Introduction
Literacy, simply put, is the ability to read and write. An ability, that Adora Svitak is very familiar with. She is an author, literacy advocate, teacher and public speaker, and she is only 12 years old. She published her first book at the age of 7, Flying Fingers, and credits her early accomplishments to having parents who supported her and provided her opportunities to develop literacy skills during early childhood. In a speech given at a TED conference earlier this year, Adora called the attendees to action by telling them that, “…it is imperative that we create opportunities for children so that they can grow up to blow us away,” just as she has done with the help of her parents (Svitak, 2010).
While Adora is atypical in her giftedness, she is a signal to us that children can and do have the ability to develop the complex cognitive functions and fine motor abilities to become confident readers and writers in early childhood. Joyce Svitak, Adora’s mother recently posted a thread in reference to her daughter on TED.com that read, “If she is slightly exceptional, it is because she has the support and opportunities early in life. If we give children the opportunities and respect that Adora has been receiving we will be able to see so many more children like Adora,” (Svitak, 2010).
Unlike Adora, a typical child develops literacy skills over the course of many years, and does not become an advanced reader or writer until middle childhood, between the ages of 9 to 11. The scope of this paper covers the typical literacy development for children from birth through early childhood, age 6. During these years a large part of learning early reading and early writing skills is done through play, both at home and at school. For this reason, as evidenced with Adora, family involvement is very important because most of these skills are learned before a child enters a preschool or kindergarten classroom. Once a child enters a school environment, knowledge of child development and learning, developmentally appropriate assessment, teaching strategies and learning environments are all key aspects of successful literacy instruction. And literacy education is so important during these years because it is the educational foundation for success in all other academic subjects.
Child Development and Learning
During the period from birth through the age of 3 or 4, children develop early oral language, reading and writing skills that prepare them for the formal literacy instruction that they will soon receive in school. The developmental domains that most affect a child’s literacy skill building are cognitive, physical, oral language and receptive language or listening. (See Appendix A for a typical timeline of literacy skill acquisition from birth through early childhood.) Environmental factors such as parent/child interaction, time and space for play (especially dramatic), and access to writing and painting instruments at home help prepare children for later classroom learning.
Between the age of 13 to 18 months children begin to speak their first words. Wells (1986) notes that, “... children learned first words that referred to the most meaningful events of their daily lives. The children were not strictly “word learners”; they were also active meaning makers” (Essa, Burnham, 2009). By the time a child is 2 years old, they are rapidly acquiring new vocabulary. At first they have a conception of words as representing entirely separate things, however as they acquire detail words, they understand that some words are categorized in the same topic and can have overlapping meanings. They use a technique known as fast mapping to connect a new word with an associated concept after only a brief encounter. (Berk, 1996). Children also use the concept of metaphors to extend the meaning of language and learn new vocabulary.
A child’s understanding of grammar emerges during the ages of 2 and 3. This shows up in oral language as communication in subject-verb-object sentence structures. By 3 and a half they begin to experiment with grammatical rules in words that are exceptions such as replacing runned for ran and feets for feet (Berk, 1996). Between the ages of 3 and 6 children graduate from the subject-ver-object sentence structure in the oral language and begin to use and master more complex grammatical forms, such as embedded sentences, tag, questions, and indirect objects. (Berk, 1996).
As children develop physically around the age of 2, they begin to prefer the use of one hand over the other. Once this happens, they begin to manipulate things in their environment and engage in scribbling with a variety of media and by the time they reach 3 or 4, they can distinguish the difference between writing with letters and drawing. Age 5 or 6 “Also…detection of fine-grained structure of visual patterns improves and helps them go about the task of discriminating written symbols as they learn to read.” (Berk 1996).
By the time a child enters preschool they have a great deal of experience with seeing print in their everyday environments and a quite a few of them can already recite the alphabet. They know what a letter is, but when faced with an entire word, many think that, “a single letter stands for a whole word or that each letter in a person’s signature represents a separate name” (Berk, 1996). Also, in their own early attempts at writing, children create their own symbols to represent objects and people in their lives; alphabetic writing with inventive spelling emerges around the ages of 5 to 7, from kindergarten through second grade.
Some major growth milestones in early childhood that happen between the ages of 3 and 5, that contribute to later literacy learning are the development of private speech and memory skills. “Private speech is self-directed speech that children use to plan and guide their own behavior (Berk, 1996). Also, the memory skills of recognition and recall, memory for everyday events, and the capacity to use remembered information in new situations emerges in preschool as they use their language skills to describe things that they remember, follow directions and perform simple memory tasks (Berk, 1996). These skills are useful when children are beginning to read because, “children must combine what they perceive on the printed page with a variety of information-processing activities, including sustained attentions, memory, comprehension, and inference making.” (Berk, 1996) The private speech eventually turns into their internal dialogue,, that they use during comprehension and inference making, while the memory skills help them keep what they read fresh in their minds so they can communicate what they have read with each other and the teacher.
Not to be underestimated, play and especially dramatic have major benefits for the development of literacy skills in early childhood. “Studies of early readers reveal that…dramatic play, as compared with functional and constructive play, appears to be associated with better reading and writing skills in kindergarten children (Pellegrini, 1980)” (Rogers and Sawyers, 1988). During play, cognitive, physical, oral language and receptive language skills interdependently enhance each other and over time help children become more confident and competent in their interactions with their environment.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s literacy development is a key aspect of creating a developmentally appropriate practice that maximizes a teacher’s ability to help students become successful readers and writers. For this reason it is important to use both formative and summative assessment tools to make sure that students are on track and are receiving instruction that is appropriate to their levels of performance. Three types of summative assessments I would use in a classroom are a combination of standardized, criterion referenced tests. The types of formative assessments I would use are informal reading inventories, curriculum-based and direct daily measurement. Further, I would use student work portfolios that can provide both a summative and formative assessment of a student’s progress over time and give students the opportunity to review and reflect on their own progress.
Standardized tests are tests that compare scores of students that are the same age and who have also taken the test. In Arizona
It is for this reason that an integrated approach to assessment that includes formative tools such as informal reading inventories, curriculum-based measurement and direct daily measurement are also very important, especially because these formative tools yield the most valuable information for planning instruction (Heward, 2006). Informal reading inventories are observation based assessments where students read a passage aloud and the teacher listens for skills such as pronunciation of vowels, or consonants, omissions, reversals, substitutions, and also asks questions to check comprehension (Heward, 2006). Curriculum-based measurement is the frequent assessment of a student’s progress in learning the curriculum objectives. DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is an example of this type of assessment. It is used to monitor the development of prereading and early reading skills, including initial sounds fluency, phonemic segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency and oral reading fluency. (Heward, 2006) Finally direct daily measurement includes assessing a child’s acquisition of knowledge or skills on the same day that they are taught. For example, having students engage in activities immediately after learning that puts their new knowledge into use like successfully completing a multiplication problem on the board directly after instruction. All three of these formative assessment methods can be used to plan daily instruction.
Finally, the creation of student work portfolios that are both summative and formative show the progression of student learning over time. They allow students to examine and reflect on their own work, analyze strengths and weaknesses, and set both short- and long- term goals (Burke, 2009). An integrated approach with both types of assessments are most beneficial in that summative assessments can verify and backup the information gathered during formative assessments.
Teaching Strategies
The main focus of early literacy teaching strategies are in fact to teach the children strategies that they can use to help them construct meaning out of the things that they read and write. Combining both teacher-centered, and child-centered learning theories to literacy instruction is, in my opinion the most beneficial way to go about teaching literacy to young children. To describe this in more detail I will use the example of combining the behaviorist (teacher-centered) and constructivist (child-centered) learning theories to teach early literacy. In a behaviorist classroom, the teacher’s role is to provide information and oversee practice. They focus on observable changes in students behavior, describe learning as a result of stimulus-response actions and use rewards to motivate students. In a constructivist classroom, a teacher suggests ways to engage students for success, describes learning as the active construction of knowledge, activates background knowledge and curiosity, and promotes collaboration as opposed to competition. (Tompkins, 2010) Both of these theories have their relevance in the classroom, but only using behaviorism for instance would not give students opportunities to engage their innate curiosity or participate in peer groups for collaboration, which promotes team building. At the same time, just using constructivism would take focus off of observing students for changes in their behavior and can de-emphasize the expertise that the teacher is there to provide for the students. Combining these two have the benefits of direct behavioral observation of students curiosity, which the teacher can use to build curriculum and guide group collaboration to maximize learning.
Beyond learning theories there are the techniques that teachers can use to help early learners develop the cognition, fine motor skills, oral language and receptive language skills that are required for reading and writing. One way of helping children develop cognition and language is to use what are called expansions and recasts. This describes situations when the teacher provides subtle, indirect feedback about grammar by expanding the complexity of a child’s statement and then recasting the incorrect features into appropriate forms (Berk, 1996). For example, if a child says, “Me not eat bananas,” the teacher would say something like, “You do not like to eat bananas. They are not good.” In this way the child hears a grammatically correct form of what they were trying to say and how to expand what they said to provide more accurate information about their statement. When students begin to write this will translate into more grammatically correct and meaning filled sentences and paragraphs.
Further, Neuman and Roskos’ five essential early literacy practices suggest creating a supportive environment, shared book reading, song, rhymes and word play, developmental writing and literacy related play as ways of helping students develop early literacy skills. Supportive learning environments set the tone for both the physical and psychological engagement in their learning space that promotes literacy. Snow, Burns, & Griffin (1998), say that, “Shared book reading is the single most powerful way to promote children’s vocabulary and understanding of a topic,” (Neuman, Roskos, 2007). This is because during shared book reading children practice communication, new language, build knowledge and more-complex schemas. Songs, rhyme and word play build phonological awareness through providing children the opportunity to play with the sounds of words and increase vocabulary. Developmental writing helps children develop their ability to represent ideas, thoughts and sounds with symbols and later with words, sentences, paragraphs and essays. It is also a form of communication and a motivator for further literacy learning. Finally, literacy-related play encourages learning because when children play, “they practice the language they know by applying it to their play and by stretching their uses of words in challenging ways.” (Neuman, Roskos, 2007). These literacy practices in combination with explicit instruction in the areas of math, science, social studies, art and physical education provide meaningful cross curricular learning which help students learn in ways that respect their innate curiosity in the constructivist sense of the word and provide ample opportunities for teachers to observe and offer behaviorist rewards for accomplishing learning goals.
Using a cross curricular approach is also beneficial because for instance as Worth and Grollman point out, “Science is about literacy. By its very nature, science requires language, communication, and the use of books.” When a child is engaged in a scientific inquiry, even during preschool, they explore, look at books, make observations, learn new words and communicate about what they have found out. They also create ways of communicating what they have learned with others.
Creating a Literate Environment
“Through various opportunities to write with other children and interact with them about topics of interest, children play around with the conceptions of themselves as authors,” (Mayer, 2007). It is for this reason that creating a play area that supports children’s ever growing desire to learn new words and develop as writers is a vital part of an early literacy program. Creating supportive play environments for children that encourage the development of cognitive, physical and language domains are essential for the development of skills that help children acquire proficiency in the ability to read and write.
Rogers and Sawyers encourage incorporating high quality children’s literature to promote an appreciation for language and art, simple-to-operate tape players to follow along with a favorite book, pads of paper and lots of implements for writing, rulers or yardsticks for measuring, plants to grow, charts to convey information, labels for toy shelves, balances to compare weights – hundreds of items that will enable children to develop themes in their play,” (1988). All of these supplies should be located on a level where they are easy for the children to see. They should also be accessible throughout the day, and the children should be allowed to take them to a places where they are comfortable writing or where it is more relevant to their writing project.
Another aspect to an amazing literate environment is the psychological aspect of the learning space. Teachers can create a respectful environment that supports learning by encouraging children to share their thoughts, books they have read, writing projects and other work with each other in a way that respects them intellectually, no matter how silly something they may say or do is. Further, having a good classroom management plan with a conflict resolution component can teach students how to resolve their differences and build non-violent language abilities that help them honor each other for who they are.
Also, having a space in class, such as a writing center where the students can write for prolonged periods of time and with different writing materials helps to motivate children to write and builds fine motor skills (Mayer, 2007). Giving more advanced children a topic to write about and draw a picture can motivate them to be more creative in their writing as they will be practicing how to convey their imaginative thoughts and mind movies on paper. A very important aspect to a good writing center is the teacher interaction that can go on. Writing with a teacher can give, students an opportunity to discuss the use of punctuation, spacing, spelling, and…gives the teacher time to answer students questions, acknowledge writing strengths, scaffold writing activities, and encourage writing with verbal affirmations. (Mayer, 2007)
Family Involvement
Children spend the first 3 or 4 years of their life at home with their family.
The home and family environment is where children are read their first book, where they learn their first words and where they learn to confidently maneuver in their everyday environment. A loving, supportive and stimulating home environment, where a child has access to lots of toys, books, writing materials and educational children’s programming sets the stage for later success in school literacy programs.
Once a child enters preschool or kindergarten, between the ages of 3 through 5, parents involvement in their child’s development and learning should not be diminished. The teacher can keep the parents and family involved in a child’s learning and development in various ways. It is important for teachers to realize that, some parents feel that teaching is solely up to the classroom teacher, and they could not possibly contribute more than the teacher could, still others may get caught back up with their careers once their children start school. Whatever the reason, it is important to note that:
The U.S. Department of Education’s (2001) Longitudinal Evaluation of School Change and Performance in Title I Schools found that...growth in reading scores between third and fifth grades was 50 % higher for those students whose teachers and schools reported high levels of early parental outreach than for those students whose teachers and schools reported low levels of parent outreach activities for the third grade (Darling, 2005).
It is for this reason that becoming partners with parents is very important to a child’s literacy development. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) proposed three main factors that contribute to a parents decision to get involved in their child’s education. The first is how parents think about what they are supposed to do in relation to their child’s educational progress. The second is how effective parents think they are in helping their children succeed in school. Last, is whether or not they think that the school and/or their child wants them to be involved (Powell, O’Leary, 1998). With these factors in mind, a teacher can plan for effective communication to either get a parent involved or keep them involved.
To help parents know what they can do, it is first important to establish friendly communication with families, then let them know of ways that they can help their children progress academically, such as engaging in various home literacy activities like reading aloud, using traveling book bags, family book clubs, family reading and writing nights and family literacy portfolios (Tompkins, 2010). To help parents feel confident that what they are doing is benefiting their children, a teacher can keep parents posted about their child’s progress with regular communication through emails, online classroom sites, phone calls, notes home and parent-teacher conferences. Also having an open door policy for parents in the classroom will help parents feel more confident that they are wanted in the school and classroom and that their time and presence are valuable to their child’s education.
Some families have unique dynamics, such as a second language that is spoken at home, or a parent or child with a disability. In these cases it is important for the teacher to be aware of any cultural communication barriers and do what is in their power to over come them. In these cases, it may be necessary to us interpreters, conduct meetings in a family-friendly environment and identify key decision makers to negotiate their involvement in their child’s educational life (Heward, 2006).
Conclusion
As adults we think that learning how to read and write is easy in comparison to some of the very in depth and technical subjects that we study in higher education. In reality it takes quite a bit of skill and expertise to teach children that as lexicographer, Erin McKean says, “…words are marvelous creatures,” worthy of our time and attention. (McKean, 2007) It takes knowledge of child development and learning, developmentally appropriate ways of assessment, teaching strategies, creating a literate environment and the importance of family involvement.
We must not underestimate the value of teaching literacy to young children. We must not forget how some young writers have been able to change our world for the better and give us insight that we would not have had unless they had been taught how to read and write. Adora Svitak gave a great example of this in her speech for TED.com when she used Anne Frank as an, “example of how millions of lives have been touched by the literacy skills of a young child.”
References
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