Catie Higgins

Professor Galloway
Advocacy Assignment
February 21, 2016
After doing my full day and half day observation for student
teaching it has come to my attention that there isnt enough
books placed throughout the room for the children to have. I also
noticed that the teachers didnt read to the children nor do they
have long, meaningful conversations with the children. The
landmark report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children
(Snow, Burns, Griffin 1998) observes that preschool teachers
represent an important, and largely underutilized resource in
promoting literacy by supporting rich language and emergent
literacy skills. I feel that it is critical in the early years to lay a
groundwork for literacy skills.
My target audience would be for all parties involved. I would
advocate for the school, the teachers, the children, and their
families. Some strategies that I thought of to help the school and
the teachers would be to have the Horry County Book Mobile
come to their school twice a month or once a month to bring
baskets full of new books for the children. The school can offer
free training for the teachers on how to read books, why reading
is important, and other ideas that the teachers can do with the
children to help with literacy skills. A third strategy would be to
ask the families to donate used books to the school. The children
and teachers can also take field trips to the library to have them
look at books there and read them. The families are able to take
the children to the library on the weekends or afterschool as well.
Another strategy for the children and their families is for the
teachers to explain to them that when you enroll in the Dolly
Parton Imagination Library, she sends you books once a month.
These books are free and for the childrens particular age group.