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Book Review
The Young Childs Memory for Words
Oscar Sanchez
Pacific Oaks College

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Working in a school setting in childhood education is a valuable experience with many

artful techniques to use that will leave the students with an impactful lesson to remember. For
Daniel R. Meier that has been his aspiration. Daniel R. Meier is an Associate Professor of
Elementary Education at San Francisco State University, and Literacy Specialist for the Berkeley
Unified School District. Meier has provided an enormous amount of logic and practical teaching
strategies that can be put into practice in ages birth to eight years of age. The unique diverse
strategies are effective ways in developing sound and lasting appreciation for literature for
children. In his book The Young Childs Memory for Words Meier shares the structure that is
set to standard school expectation and he shares unique teaching methods that lays emphases on
the practice of applying artful ways for children to have long lasting memories for reading and
writing. Using theoretical and practical ideas keeps the reader interested in each page as each
chapter guides you through a process. This book can be used for future reference and is an
excellent tool to keep.
In America, multicultural societies are commonly the most challenging to have a set of
curriculum that can be successfully applied to each class room. In this book the challenges are
met with literacy development of young children in multilingual and multicultural settings.
For this reason I am sharing the following structure is how Meier laid out the blue print
of how his book is illustrated that helps clarify how everything is put together in the least
complicated style I have seen. According to Meier (2004),

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In chapter 1, I highlight the building blocks for children and the second language
acquisition. The chapter includes a discussion of the language learning of newborns, infants, and
toddlers.
In chapter 2, I describe childrens first and second language learning as a foundation for
childrens literacy development, and describe programs and practices for promoting childrens
literacy acquisition during their early school years.
The focus in chapter 3 is on effective strategies for designing and organizing a classroom
environment for literacy, and the chapter includes a particular emphasis on selecting and using
childrens books. At the end of the chapter I include a list of recommended childrens books.
In chapter 4, I explain the role of the alphabet in childrens literacy learning and describe
techniques for integrating alphabet related activities with childrens own interests and resources.
A list of recommended alphabetical books is included at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 5 is centered on the value of integrating drawing, writing, talking, and dictating
for young childrens first and second language and literacy development.
In chapter 6, I offer a closing discussion on the future directions for our early literacy
teaching in preschool and the primary grades. (pp. 8, 9).
Every component of the book is relevant to the childrens learning development and what
I would like to share is the a few sections in a few chapters that exemplified to me great
importance and enlightenment with respects to ways that better our childrens learning
experience. In chapter 2 Childrens Early Literacy Development in page 39 Meier explains the
importance of using visuals and graphics, careful introduction of key vocabulary, multi lingual

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and multi cultural literature, books that play rhythms, small doses of repetition, lack error
correction, informal attention to patterns to and regularities in English spelling, rich and varied
daily opportunity for talking and interacting with peers, use of concrete objects and hands on
literacy activities and incorporation of art and drama as well as other arts in literacy activities
(Meier, p. 39).
Meier explains other important dynamics of the structure in class in each of the
following sections in the chapters:

Chapter 4, page 91 Promoting early literacy through a small group format

Chapter 5, page 105 personal journals
Chapter 6, page 126 Building on memories

The combination of journaling, building on memories, and putting into action small group
formats allows students to engage in memorable learning activities in literacy. Through journals
that are about the activities that they had where activities are memorable ones they enhance the
experience by sharing with each other about the things they liked to learn about. The journaling
is easier to do because of this. I think the book is brilliant and any educator could gain a lot from
this book.

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Works Cited
Meier, D. R. (2004). The Young Child's Memory for Words. New York : Teachers
College Press.