(3)Literacy Backpacks [WLO: 1] [CLOs: 1, 3]
Promoting language and literacy experiences in early childhood education can profoundly impact children positively for the national core standards in language arts (Jaruszewicz, 2019). In particular, research confirms positive correlations between high quality early literacy experiences and later success in school (Barnett & Lamy, 2006). Part of this is creating engaging literacy experiences that generate enthusiasm and emerging positive literacy dispositions. One way to engage children in meaningful experiences is to create language and literacy activities that are engaging, interactive, and fun. The concept of a thematic literacy bag, sometimes called a story sack or backpack, has been used within the classroom as well as an at home activity to support positive literacy experiences. These thematic bags include several language and literacy activities that support children’s learning.
To prepare for this discussion,
· Read Chapter 11: Language, Literacy and Language Arts in your course text.
o Review the Instructor Guidance for Week 5.
o Review the resources Take Home Backpacks (Links to an external site.), and Literacy Bags (Links to an external site.).
For your initial post,
· Create a plan for a literacy backpack that can be used within the center, classroom, or at home. Your post must include:
o A visual of what your bag might look like. You can use whichever graphics program you choose to create the visual (e.g., the drawing tools in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint). Be sure to attach your visual to your initial post.
o A description of the theme of your bag and introduction to the bag (e.g., “Back to School,” “Seasons of the Year,” “Animals,” “Apples,” “Feelings and Emotions”).
o An explanation of the developmental level/age that you would use the activities with.
o Three developmentally appropriate literature selections that could be read to the child, including the title and author.
o Three open-ended questions that the child could discuss after reading the stories.
o Three activities which reflect reading/writing for the developmental level.
o Three language activities that could be done with the child.
o Three manipulatives or additional items that could be added to the bag, with a rationale of why they are important. For example, you may wish to include a puzzle or a stuffed animal that is related to the theme.
