Module 5 Field Experience

Field Experience

Observing Language and Literacy Development

Purpose: This field experience will allow you to observe language and literacy development in a setting of your choosing, such as a library, a zoo, or an interactive children’s museum. This opportunity will provide you with a chance to see course content come to life via the interactions among young children and early childhood professionals and/or caregivers.

Prerequisites:

· Select a setting that allows you to spend 1 to 2 hours observing young children (infant to age 8).

· The setting must allow you to observe children interacting with the environment, with adults, and if possible, with other children.

· Though taking pictures is not required, inquire whether the setting will allow you to take pictures of the environment (without taking pictures of children and families).

Reflection Questions: It is highly recommended that you bring these questions to your field experience. As you observe interactions within the setting, take notes on key ideas and insights that you can later integrate into your paper of 3 to 5 pages.

· How does this environment foster language and literacy?

· In what ways does the environment not foster language and literacy?

· How are adults in the environment fostering language and literacy? How are adults supporting children’s interactions with the environment?

· How are children fostering each other’s language and literacy development?

· What, if any, interactions and/or aspects of the environment seem to be inhibiting language/literacy development? In what ways?

· In what ways is the environment developmentally appropriate?

· How would you make this environment, including the interactions and opportunities you observed, even more meaningful and effective related to language/literacy development? Use specific examples from your observation.

· What “aha” moments, surprises, and/or disappointments struck you about this observation experience related to your knowledge of child development and your new learning about language development and literacy?

· Take pictures (if allowed) of the specific aspects of the environment that promoted or inhibited language and literacy development. If you take pictures, be sure that they do not include children and families.