Concepts of Print
By Jessica Moret
Concepts of Print Defined:
-the ability of a child to know and recognize the ways in which print "works" for the purposes of reading, particularly with regard to books
Read left to right & top to bottom
Spaces between words
Letters make words and words make sentances
Rationale
'Concepts of Print' is an important element of literacy instruction. Many teachers see the concepts of print as the "foundation to reading and writing" (Showman, Hoffman, para. 5). With these skills that many fluent readers take for granted, becoming a proficient reader or writer would be impossible. In fact, "Children's performance on print awareness tasks is a very reliable predictor of their future reading achievement" (Texas Education Agency, para. 1). Reading and writing are the bases of achieving in all academic areas. Therefore, it is crucial for a child to master the 'Concepts of Print' in order to have future academic success.
Artifacts
eSpark Learning Video
I chose this video as a helpful artifact to introduce the idea of reading left to right and top to bottom. This would be a great video to show students and then practice this technique with actual books as a class to learn the directions of print.
eSpark Learning: Concepts of Print Framing Video (K.RF, Quest 1)
Reading Rockets
I included this link to the Reading Rockets webpage devoted to helpful strategies for implementing the 'Concepts of Print' in classrooms. This webpage also offers a short assessment for teachers to use to determine if a student understands this element of literacy instruction.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/print-awareness-guidelines-instruction
Back to the Basics
I chose to include this link because it is a 3 weeks of station ideas, guided readings, and printable. Even if one did not purchase the whole package, it is still a helpful website for poster ideas for your classroom to teach 'Concepts of Print.'
http://mrskellysklass.blogspot.com/2015/08/concepts-of-print.html
Creating a Book Activity
This lesson plan is a great idea for a creative way to teach many aspects of 'Concepts of Print.' By creating a book, the child will learn the direction that text is written, that words make senates and have meaning, and that spaces go between each word. This activity would be a successful idea for a hands on learning activity to engage students in fully understanding 'Concepts of Print.'
References
Showman, A., & Hoffman, K. (n.d.). Concepts of Print. Retrieved September 12, 2016, from http://legitliteracy.weebly.com/concepts-of-print.html
Texas Education Agency. (n.d.). Print Awareness: An Introduction. Retrieved September 12, 2016, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/print-awareness-introduction