What a glorious thing it is that the human mind can retrieve information saved for it on the pages of a book. It's so special and so wonderful that even small infants are able to participate in the enjoyment of a book.
As teachers, we have a special opportunity to help children discover the joy of books, and with it the appreciation and power of the printed word.
Library Images
Creating a real library, not just a small display to satisfy educational consultants, in the classroom is a necessity. Having a real library is not an option if we are to be true crusaders of education for all. A couple of books standing on a table won't make it. Books are an important presence and demand respect.
The Infant Room library can host oodles of board books. They are the kind of books that are colorful, filled with interesting animals, and can even be used to "taste" as the young learner begins to understand the concept of a book. Learning to focus eyes, hold a book, hold a book right-side-up, and learning to turn pages is a revelation to students who are working through the object constancy stage of development. A kid has to practice focusing to do these things. A kid has to coordinate the mental images presented with the physical skills it takes to retrieve these images. Yes, there's a lot to learn by just holding a book.
For slightly older children, the brightly colored picture books help children visually explore the page. An animated reading of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" can be almost as exciting to the experienced reader as it is to the first time listener. Enjoyment aside, it helps the ear discriminate various sounds. It helps children anticipate what is coming next and it presents an on-going sharing of syntax and grammar.
As the learner grows into chapter books he learns about character and plot development. He learns how to use words to influence the reader. He is encouraged to predict what will come next. Reading is often the springboard used to encourage young writers to comment, change the storyline, or create their own stories. In short, reading a lot helps the young student find his own voice.
Perhaps you remember your classroom when the dictionary was introduced. Wow, what a great idea that was. Imagine, someone wrote down all the words in the English language so we could use them, and then that someone told you (through writing it down in a book) how those words could be used. Even though learning to thumb through that dictionary was a challenge, it was well worth it.
One of my preschool teachers, who happened to hail from Russia, was an avid reader. You might have called her a bookworm because she would walk to the lunchroom reading a book. Every moment she was on a lunch break she was reading...sometimes the book was written in Russian and sometimes it was written in English. Her classroom was piled high with books that she had organized by subject matter. When any question came up, she took herself and the questioning child to the appropriate book case. There they would find more information about the question and they would read it together.
Throughout the year these preschool children brought in books they wanted to share with this special teacher and with their classmates. Some books were mere picture books from Disney while others contained scientific information about the stars. All of the children in her class left for kindergarten reading. There were no reading workbooks. No one had presented a formal lesson other than the presentation of the normal alphabet, word families, and a vocab list the kids developed for themselves as they wrote in their school journals. It became obvious that the best ways to create readers was to love books and share books.
Today's economic environment often places the classroom library in the crosshairs of budget cuts. Either there is too little money for books or the hours of service must be cut. One educational consultant once told me that there were enough books in the classroom if there was one book for each child. Hogwash! The library is the visual repository of all our knowledge. It represents our link to people and their thoughts from centuries past.
If there is no budget money for books then teachers must find creative ways to have access to books. Finding books at a thrift shop or writing a letter to a publishing company for donations may help. Regular visits to the public library, if possible, may help. The quest for books and books and books must never stop even, no especially, when teachers are told there is no money.
The Preschool Library
