Gestural Literacy In The Prereading Stage Physical Expressio
Gestural Literacy In The Prereading Stage Physical Expressions Of Mea
Gestural Literacy in the Prereading Stage: Physical Expressions of Meaning For children who are reared by deaf parents or those who have a disability that will interfere with oral language development, gesture is essential to literacy acquisition. The features of American Sign Language (ASL)—that is, its vocabulary and grammar—develop in much the same way as oral language does for hearing children. That is, children absorb the language used in their environment, and, given rich interaction with adults and siblings, develop a natural facility with the structure and use of the language that is then somewhat compromised by the introduction of metalinguistic awareness, as we noted in Chapter 5. It is a good thing for all children to learn a few signs as early as possible, for two reasons.
First, young children understand more than they can say. Their receptive vocabulary (words they understand) is more advanced than their expressive vocabulary (words they can say), and motor development and gestural control precede the ability to produce verbal language, so sign language can serve as a bridge to prevent the frustration of not being understood. I remember when a friend called one day and asked me to teach her daughter the sign for "finished," because she had taken to clearing her high chair tray with a dramatic swoop when she didn't want any more food; mom was tired of cleaning cereal off the walls and ready for her daughter to have a more controlled communication option! A second reason for learning signs is that it adds to children's understanding that concepts, ideas, and emotions can be symbolized and expressed in multiple ways.
Just as children learn that words and pictures can represent objects, activities, and emotions, they need to understand that gestures not only perform actions but also represent them. Several years later, then, they might read independently a passage like this from Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things: Then my dad opened the box. His whistling stopped. His breathing stopped. His feet stopped.
Then he staggered backward. "WHAAAAAAAAAAT IS THIS?" he wailed. "Johnny Astro, what happened to you?" he cried. Then he really cried. He put his head in his hands, and his shoulders went up and down. (Look, 2008, pp.
90–91) With a strong sense of gestural literacy, children can get a true sense of just how upset Alvin's father is by the way he uses his body. When you stop whistling, you might be sort of upset. When your breathing stops and you stagger backward, it's much worse. But when you cry and your shoulders move up and down, you are not just a little upset; you are sobbing. Understanding that gestures communicate feelings and actions enables children to picture scenes as they read them and feel the emotions of the characters along with them.
In fact, being able to read and understand the language of gestures is one of the strongest ways to create empathy, which is a crucial skill for building relationships and developing personal character as well as becoming a strong reader (Keen, 2010). There are many books on sign language for babies readily available in the child care section of the bookstore, but the most useful signs to begin with are the ones for "eat," "more," and "finished." Useful, everyday signs can be found at this website by clicking on the dictionary and typing in the word you want: Teaching sign language to babies is accomplished simply by accompanying the activity itself and your verbal expression of the word with the sign every time you use it.
Interestingly, studies have shown that early signing actually improves verbal fluency when children do begin to speak, possibly because they have been using an accessible form of expressive communication all along. Learning the Meanings of Facial Expressions and Body Movements Gestural literacy is not limited to signing. In fact, we all use gestures as a natural part of our communication; facial expression, hand gestures, eye movements, nods and head shaking or tilting are all gestures that are integral to communicating our meaning. As children grow in their social environment, they learn to read and reproduce these gestures. They also have to learn what gestures and body movements are socially appropriate in various settings.
As with language development, adults and siblings provide models, direct instruction, and feedback during the learning process, and children test their gestures and adapt them according to the responses they receive. Gestural literacy is important when it comes to understanding visual information and making inferences from print texts. For instance, in Anthony Browne's How Do You Feel? (2011), the character demonstrates a range of feelings. In each picture, Browne changes the colors, body postures, and size of the character to provide a visual representation of a feeling. For instance, when the character is happy, the colors are bright with high contrast, and the character is shown in a wide-legged, open-armed stance.
The pocket on his overalls is even shaped into a smile with buttons for eyes. By contrast, when the character is scared, his pant legs are outlined with jiggly lines, and his arms are pulled close to his body. These body postures and colors, accompanied by a word that describes the feeling, produce a montage that forms an association and creates meaning. When I am happy, I feel expansive, wide open, and big; but when I am scared, I feel small, closed in, and shaky. Learning these codes of visual and gestural style is both a biological and a social achievement.
It's biological because our bodies respond to situations in physical ways. For instance, when we have to give a performance, many of us experience stage fright. We literally shake with fear. This is because our muscles want to contract—to regress into a fetal position that protects our body from perceived outside threats. When we force them not to do this, the muscles contract involuntarily with the effort, and we shake as a result.
When children are extremely happy, they are likely to express it physically by jumping up and down, which is another way to release nervous energy. Learning these visual and gestural codes is also a social and cultural achievement because we mirror postures that we see as expressing meaning. Two-year-olds mug for the camera in specific ways because they have learned the codes of picture-taking from watching others and looking at pictures. Children pretending to be monsters do so in very stylized and remarkably similar ways, considering that monsters are imaginary and thus could take on any number of postures. So gestural style is a combination of innate and learned behaviors, and these behaviors assist literacy development in two ways: (a) by being an expression of meaning all by themselves, and (b) by enabling children to infer meaning from the suggestion of gestures in print and visual representations.
Gesture's Role in Establishing Rituals Another crucial aspect of gestural literacy is its role in creating a sense of ritual. So much of human activity takes place in a ritual format—domestic habits of dining together and preparing for bed, waiting in line, communal gathering and listening, playing on teams, going to church—that much of parenting and schooling involves teaching children to participate in and adjust to the patterns of ritual behavior. In ritual, we must attune our bodies to others participating in the ritual activity. This creates a sense of community and helps soothe anxiety, because our own emotional states are regulated, mirrored, and affirmed by the presence of others sharing those emotional states.
Parents, caregivers, and educators facilitate participation in rituals by teaching young children songs, chants, and action rhymes; by establishing a time and place for reading; and by adopting a reading voice (which is noticeably different from a getting-ready voice or a playing voice or a I've-just-about-had-it voice). These special uses of gesture and language require that children adjust their movements, rhythms, and volume so that they are in step with others, or in the case of personal rituals, in step with a preestablished pattern. Researchers believe that this attunement is one of the reasons why we engage in ritual in the first place, because it relieves stress by regulating our bodies and hearkening back to the sense of communicative musicality and connectedness we felt with our early caregivers (Dissanayake, 2009; Eckerdal&Merker, 2009).
One of the most important aspects of the ritual of reading together is the development of joint attention, as we discussed in Chapter 1. Joint attention is facilitated by pointing, which, surprisingly enough, is a gesture most babies can do very early, although parents don't likely recognize it until they are looking for it. But pointing is essential for the development of language as well as other aspects of literacy development, such as learning that things can be represented in different ways. For instance, pointing to a picture of a baby's nose while saying "nose" and touching the baby's nose, encodes three registers— the image, the sound, and the touch—for the concept of nose. Soon enough, the baby will come to realize that the sound "nose" refers to a picture of noses and the baby's own nose, and this will set the stage for understanding that the letters n-o-s-e are yet another way of referring to the same concept.
Goals, Methods, and Materials for Promoting Gestural Literacy Because children are natural mimics, gestural literacy can be modeled, pointed out, and discussed, rather than taught through direct instruction. Most well-illustrated storybooks that feature characters offer an opportunity to discuss gestures and what they look like. The most explicit instruction for the children's own gestural literacy will likely come through negative feedback, where children are told not to behave in a certain way in a certain place or time. In most settings, though, children will take on the behaviors of those around them. For instance, if children sit with their parents in church, they will eventually learn to sit and stand at the appropriate times, sing when others sing, and remain quiet when others are quiet.
A similar pattern of routines develops in classrooms as well. It is important, though, that gestural literacy be intentionally used to enhance communication and ritual behavior. This is where dramatic play comes in. Acting out stories is not only great fun but it helps develop cooperative behaviors and planning skills; and it encourages literacy skills such as fluency, character understanding, and story arcs. Teaching Ideas: Gestural Literacy Reading Aloud Overemphasize your own gestures when reading or telling a story—be a ham!
When reading, point to objects and encourage children to point so that they can develop the skill of shared attention. Talk about pictures of characters in books. Ask how the character is feeling and how the children know how he is feeling from the picture. Have children imitate the gesture of a character in a book, and ask how they feel while they are doing it. Remind them that this is how the character must feel as well.
Games, Action Rhymes, and Finger Plays Increase your repertoire of action rhymes and finger plays to teach to children. The upcoming list "Recommended Books: Professional Resources for Storytimes and Action Rhymes" suggests a few sources. Play Feelings Charades: Whisper a feeling to a child and have that child act out that feeling while the other children guess what the feeling is. Alternately, have them act out an action, such as eating an apple or swimming. Later in the year, once you have shared many books with them, have them act out a character from a book you have read.
Play the Pass-It-On game: Arrange children in a circle. Have them pass an imaginary object from one person to another, imagining how it would feel—a hot potato, a baby, a porcupine, a heavy object. When each child has had a turn passing the object, call out, or have the children call out, a new object to pass. Play the Mirror game: Divide children up in pairs. One of each pair is the mirror.
The mirror has to imitate the actions and expressions of the partner. After a few minutes, have children switch roles. Dance and Drama Have free dance time every day. Use different types of music, and make sure you join in the dancing. Don't worry about looking silly.
Invite community dancers in to demonstrate and teach their skills. Alternately, call a dance school and ask if you can visit the studio. Dance schools will often offer a free class for a day care since they are usually not busy during the day. Stage a play. This may seem ambitious, but it's really quite doable for preschoolers.
Have the children choose a story, and then decide what characters, costumes, and props they will need. Ask for volunteers for parts. Since they are not yet readers, you may choose to narrate, or the children could provide their own dialogue. Practice, practice, practice, and encourage them to reflect on and critique their performance, thinking about how they could make it better. Then invite parents in for the performance!
Photo Book of Facial Expressions Have children make a list of emotions: surprise, anger, happiness, sadness, confusion, etc. Then have them experiment with making faces to show these emotions. Take digital photos of their faces making the expressions, and put them in a book. Coats, K. (2013). Children’s literature & the developing reader [Electronic version].
Retrieved from P1-3A P1-3A Prepare an income statement, retained earnings statement and balance sheet; discuss results On June 1, 2017, Elite Service Co. was started with an initial investment in the company of $22,100 cash. Here are the assets, liabilities, and common stock of the company at June 30, 2017, and the revenues and expenses for the month of June, its first month of operations: Name Cash $4,600 Notes payable $12,000 Accounts receivable 4,000 Accounts payable 500 Service revenue 7,500 Supplies expense 1,000 Supplies 2,400 Maintenance and repairs expense 600 Advertising expense 400 Utilities expense 300 Equipment 26,000 Salaries and wages expense 1,400 Common Stock 22,100 In June, the company issued no additional stock but paid dividends of $1,400.
Instructions (a) Prepare an income statement and retained earnings statement for the month of June and a balance sheet at June 30, 2017. (b) Briefly discuss in a Word document whether the company's first month of operations was a success. (c) Discuss in a Word document the company's decision to distribute a dividend.