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.
