PLE Post 10

Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development.  Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching.  Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students.

Language knowledge can vary greatly when children come into kindergarten. As a teacher you might also have English language learners who might have a solid language base in their native language but not in English. This creates interesting scenarios for teachers but it is very easy for teachers to incorporate strategies to help children gain a better sense of language. One of these is through daily reading both by the teacher and the student. Having a teacher led reading for a book that might be slightly above the majority of the students current level can expose them to more complex sentence structure.

I think that the children gain the most experience by using the words through reading and writing. Having students do creative writing or construct narratives on their own helps them build sentence structure and use their knowledge base. It is also important to give constructive feedback when you notice the children using words that they did not use before as well as give corrective feedback if a child continually misuses a word. I think having a strong language base is a key for a child to be successful in school.