Emergent Literacy – A concept, used at the PreK level, that supports and describes learning to read and write as a result of observing and interacting in their home environment from birth with adults and other children as they use literacy in their everyday lives. This concept assumes children are born ready to learn about literacy and writing as well as continuing to grow their understandings throughout life.
Environmental Print – Print that surrounds children in their everyday lives, such as traffic signs, restaurant signs, charts, and labels. Children will also demonstrate logographic knowledge by recognizing and identifying labels, signs, cereal boxes, and restaurant logos. Simply stated, environmental print is everywhere around us.
Invented Spelling – The spellings children use when they are first learning/developing reading and writing as they begin to associate letters to sounds. This happens when children attempt to write words based on their emerging knowledge of letter-sound associations, they are engaged in invented spelling.
Here are some advantages of invented spelling:
- Students make connection between sound and letters
- Students become independent writes, don’t ask for help spelling a word
- Students write more words
- Students take responsibility for their own learning
- Students have a lot of practice with phonics
How Writing Develops – Children learn writing through exploration. The key is not necessarily in motor development or intelligence, but more about opportunities the child has to explore print and to explore writing for themselves. Scribbling is an important part of exploration and parents/teachers should this encourage exploration with any and many different types of writing utensils. A child begins scribbling with early or uncontrolled scribbling which then leads to controlled scribbling and movement, scribbled drawings, and name scribbling. Here are some parent-child activities and opportunities to observe and participate in which leads to extending children’s interest in writing:
- Parents should encourage their children to help write the family shopping lists
- Parents and children may communicate with one another through written messages, such as writing notes. A bulletin board or a chalkboard provides a designated location for writing and receiving notes.
- Parents should create occasions to write, such as a writing grocery lists, letters to relatives or Santa, and thank you notes. Parents should also encourage children to correspond in writing or by email as well.
How Reading Develops – Although all children begin to read at different ages, there are certain developmental stages which most children progress through. Most children will follow a similar pattern and sequence of reading behaviors as they learn to read – from print awareness to pretend reading, identifying alphabet letters, and beginning reading. There are 5 distinct phases of reading development.
Phases of Literacy Development
Phase 1: Awareness and Exploration –
This phase occurs from birth to PreK. Children in this phase:
- Explore their environment and environmental print, become curious about print, and begin to understand that it carries meaning
- Develop logographic knowledge (meaning they recognize labels, signs, cereal boxes etc.)
- Pretend to read, engage in pencil and paper activities, and begin to scribble
- Can identify some letters & letter sound relationships
Phase 2: Experimental Reading and Writing –
Children enter this phase in/around Kindergarten. This phase reflects their understanding of basic concepts about print such as reading left-to-right and top-to-bottom orientation. In this phase children:
- Experiment with written and oral language
- Enjoy beginning to read and engage in sustained reading and writing activities
- Continue to recognize letter and letter-sound relationships, become familiar with rhyming, and begin to write letters of the alphabet and high frequency words
Phase 3: Early Reading and Writing –
Children enter this early phase of literacy development in first grade when instruction becomes more formal. In this phase children begin to:
- Read simple stories
- Write about topics they have knowledge of
- Read and retell stories
- Develop comprehension skills/strategies
- Develop accurate identification of letter sound patterns
- Read more fluently and increase sight word recognition
- Write and be aware of punctuation and capitalization
Phase 4: Transitional Reading and Writing –
Students begin to make the transition from early reading and writing to more complex literacy tasks in phase 4 by second grade. In this phase children begin to:
- Read with fluency
- Use cognitive and metacognitive strategies effectively more effectively
- Demonstrate their skills by using word identification strategies, sight word recognition, sustained silent reading, conventional spelling, and proofreading what they have written.
Phase 5: Independent and Productive Reading and Writing –
Students enter phase 5 as they become more independent and productive lifelong readers and writers in 3rd Grade. Students in this phase use reading and writing in a variety of ways to serve specific audiences and purposes. Students also extend and refine literacy skills and strategies in this phase.
Literate Environment – An environment for young children that fosters curiosity and an interest about written language and supports children’s efforts to become readers and writers.
Shared Reading – A Strategy allowing all children in a classroom or small group to participate in the reading of a story, usually through the use of a big book with large print and illustrations. These Big Books often have simple repetitive refrains, colorful illustrations, and cumulative plot endings.
How to Promote Oral Language Development – Oral language development includes critical skills that allow children to communicate, to understand words and concepts they hear, to acquire new information, and to express their own ideas and thoughts. Babies listen to and are aware of words being spoken before soon beginning to communicate through sounds and gestures, toddlers use language to express themselves and get information using simple sentences of two or three words, preschoolers being to use more complex sentences and most have a vocabulary of 10,000 words
Design of Classroom Environment – Classroom environments should be filled with print and represent language familiar to children. The environment should also provide opportunities for the children to learn on their own or with peers and all areas of the room should serve as the learning environment by supporting children’s learning and allowing children to learn form the environment itself. A supportive classroom environment for literacy and language development should include a book area, a listening area, a computer area, and a writing area.
Phonological Awareness – Involves hearing sounds of language apart from its meaning. Phonological awareness is also the recognition that sound in English can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts: sentences, words, rimes, and syllables. This term also means working with the sounds of language at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels.
This awareness is auditory and includes knowing that:
- Sentences can be segmented into words
- Words can be segmented into syllables
- Words can be segmented into their individual sounds.
- The individual sounds of words can be blended together.
- The individual sounds of words can be manipulated (added, deleted, or substituted).
Alphabet Knowledge – The ability to name, write, and identify the sounds of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
Developmental Writing – Children become interested in writing and expressing themselves beginning with scribbling. This then leads to more sophisticated use in their invented spellings after guidance and experience. Children develop understanding of print concepts and phonological awareness when they write therefore the development of writing becomes more important.
Print Knowledge – The ability to recognize print and understand that it works in specific ways and carries meaning and motivates the learn-to-read process.
Concept of Print – Knowledge of how to hold a book, turning the page, and reading from left to right and top to bottom are important concepts about print. Knowing that the text and not the illustrations carry the message is another important part of print.
Developing Early Literacy Skills – Creating literate environments both at home and at school fosters interest in and curiosity about written language and supports children’s efforts to become readers and writers. Here are some things parents can do at home to help:
- Provide access to a wide variety of print, such as books, magazines, and newspapers
- Demonstrate use of written language for various purposes
- Support literacy efforts, assisting early attempts at literacy and are willing to respond to questions about abut print
- Read to your child, which is positively related to outcomes such as language growth, early literacy, and later reading achievement
Teachers can also help create a literate environment in their own classrooms by changing the design of the classroom, using literacy-related play centers, reading story books and non-fiction books, reading big books and e-books, and making and reading class made books.
Language–Experience Stories – An account of story that is told by aloud by a child and printed by another person. These experience stories show the relationship between speech and print but also introduces children to the thrill of personal authorship.
Phonemic Segmentation – The ability to isolate and identify sounds in words. This sometimes involves segmenting beginning and ending sounds in words and sometimes involves segmenting separate sounds in a word.
***Additional great notes about Emergent Literacy and Development taken from this lesson:
Emergent Literacy
Understanding that language is a foundational aspect of literacy development is essential and therefore it is important to define what language is. Language is a way for individuals to communicate within a society and globally. It may be expressive in the form of spoken words, symbols, writing, signs, gestures and receptive (understanding what is communicated). Language development is closely linked to cognitive development. Language development, like cognition expands rapidly in the early years with receptive language developing faster than expressive language. Have you ever noticed that young children can understand what is being said but cannot find the words to contribute to a story or set of instructions? This is because it is a developmental step in the acquisition of language.
Foundational Literacy Skills
Young children will enter formal schooling with a wide range of foundational literacy skills. These foundational skills are:
- Oral language and vocabulary
- Phonological Awareness
- Alphabet knowledge
- Developmental writing
- Print knowledge
Oral Language Development and Vocabulary
Developing oral language in our young students is a partnership between their home life and the school, as young children bring their awareness of language and existing skills and knowledge of how to listen and speak with them to the classroom. This is known as their emergent literacy skills. The prior knowledge base and skills they have already acquired have a strong relationship to their achievement in reading comprehension and writing. The quality of those early experiences prior to schooling influences their language and literacy learning; thus, the importance of developing a partnership between families and schools essential in supporting the student’s development.
Phonological Awareness
A student that has phonological awareness knows that:
- Sentences can be segmented into words
- Words can be segmented into syllables
- Words can be segmented into their individual sounds (phonemic awareness)
- Words can begin or end with the same sound
- Individual sounds of words can be blended together
- Individual sounds of words can be manipulated (added, deleted, or substituted)
Phonological Awareness includes:
- Rhyming
- Alliteration (two tall trees)
- Sentence segmenting
- Syllable blending and segmenting
- Phonemic awareness
Alphabet Knowledge
A student that has alphabet knowledge knows how letters are used to represent phonemes.
Components of Letter Knowledge:
- Letter’s name (identify the letter)
- Formation of letter in upper and lowercase
- Features of letter than distinguish it from other letters
- Direction that letter must be turned to distinguish it from other letters
- Use of letters in known words (names and common words)
- Sound the letter represents in isolation
- Sound the letter represents in combination with others (ch, the, sh)
- Sound the letter represents in the context of a word (c in cat, city and chair)
Print Knowledge
Students that understand the concepts of print have a basic understanding about the way print works, including the direction of print, spacing, punctuation, letters and words. Further to this there are four stages students go through in word consciousness:
- No differentiation between words and things
- Words stand for things
- Words carry meaning, stories are built from words
- Words have meaning of their own, words can be written, spoken, listened to and read.
Writing Development
As young children develop their writing skills, they move through a series of stages that reflects a child’s growing knowledge of the conventions of literacy, including letters, sounds and spacing of words within sentences. Almost every interaction in a child’s world is preparing them to become a reader and writer; and because each child has different experiences, the rate they move through these stages varies.
Classroom Application – One key take away I had from this week’s readings was how important it is to have a literacy rich classroom and to use the “classroom library” effectively. Having taught in a 3-4 year old classroom for 5 years at a Head Start program taught me a lot about how important it is to have books students like to read and to have books that are accessible to students. Even if students cannot “read the words” they can still pretend to read and often enjoy pretending to read too. Having a good rotation of books and letting students pick out their own books is another great way to enhance literacy and learning. Students may get bored after having the same options for books week after week. One thing I would do in my classroom would be to have books in the library and around the classroom be separated into many different categories or storage options. They could be separated by authors with collections of Curious George and Pete the Cat books or Dr. Seuss books for the students to choose from. Books would also be organized or separated by categories like princess or fairy tale as well as books about sports or weather for the students to choose from. Have a “leveled library” for students to choose books is another great idea. When students pick and read books at their reading level they will often enjoy them more than reading a book above their reading level. However, this doesn’t simply mean putting a bunch of books in leveled order on a shelf. Teachers need to also be aware of student’s eye level and accessibility as well as many other situations before adding books to their room. Overall, having a literacy rich classroom is crucial to a successful literacy program in the classroom.
Video Notes:
https://youtu.be/qh0Sb2SC_38 – This video discusses invented spelling. A teacher details how with invented spelling students still often use regular conventions to sound out and spell out words. Spelling words independently should be encouraged, even if the student makes mistakes. The teacher can then go over those spelling mistakes to intervene and scaffold further spelling instruction. Sounding out words to spell them uses phonemic awareness and helps the teacher understand what the student knows for positive reinforcement and encouragement and where they need more help.
https://youtu.be/jfGjgOc-rJw – Key Links Shared Reading. This video discusses in great detail how to implement and use shared reading in the classroom. It discusses what to do with students from day 1 and how to effectively use shared reading with students. It detailed how to keep the students attention during the reading on the first day and how to effectively use questions for comprehension. On day 2 the teacher is to reread the book and to talk about vocabulary within the book. She mentions words the student may not fully understand and even writes them down for all to see. Day 3 focuses on flow, phrasing, and fluency. They should be looking out for bold words and punctuation to identify clues for how they should read those words and sentences and with what type of expression they should use. Day 4 discusses phonics knowledge with another reread and having the students help with the rereading while discussing things like word families and rhyming words. Day 5 focuses on the combination of written, oral, and visual language.
https://youtu.be/s1gBauKkbJs – Shared Reading 1st Grade. This video shows a first-grade teacher doing a shared reading with her students. She reads first and the students read second. The students raise their hand for words they may not know the definitions for or key words they are supposed to be looking out for. She has the students talk with each other about those words before going over them as a group. This is a great example of a shared reading exercise while focusing on several vocabulary words and their spelling rules.
https://youtu.be/M_vLX8mxO4I – What is Phonological Awareness? This short video discusses phonological awareness. She describes how we listen to words and sentences and it only involves listening and not seeing words. She also discusses how sentences and words can be taken apart into words and syllables before discussing taking apart sounds within a word as well.
https://youtu.be/xb8hJSG_YYU – Onset and Rime Picture Cards. This video demonstrates how the onset of a word is the first part of the word before the vowel and the rime is the part after. There are pictures that represent a word that are cut in half and the student is to identify the onset and the rime for the words. With the word car, its onset is the “kuh” for the letter c sound and the rime is the “ar” part. For the word bat with separates to “buh” and “at” the student says “bah” and “at” the first time before she intervenes and works with the student to identify them correctly.
https://youtu.be/yxl4NIVOyFw – Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic Substitution. This video discusses breaking words down into their smallest sounds (phonemes) and swapping some of those sounds out for other sounds to create new words. She separates several CVC words into their smallest sounds which often end up being the letter sounds themselves. Then she shows how to swap out a sound from either the beginning, middle, or end of the word to identify a new word with the phoneme (sound) substitution. Great video on a way to use phoneme substitution to work with students.
https://youtu.be/iRPNPCAf84E – Top Tips for Reading to Children. This brief video describes why students should read and why parents should read more to their children. He discusses that you should start while they are young and to begin with board books for better handling with young children. He then mentions reading regularly, turning off all distractions like tv and cell phones, putting a little effort into the reading, stopping to explain words they are possibly seeing for the first time and to encourage to ask about things they don’t understand, having a discussion at the end of each chapter, letting the child pick their own books, not underestimating a child’s understanding of situations, changing the routine when students get older and begin to read, and using guest readers like grandparents to have a bit of variety when reading.
https://youtu.be/2UHiZi8DsoI – Creating a Literacy Rich Environment at Home and in the Classroom. This is an incredible example of a literacy rich classroom and is full of great ideas. She does a great job of explaining the benefits of each of her ideas as well. Some of her examples were having books the students are interested in, having individual book bins for students, using a leveled library for books that are appropriate for them, labeling things throughout your home and classroom, and making print and books easily available to them.
https://youtu.be/Lu3QH9AJn0s – Teaching with Shared Reading of a Big Book. Another great example of a teacher using a big book to do a shared reading exercise with her students.
https://youtu.be/lXPq6aCX_CQ – iRead With – Ebooks that make children talk! This is an example of an application parents can use to read with their children. This program involves parent-child interactions and involves prompted questions to improve literacy.
Travis Davis ENGED 275 