Quote: "At first, young children depend on context to read familiar words and memorized texts, but slowly, they develop relationships linking form and meaning as they gain more reading and writing experience. (114)"
Comment: The example the text gives for this is that many children can recognize McDonald's by the golden arches that represent it, but do not recognize the word when it is separated from the symbol. In this way children contextualize what they are seeing to create meaning. I think being able to contextualize and find meaning even when you don't have the skills necessary to find the meaning on your own is definitly a type of literacy that can be very beneficial, and although it is not the key to becoming literate in other ways, I think developing it and using it as a tool is a good thing. It is interesting what devices children use to interpret the world around them, without any instruction.
Question: As a teacher how can I use a student's natural ability to contextualize to help them become better readers and writers, or to help them develop these skills?
I agree with this! Being able to contextualize is definitely a type of literature. In the reading it talked about how children first start off using the context to help them figure out what is happening and then slowly they begin to understand the writing and become readers! As Teachers I think it is important that we help students to look at the context. Not only can students use this skill as beginner readers but they can also use it to figure out unknown words when they reach a higher reading level.
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