What I found most interesting about both of the articles was the emphasis on concepts related to literature. It is undeniable that each child experiences literature before they actually enter school, and I liked that both articles addressed the extreme variety in reading levels that we as teachers are bound to encounter. I remember when I was a child the endless worksheets that drilled us on our reading "skills." Educators are now realizing, however, that these drills are not productive to encourage reading, and can even be considered counterproductive. The way a child learns the alphabetic concept, linguistic awareness, and phonemic awareness is directly related to how well that child reads and is interested in literature. I always imagined teaching in a classroom that used the conventional methods of alphabet drilling to teach children their letters. There are songs, posters, games, and books all dedicated to learning to recognize that a letter makes a certain sound. However, I now see that children already know how to read these letters! The can already read, they just don't know how it all fits together. I loved the idea of using environmental cues to help a child recognize letter meanings. Reading is so psychological, and I can't believe I had never thought before of the importance that just living with the thousands of products we have has on us. I will definitely be researching and employing these new and exciting reading techniques in my future classroom.

This youtube clip describes the way that environmental reading can help a child learn. If a child knows that the first word in "table" is "T" and they have seen the word "table" countless times, then they automatically know the sound T makes! It's the McDonald's concept on an even more simplistic level.