Strategies that Support Emergent Literacy

1. Strategies that Support Emergent Literacy Dr. Debra J. Coffey and Dr. Alice F. Snyder

2. Reflections of the Past • Quickwrite—What do you remember about your literacy experiences (reading and writing) during your… *Pre-kindergarten years? *Kindergarten-first grade years? *Second-third grade years?

3. Your Predictions ► What would you consider the top three predictors of early success in reading? ► How would you rank the top three factors of early success in reading for young children?

4. Sociocultural Considerations in Literacy Development Piaget ►infant’s schemata developed by responding to his environment (sensory) and those around him ►children create own knowledge by forming and reforming concepts in their minds ►child’s view of the world changes and is different from adults’, thus, their concepts about reading and writing are different from adults’ concepts about them ►concepts of reading/writing are shaped by what they learned in previous developmental stages, not necessarily by imitating adults

5. Sociocultural Considerations Vygotsky □ Learning takes place in a social context □ Language comes out of a need to communicate with others □ Language and cognition emerge at the same time □ Learning is a matter of internalizing language and actions of others □ Family, social, and cultural contexts support learning to read, speak, and write

6. Sociocultural Considerations Heath; Teale; Morrow; Strickland and Taylor Early literacy experiences in the home (B-5) can have an impact on the child’s development as a reader and writer in school; storybook reading and talking about pictures, words; writing for real purposes modeled by caregivers, parents, older siblings, etc.

7. “Stages” of Literacy Development • Stages relate to how a child’s concepts about written and spoken language develop over time • “Stages” give us a sense of what readers have accomplished, what they can do now, what they can potentially do, and what we can do to plan for their needs at any given time • Generally speaking, each “stage” characterizes the average child at that point • “Stages” aren’t discrete—readers may move back and forth from “stage” to “stage”, occasionally reaching a plateau, staying awhile, and moving ahead

8. Emergent(Birth to 5-6 yrs)Logographic (Ehri, 1991: Juel, 1991) • Egocentric; sensory contact, fast language growth based on need • May “read” signs, labels when associated with the object, but not when isolated in print (McDonald’s, Lucky Charms)

9. Emergent(Birth to 5-6 yrs)Logographic (Ehri, 1991: Juel, 1991) • Very young may have experienced books & writing materials but don’t find meaning in printed symbols on their own • May scribble and make letter-like forms on paper without intention to communicate a message • Later, uses mostly information from pictures to “read”

10. Emergent(Birth to 5-6 yrs)Logographic (Ehri, 1991: Juel, 1991) • Begins to name & write some letters • Becomes aware that printed texts convey messages • Writes for purpose of communicating meaning, but reads & writes in unconventional ways • Associates word(s) with picture clues • Likes rhyme, repetition, alliteration, magic and personification; likes to hear their favorite stories repeated many times

11. Early Reading (K-1, 5-7 yrs)Alphabetic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • Realize that meaning is mapped onto print in systematic ways • Use some letter-sound correspondences • Later alphabetic readers do cipher reading (decoding phoneme by phoneme) • Can segment words

12. Early Reading (K-1, 5-7 yrs)Alphabetic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • Realizes that letters represent sounds so that: ► words may be read by saying the sounds represented by the letters ► words may be spelled by writing the letters that represent the sounds in a word [a.k.a. The Alphabetic Principle] • Often spells words the way they are articulated when spoken such as ‘V’ for the PH in ‘phone’ and or ‘HAN’ for ‘chain’ (manner of articulation or identity of sound); also with affrication (‘DR’ spelled ‘JR’ and ‘TR’ spelled ‘CHR’); Continues to spell in the way words are formed in the mouth, such as ‘gowing’ for ‘going’

13. Early Reading (K-1, 5-7 yrs)Alphabetic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • Become “glued to print” which hinders comprehension • Later, can recognize 100s of sight words • Begins to develop awareness of audience • Can monitor own reading and writing and begins to use strategies such as searching, cross-checking, self-correction • Reads familiar texts with phrasing and fluency

14. Assessing Emergent Literacy Development • Concepts of Print (Marie Clay—Reading Recovery) ► assesses child’s understanding of book and print awareness • Yopp-Singer Segmentation Test ► assesses child’s ability to isolate individual phonemes (speech sounds) in words

15. Assessing Emergent Literacy Development • Alphabet Letter-Sound Recognition Test ► assesses child’s ability to identify letter-sound relationships • Basic High Frequency Word Recognition Test ► assesses child’s ability to recognize the first 25 Fry high frequency words in isolation

16. Stages of Writing Development Blackburn-Cramp Developmental Writing Scale ► “Stages” are not discrete ► Levels do not represent grade or age levels ► Children can demonstrate characteristics from more than one “stage” at a time ► These are tendencies/descriptors

17. Stages of Spelling Development Gentry Developmental Spelling Test ► Assesses a child’s understanding and knowledge about letter-sound correspondences ► It is not a spelling test to determine what words a child can or cannot spell correctly

18. Strategy Instruction Five Essential Elements of Reading • Phonemic Awareness/Phonological Awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension

19. Components of Phonemic Awareness Instruction • Identifying Sounds in Words • Categorizing Sounds in Words • Substituting Sounds to Make New Words • Blending Sounds to Form Words • Segmenting a Word into Sounds **not related to print!

20. Strategy Activities: Phonemic Awareness/Phonological Awareness • Reading Aloud (Shared Reading) • Shared Writing; Pattern Stories • Onset and Rime Activities

21. Strategy Activities: Phonemic/Phonological Awareness Onset and Rime Activities ►“I Can Hear”—”This is the Grinch. I can hear the /gr/ part in grinch--/gr/, /gr/--and I can hear the /inch/ part--/inch/, /inch/”. Then teacher goes on to read How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Seuss, 1957). ►Word Play Books—specially designed to highlight sounds in words, such as Each, Peach, Pear, Plum (Janet & Allan Ahlberg, 1978), such as rhymes and alliteration ► I Spy—”I spy something that rhymes with…” ►Rounding Up the Rhymes ►Nursery Rhymes and Alphabet Books

22. Strategy Activities: Phonemic Awareness Segmentation Activities ►Glass Analysis ►Elkonin Boxes ►Rubber Banding ►Song “Bingo”

23. References Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S.B. (1991). The sense of being literate: Historical and cross-cultural features. In P.D. Pearson, R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2) (pp.3-25). New York: Longman. Morrow, L.M. (Ed.). (1995). Family literacy: Connections in schools and communities. New Brunswick, NJ: International Reading Association, Inc. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Strickland, D.S., & Taylor, D. (1989). Family storybook reading: Implications for children, families, and curriculum. In D.S. Strickland & L.M. Morrow (Eds.). Emergent literacy: Young children learning to read and write (pp.27-34). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Teale, W.H. (1982). Toward a theory of how children learn to read and write naturally. Language Arts, 59, 555-570. Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

24. Thank you!