New Mexico Early Learning Guidelines - Center For Education ...

Domain Description:Literacy encompasses all of the language arts: listening, speaking, readingand writing. In the preschool and kindergartenyears, children learn skills that will be the foundation for their use oflanguage throughout their lives. These skills will helpthem develop both receptive and expressive vocabularies as well as learn toread and to communicate through writing. Youngchildren learn language by listening to others and further refine theirvocabulary and understanding of the world around themby listening to a variety of books and stories. They begin to notice thesounds of language and may play with conventions suchas rhyming or identifying similar sounds. They socialize through spokenlanguage and learn to express their needs, wants,feelings and thoughts so that they can interact with others in satisfyingways. Their home language is their primary one. Asteachers interact with children and families, respect and special attention isgiven to the home language so that each childcan demonstrate his or her competence in listening and speaking to thefullest. As they listen and learn to talk, and as theyare exposed to books and other reading experiences, they learn that words aremeant for communication, that wordsrepresent things, ideas, feelings and that words help us organize ourthoughts.Children observe adults as they read and write and imitate their actions.Memorizing favorite stories, using picture andcontext clues, and beginning to notice the characteristics of written language(both letters and words) are all part of thefoundational skills that will help them become able to decode written languagefor themselves in the elementary years. Themore exposure to reading experiences such as listening to stories and enjoyingrich childrenís literature, the more their loveof reading and comprehension skills will develop. Imitating adult writingthrough scribbling, forming written marks and shapes,and eventually letters and words, leads to asking how words are spelled andattempting to use writing processes to representtheir thoughts and ideas and to communicate with others. And, the homelanguage may be the first and most developed inregards to reading and writing, as well. Teachers provide as many resources aspossible in childrenís home languages.