Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of preschool programs.
• Attend staff meetings, and serve on committees as required.
• Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students’ needs and progress.
• Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guests, or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.
• Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
• Provide disabled students with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities such as restrooms.
• Perform administrative duties such as hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.
• Administer tests to help determine children’s developmental levels, needs, and potential.
• Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
• Careerplanner.com

The above Kindergarten outline does not include special education. I know that a lot of schools integrate children with autism and other special needs into a regular classroom. This should be outlined above as it is very important. Parents sometimes want their children in a regular classroom but this creates a strain on the teachers and teachers aids as well as hinders the learning of the other students in the the class. We certainly do not want children to feel left out but it can be stressful on the child with the learning disability as well. If they are struggling to keep up with the rest of the class they can feel inferior.

The main difference is that preschool is not a requirement and kindergarten is. Preschool is something that parents can elect to send their children to. Tuition is paid by the parents that send their kids. Kindergarten is part of the regular curriculum. Should preschool also be part of the regular curriculum? Would it help our children learn to read in that age group that is most important?

It is statistically proven that children that fail to learn to read before age 5 struggle in school. Most of the time these children come from low income families that do not have money to buy books. There are programs in place like Reach Out and Read and Reading is Fundamental that help bring books to low income families. Is there another way to help the families that don’t benefit from these programs?

According to Babycenter.com annual preschool tuition can vary from $4,460 to $13,158 a year. That comes down to roughly $372 to $1,100 a month. That is a car payment or mortgage payment and some families just don’t have the resources to pay for that. The average cost of daycare is even higher than that averaging $11,666 a year or $972 a month. (Babycenter.com)

I have been brainstorming about how to help children learn to read at a young age without them having to pay a cent. I hope to share my ideas in the coming weeks. I can not stress the importance of early literacy enough. Perhaps is preschool was an integrated part of our regular school curriculum our literacy rates would be higher. Perhaps children wouldn’t fall behind and struggle to keep up. Kindergarten is important and the teachers in our school systems need to be applauded for all they do. Without Kindergarten children would never learn boundaries and other important life lessons.