EngEd 370 – Week 4, Chapter 4 – Nicole Kavajecz
Emergent literacy is a term used primarily in pre-kindergarten levels of schooling (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 78). The concept refers to how supportive the child’s environment since birth was to literacy development. It can include observing the adults in their lives reading and writing in different ways, other children in their environments such as siblings or at a daycare, and how much they were encouraged to participate in various literacy skills.
How reading develops has 5 approximate phases (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 80). Phase 1 is awareness and exploration. Children from birth to 4 participate in various activities such as speaking, listening, touching, pointing, and all other kinds of environmental print concepts which form the foundation for literacy development. “Children see written language all around them- in books, supermarkets, department stores, and fast-food restaurants” (p 80). Pretend reading, or telling the story based on their memory or pictures, is a very important step in this stage because it shows the child is ready to progress to phase 2. Phase 2 is Experimental reading and writing, where the child (through exploration) make further connections between written and oral language (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 80). Usually by ages 5-6, children are understanding basic print concepts such as left to right, top to bottom, and how to turn pages on their own. Phase 3, early reading and writing, usually occurs in first grade when instruction becomes more formal in schools (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 81). Their fluency increases with more practice, and they are interested in writing their own words to express their ideas. Phase 4 is transitional reading and writing. “By second grade, students begin to make the transition from early reading and writing to more complex literacy tasks. They are reading with greater fluency and using cognitive and metacognitive strategies more efficiently when comprehending and composing” (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 81). By phase 5 students are independently and productively reading and writing. Third grade marks the beginning of most students journey through this final phase, but it continues to grow and change throughout the life of the individual based on their professions as adults. “Research has shown that when siblings engage in literacy together, both benefit from the interaction. Often, however, assistance in learning to read is not consciously given” (p 81).
How writing develops begins with scribbling (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 82). Scribbling is an important task for babies through many stages of life. When a young child can grasp and put pressure to scribble, they are possibly ready to share their ideas through ‘print’ as scribbles. Early scribbling is characterized by any marks on a surface by a child with a writing tool such as crayons, pencils, markers, chalk, and so on. It is important to note for both parents and teachers that these early scribbles may not mean anything, but none the less are important to the child and should be praised. Controlled scribbling can include items such as circles, lines, dots, and repeated images. Scribble drawing is pictographic expression, in contrast to scribble writing which is recognizing that letters have meaning in correspondence to words. When a child draws a picture, it’s up for interpretation until the child has the words to tell adults about it. “Providing the opportunity for the child to talk about the picture, expand on the experience, and convey meaning is just as important as writing the dictated words near the picture” (p 84). Name scribbling is an extension of scribble writing, and through this activity the child displays a solid foundation of the relationship between print letters, sounds, and meaning.
Promoting oral language and vocabulary, including comprehension is a very important skill to later reading ability (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 85). The teacher, and parents, can create a literate environment by encouraging curiosity for all aspects of language, as well as answering questions as the child asks them. In the classroom, teachers use strategies such as shared reading and accompanying activities to encourage such curiosity and engaged learning. As viewed in Reading Rockets Invented Spelling (2008, 1:30), extending a shared book reading to have the students write words often leads to invented spelling. This is an excellent opportunity for teachers to coax students into listening carefully and decoding the words they meant to spell through using their phonological awareness and increase their phonemic awareness when isolating the sounds they think they say within the words. This phonemic awareness can be developed through play with language in read-alouds, games, opportunities to write, and explicit instruction by the teacher on how to segment the sounds in words. Teachers can use invented spelling as a base to jump off of for growing their alphabet knowledge as well to decode the meaning of the words the students are interested in. Another great example of shared reading strategies can be viewed in Key Links Shared Reading, where the teacher follows a lesson outlined in the pages of a big book to lead the students to greater vocabulary recognition and fluency (Scholastic, 2010).
Teachers can create the high level of literacy support within their classroom necessary for raising competent readers by developing a reading area, listening area, computer area, and writing area, or by providing these activities often for the students to choose (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 90). Early literacy skills are developed best through play-based activities, as with many early skills. Reading story books to young readers is vital so they may unlock their attention and interest in the suspense of the story. Likewise using informational texts, which are age-appropriate for the group a teacher is working with, can grow their knowledge on almost any subject of student or teacher interest. A teacher may also pair an information text with an informational documentary (again, appropriate for children) to make the lesson even more engaging for little people.
Resources
Vacca, J., Vacca, R., Gove, M., Burkey, L., Lenhart, L., & McKoen. (2010). Reading and learning to read. (Tenth Edition). Pearson.
Reading Rockets. (19 May 2008). Invented spelling. Retrieved on 16 June 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0Sb2SC_38.
Scholastic. (21 April 2010). Key Links Shared Reading. Retrieved on 16 June 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfGjgOc-rJw.
