This reading really made me think about different ways to understand literacy. Literacy is not just being able to make sense of squiggles on a page. Literacy is pretending to be a mom and dad with a sick baby and having to take it to the hospital. Literacy takes many forms. Like for the boy in the intro, his teachers though that he would not be able to succeed and yet he had some key foundations that they had totally missed, like being able to memorize songs and make sense of rhyme. Being able to follow along in singing hymns and things at church requires an understanding of left to right, top to bottom, an important skill for early readers to know. Even when kids add their own words to a story, they are trying to make sense of the pictures and create a story that makes sense to them. It is important that we praise them for their efforts instead of scolding them for not getting every word right.
Just because a student does not know how to follow along in boring leveled readers or fill out a boring worksheet does not mean that they are not emergent readers. It just once again reiterates that subject matter greatly affects a child’s chance at success and that it is important for teachers to look at the lives and interests of their students in order to pick material that will capture their interest and attention. If it hadn’t have been for Nancy Drew, i probably never would have moved away from picture books 
Flint6
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