This assignment enables you to demonstrate your understanding of the essential role of children’s literature in enabling young children’s language acquisition and literacy skill development. Focus your discussions on children prior to school age (i.e. birth to 5 years of age). Use Early year learning framework
You are to write a persuasive essay in which you develop an argument in response to the following prompt:
One of the parents is questioning how the children have a lot of stories and books in the education setting but they are not learning the alphabet or how to write. Defend the role of children’s literature as an essential part of literacy education and how books and stories support this.
A way to help with your discussion is to imagine that you are presenting to the leadership team and parents in your education setting. Here, you want to convince them of the importance of children’s literature, particularly in relation to language acquisition and literacy skill development. What arguments would you put forward to persuade them that your use of children’s literature is a valid, reasonable, and legitimate pedagogical practice?
In your essay you will need to:
• argue for the role of children’s literature in literacy education, using evidence from professional and scholarly literature to support your arguments
• justify your stance that storytelling and picture books can support language acquisition and literacy skill development, again drawing on literature to legitimate your arguments
• provide examples that cover the range of literacy development from birth to five years.
Essay requirements
You are to write your essay in the third person. Remember that the purpose of this essay is to defend a position and persuade readers that your argument is valid, reasonable, and legitimate. This means you need to develop a coherent argument across the body of the essay and ensure you have well-reasoned points, supported by evidence.
Introduction: Your introduction must introduce the topic, must contain a clearly stated thesis statement (a one-sentence response that outlines your position), and must introduce the structure of the essay. As a general rule, an introduction should be no more than 10% of the total word count; therefore, you will need to be succinct and clear.
Body: The body of your essay should include three or four clear points in the series of arguments concerning the role of literature and storytelling in literacy skill development and language acquisition. You will have approximately 1200 words for the body of your essay; use them wisely and edit vigorously.
All claims you make must be supported by evidence. You must draw on scholarly and professional literature, especially those from the unit, and be sure to use in-text citations.
Conclusion: In the conclusion, you will sum up your arguments and then make one final statement in defence of your position. The conclusion should not restate the introduction. As with the introduction, your conclusion should be no more than 10% of the overall word count.
Reference list: You will include a reference list that is not included in the word count using APA referencing conventions.
Preparing your essay
The material upon which you will base your essay is covered primarily in Weeks 1-4. Review the resources carefully, particularly those relating to the role that literature plays in supporting literacy development.
The activities provided in these weeks will assist you to think more deeply about the issues covered by the essay, so your active participation in these activities is encouraged.
Reference :
APA Manual 7th Edition
Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2019). Language, literacy and early childhood education 3e ebook. Oxford University Press.
Pinsent, P. (1993). The power of the page : Children's books and their readers. David Fulton Publishers.
Full article: Emotions in Imaginative Situations: The Valued Place of Fairytales for Supporting Emotion Regulation (tandfonline.com)
EDU30001 – A1 Essay Plan Template
Note: The following is a guide, you can structure your essay however you want to.