Talking Points #2

Terry Meier "Why can't she remember that?": The importance of storybook reading in multilingual, multicultural classrooms
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Linguistic research reveals that, by the age of 3, the vast majority of children all over the world have mastered all of the sounds and most of the complex grammatical systems of their native language or languages. In addition, as the research cited here documented, they have figured out how to use language to get things done in the world, often in highly sophisticated ways." (243)

I found this quote very interesting. It's amazing that at the age of 3, children have already learned and mastered their own language, and possibly a second one. Furthermore, every child's background is different so by this statistic, people can see that all children can learn quickly at a young age. Also, by children having this knowledge when they enter school the classroom teacher will have a good foundation to work on in "literacy instruction" (242) as Meier pointed out.

2. "Children who don't have many early book reading experiences learn their cultural lessons through interactions with family and other community members, from oral stories, and from observations of other people's behavior." (244)

I believe an important part of learning is learning through interactions, observations, and oral storytelling. I don't think a child can learn everything through reading books. Like Meier pointed out, the interactions that children, mentioned in the quote above, experience proves to be an important model on how to use language in both powerful and creative ways.

3. "The teacher's likely assumption in this case was that Gabriela did not know the answer to the question, possibly leading to the conclusion that she needed more simplified instruction, or perhaps more English-language vocabulary, rather than more interesting questions." (245)

I found this quote to be very important. Teachers have to remember that children come from different backgrounds. Like Gabriela, she didn't understand why the teacher would ask such questions ("How many mittens are there?" [245]) because she, Gabriela, was not used to an adult asking questions. Furthermore, because of this a teacher could make the wrong assumption about a student, when the real problem is that these students do not feel this experience is an "intellectual stimulating activity" (245).


This article was very interesting. When the author put the examples of the three children and how they used their linguistic skills, it helped me understand how they learn and how every child comes from a different background which means they most likely learn in different ways. Whether that be through reading/listening to books or observing and interacting with family. Furthermore, when the author talked about her observation with Gabriela's class, it made me realize that because children learn different ways and don't understand why a teacher does a certain task, this could lead to the student getting more help when they only need an activity that is more interesting.

Meier mentioned three things to do in order to connect a child to the text. The first was to "Choose books that relate to children's lives" (246). This is a very important one, if a child sees similarities to a character's life and their own, they will be more inclined to pay attention and even respond to questions asked. The second was to "Teach book reading behaviors explicitly" (248). This means that the teacher should be exact when giving instruction on book reading and to include both open-ended and known-answer questions into the lesson. Finally, Meier says to "Make books come alive" (249). I find this one important as well because if a book comes to life, with puppets and dolls, it well help children visualize and fully understand what is going on in the story. This article gave me a new perspective on how children learn and different methods to use in order to show the importance of storytelling.