Story Time!

         Terry Meier brings to light a very important aspect of early development in a child, Story book time. Recently i had the chance to teach a third grade class for about three months. Story Time was the most important time of day for these children, although these stories are more advance then the ones that the preschoolers and kindergartners are being read they are receiving the same core values that come from story telling. 

         While reading Meier's narrative i found that classroom i taught in was among the social exceptional, White, English spoken middle-class students. These students are extremely interested in books as they are read books at home routinely by their parents. I realized that the cultural differences really do take quite a toll on a child's growth, social skills and language.



          I found the examples that Meier wrote about to be  very interesting.These were the examples that regarded Marisa, Lindsey, and Lem.  Each of these children used their knowledge of vocabulary at a very young age to get out of trouble with their parents.  They were all intelligent enough to realize quick and effective ways to switch the situations around in their favor. Meier uses these examples to show us how different cultural upbringings contribute to the way we talk and comprehend a situation and the vocabulary that we have and us. This leads to the next topic of how some young kids respond to book readings and can use language from the books in conversation, like Lindsey. Whereas, some children who do not respond well to books or were simply not read to at a young age prefer to use language they pick up just from listening to others speak around them, like Lem and Marisa.  I though that it was incredible how Lem thought of a poem off of the top of his head at such a young age and Marisa was able to switch her situation so quickly by making the offensive comment into a fun loving teasing game.



I found this video that i found demonstrates this reading quite clearly. You can see as the teacher is reading the book how the children react differently to the situations that arise in the book. I find it truly amazing to see how different each student is and how Meier is able to perfectly summarize the learning styles and natures of children of different cultures and social backgrounds.