Page 84 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Making impact

An important purpose for communication is impacting someone, such as a letter to Santa or
an elf is not merely informative. Young children also understand that listing gifts they wish
for is not quite sufficient. It is also of importance how to address Santa and what to write about
yourself in order to persuade Santa that you deserve the gift.

Children are familiar with texts, whose primary purpose is influencing, this is advertising.
In their games children understand the functions of literacy, e.g. playing shop and displaying
a sign - ‘buy two, get a third free’, or inviting to test a new hair colour, which is not ‘armful
to neture’. Studying and composing adverts helps children to understand the essence and
composition of copy. It should also be discussed what aim of advertising is, since adverts are
good material in helping them understand that maybe not everything in writing is the full truth.

Reading various texts, including fiction impacts the development of reader’s value

judgements, by travelling in time and place and visiting fantasy worlds, the reader is able to
meet widely different people and situations. This upholds the evolution of cultural identity
and development of empathy. The more a child reads, the better they can look at things from
different perspectives. So the reading skills progresses values and an understanding of what is
right or wrong.

Studying

Literacy is certainly required for studying. Reference literature and the Internet can provide
answers to many questions - you should only be able to ask and read. In the evolutionary
stages of literacy actually all texts around children carry the function of studying and
kindergarten and primary school teachers need to be fully aware of the wide spectrum of
learning opportunities. Whether it is noting down weather observations, or creating the
captions on a series of photos, through these activities knowledge is obtained on the following:
• why reading and writing are important;
• what the features of genre-specific text are;
• which of the features are important, e.g. an invitation should always provide
information about the time and place for guests to arrive at the correct place on time;
• which features depend on the cultural context, e.g. polite forms of address when the
invitee is a same-age friend, or a familiar or strange adult etc.

Whether the learning environment is organised in centres or not, it should be enriched with
thematic texts, drawings, tables, illustrations, children’s finished and unfinished works. This
kind of environment not only upholds literacy but also facilitates achieving deeper and long-
lasting learning results in all other subject areas.

Many children like playing the role of teacher in games. It allows them to systematise the
acquired content because in order to deliver, one must understand it. Group mates, siblings,
parents or toys can be suitable pupils in such a game.