Lesson 5

1.     After watching the videos on Language and Reading, how does this information impact you as a teacher?

    Understanding language development and how children acquire language is critical for teachers.  Language and reading go hand-in-hand with children.  When a parent or teacher is reading aloud to a young child,  not only is the child building language skills, but he or she is building reading skills as well.  

    As a teacher, I will make sure to have reading materials available to my students at all times.  I want to have books written in many different languages in my classroom.  Knowing that 65% of fourth grade students do not read at grade level, will make me work harder to make sure that all students in my class get adequate reading practice and that I as a teacher read to my students each day.  It doesn't matter how old a child is, having someone read to him or her can only build and strengthen the child's own reading skills.