Week 1 Reading Summaries

MUNN, P., 2005. YOUNG CHILDREN'S RIGHTS TO NUMERACY. International Journal of Early Childhood, 37(3), pp. 61-77,125-126.

The rights to the child are paramount and every child has the right to access numeracy instruction. This article shares some outstanding studies that many British schools are actually not fulfilling these rights and children are not being taught nor are they exploring their basic numeracy abilities (Munn, 2005). There are no separate outcomes described in math education and this has an effect on the availability of numeracy education and current success rates of young children in British schools.

Schools in the UK provide extensive education in literacy as language development is linked between school programs and childhood experience (Munn, 2005) such as communication and writing. The early stages of narrative and role play is connected to reading and reflected well in the studied schools, providing a clear differentiation between teaching literacy and the lessons in language and literature (Munn, 2005). There is no clear program when teaching numeracy in comparison as many assume there is no use for it outside the educational setting. Instead specific activities are created to teach mathematical meanings with each topic chosen carefully to extend progression at school (Munn, 2005).

The rights to numeracy extend further than the classroom as it is an essential topic for future areas of life in work satisfaction and personal success (Munn, 2005). There is a competition for numeracy to prove its worth to the curriculum, as it stands behind literacy that claims to be of higher value and requirement for present day issues. Numeracy has many varied definitions and each of these have a different overview, with many links to everyday routine, proving vital for all to learn during the course of their lives; why not start at an earlier age? The specific methods of using numbers in day to day life proves to be a more accurate form of quantifying than measuring the knowledge each person has of mathematical concepts (Munn, 2005).

Xue, Y. & Meisels, S.J. 2004, "Early Literacy Instruction and Learning in Kindergarten: Evidence From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999", American Educational Research Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 191-229.

Direct testing is a common way to level students in certain subjects and scale each of them into classes best suited to their knowledge. Student success outcomes are dependent on a variety of reasons including teachers approach to education and the quality of their instruction at the right level for children to understand (Xue, 2004). There are also different methods used to teach the same topic that can have a wide difference on positive progression through the schools. This article speaks mainly about the methods “breaking the code” using phonics or “meaning-emphasis approach” which uses the whole word definition to teach literacy in kindergarten classrooms (Xue, 2004). This article believes that both methods provide their positives and share the fundamental focus on teaching children to read and write effectively and consistently (Xue, 2004).

The phonics method involves explicit teaching of specific sounds and skills to connect and decode the alphabetic connections and therefore helping students learn how to read the relationships between letters (Xue, 2004). The teachers are in control of the knowledge instruction as they share the information for the students to imitate and support the progress, focussing on the final outcomes of word recognition as opposed to the process involved in learning comprehension (Xue, 2004).

Using the whole word helps children construct an understanding when reading and learn to immerse into a whole text scenario to read with a natural and meaningful flow. The students are in control of this form of learning as they direct their own curiosity to the instructions and are free to choose their own pace at which to study (Xue, 2004). The differences between this method and the one mentioned before are the purposes of the process. Phonics teaches children to decode the sounds and learn the relationship between letters, while whole word methods teach children to read the whole word with meaning construction. The words are therefore not broken down into sections to learn individually; rather the skills are learnt in order, mimicking the way children learn to speak (Xue, 2004).

Both methods prove useful when they are taught simultaneously, where children gain the benefits of both programs. Each child however absorbs information at different rates creating an impossibility when measuring literacy skills for each child (Xue, 2004). Society has placed a high level of importance on literacy, more so than numeracy as it is the basis for many routines in everyday life and success. This may be the case however I personally believe that literacy and numeracy equally share the responsibility in scaffolding our young children for growth, they relate to each and need to be taught alongside one another in the school system to gain the most benefits.