Editor's note: In her biweekly column, Jerdine Nolen today explores the link between reading and communicating.
Reading is all about communicating. Spoken words convey our ideas, feelings, thoughts and needs/wants. Writing words/language down creates text that enables us to communicate with others in another way. Reading is a learned behavior intricately connected with speaking, writing, social interactions, thinking, learning, viewing and applying knowledge and information -- a complex activity involving a system of many similar and different parts.
Viewing
We read things around us. We construct meaning from what we read. We read:
* clocks
* seasonal changes/weather
* traffic and safety signs
* if something is too hot, too cold or just right
* faces, gestures and body language
Listening
We hear sounds. We imitate them. We become able to discern patterns of sounds and put them together into a framework. We hear and respond.
Thinking
We make connections for acquiring language. We become decision makers and problem solvers.
Speaking
We imitate sounds we hear. We become able to make more sounds and put sounds together to form words, thoughts, ideas, phrases, sentences, stories.
Writing
We see there are picture symbols and word symbols for things. We learn how to copy them. We put scribbles on paper. The shapes in the scribbles can be arranged in a pattern to form letters, which are symbols for sounds. If these symbols are put together in a pattern, they form words, which are names for things. These words can be put together to form larger and larger ideas and thoughts.
Social interaction
Through language we communicate to keep social graces. We learn to say "please" and "thank you." We ask for things. We speak up for our needs. We establish a rapport with others because we are attempting to engage them by exchanging information and knowledge. We talk about what we read and what we know.
Applying knowledge and information
We use what we have learned to try new things. We use the sounds we know. We write them. We write our names.
A resident of Ellicott City, Jerdine Nolen is the award-winning children's author of "Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm" and "Raising Dragons." She is a former teacher and administrator in elementary education, and has field-tested her suggestions on her son and daughter.
Pub Date: 03/07/99