Page 125 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Teachers at school and kindergarten and parents should involve children in giving

feedback from the beginning – they can be very objective and smart. Self- and peer-
reviewing can also be used, literature in English on formative assessment is widely
available. The child who assesses their own literacy and sets their own goals, is more
motivated, takes more responsibility in the learning process and is more likely to be ready

for life-long learning, which is expected in today’s society. One should only be concerned
if child’s literacy shows no change or development or it is remarkably below the expected

level of the age group.

Provision of collaborative support to literacy

Adults (teachers, assistants, parents, support personnel, speech therapists, language teachers
etc) all work in consultation, they have shared values and the main focus lies in maintaining

children’s motivation and comprehensive development of literacy.

Children’s literacy can develop in the safest and most comfortable of ways when teachers

at school and kindergarten and parents collaborate. This book contains a chapter on setting
up a reading nest at home, it is worth introducing this to parents. If a parent is interested in
the topic, they would read the entire book, much of advice provided here can successfully

be applied in a reading nest at home or in general, designing a home environment which
supports literacy. Having the entire staff team of kindergarten group work for literacy is a
rule rather than exception. Unfortunately, sometimes music and physical education teachers

are overlooked. Primary school teachers can also successfully cooperate with these
teachers, there are children who love singing and with the help of singing one can learn a
lot about reading. For very young children songs can be “written” in pictures, write the

simplest syllables e.g. LA-LA-LAL-LAL-LAA, in some songs a word can portray names
of personas, e.g. have a dog’s picture and write “Rex is”. This “writing” is not only fun but
also helps children more easily remember lyrics of songs and poems and understand the

direction of reading and writing etc. With a PE teacher children can run along or orient
along huge letters and compose huge words, form letters and words using their bodies etc.
In schools cooperation with music and PE teachers can similarly take place. Many children

enjoy singing and repeatedly read lyrics is more interesting than just reading a text again
and again (rehearsing plays is also useful from this point of view). When children like a
fast-paced song, then singing it improves reading speed and grasping the text quickly.