Change Over Time by Marie Clay is not an easy text to read. One can see the developmental psychologist in Marie Clay. I think that I enjoyed and understood the introduction more than I understood Chapter 1. At least the introduction was written for laymen. I gather that Clay is investigation internal processing of literacy achievement. I do agree with her premise that in early literacy reading and writing should be synchronous (p.4). I have always believed, show me a great writer, and I will show you a great reader. Her examination of what makes an early intervention program preventive of possible future reading problems in contrast to simply adding more knowledge to reading sources is remarkable. I do find that foundation to be a game changer in developing strategic readers. In chapter one, Clay distinguishes herself and Reading Recovery (RR) from researchers who see literacy as code breaking (p.13). Clay advocates for teaching writing and reading together. She sees it as the critical factor in making a difference in early literacy intervention which will yield results forever. “Writing can contribute to building almost every kind of inner control of literacy learning that is needed by the successful reading (p.12). I agree that writing makes one pay attention to the sound sequences in words because the eyes, ears and hands are all working together to transmit to the brain. In directing children to print, teachers must know the features to which students do attend. Teachers must be aware of what the child knows, and what he/she is beginning to notice (p.18-21).Clay posits that writing mandates that children attend to each letter in a word. Hence, phonemic awareness is embedded in the writing process. She advocates that RR teachers should work with each individual child and start with the words that the child already has developed a context. I find it comforting that Clay acknowledges that there will be demonstrations and some trial and error in early interventions that as RR teachers work with learners (p.23).From my comprehension of chapter one, I inferred that Clay supports the child using known words to generate more words. Word families tend to be limiting the child’s potential to construct new words, and therefore, should not be the extent of the early literacy instruction in vocabulary and writing (p24-25). Clay views early literacy intervention as including writing authentic messages. The student is to compose sentences that relay the message that he or she is attempting to convey; she suggests cut up sentences as a method of one-to-one correspondence of words to intended message. Clay believes that by allowing the learning to gain control of writing and attending to all the features of letters in writing, children will have control of their learning and will be able to close gaps in early literacy gains. She insists that there are discrete processes common to both reading and writing, and teachers should build on activities that encourage the reciprocal skills. • According to Clay, and effective literacy system designed to extend its own competency (Commercially prepared products don’t do this!) depends upon: • how well children can attend to different aspects of print • how oral language can be linked to print (excellent) • how to use prior knowledge • how to construct texts (talk, retelling, and composing) • how to explore print detail • how to detect and correct errors • how to go beyond the limits of the system and do some untutored things • and having the independence to strike out alone. (p.33) Like so many constructivists, Clay supports helping children to build messages that they find meaningful rather than memorizing a set of rigid rules, I, also, believe that this is true learning that enables the student to expand knowledge.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:48:06 +0000
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