Emergent Literacy

1. Emergent Literacy Kylie Haworth

2. Overview • What is Emergent Literacy? • Historical Perspective • Theories • The 5 Principles • Guiding Practices • Helping ELL Students • References

3. EMERGENT LITERACY: Emergent: Birth-K Beginner: Grade 1-2 Transitional: Grade 2 Intermediate: Grade 3-5 (Ward, 2011)

4. What is “Emergent Literacy”? • Child already has some knowledge of language, reading and writing • Communication skills – (influences the other) • Begins early (at birth) – ongoing • Sociolinguistic • Social context for learning • Embedded • Instruction based on needs • Books – early! • Child centered and based on problem solving (Morrow, 2009, Ch. 1)

5. Reading Readiness (1900s-1950s) • Waiting until there is interest or “readiness” • Natural maturation • Formal instruction – school • Pre K and K – in the past had avoided reading instruction (passive) • Behaviorist • Teacher driven • Decoding – primary skills (Morrow, 2009), (Mason & Sinha, 2003) What are some pros and cons that you see in this “Reading Readiness” theory?

6. Before all this…The Historical Perspective • 1700s and 1800s Philosophers of Education • Rousseau – “natural”, development and readiness, curiosity • Pestalozzi – learning through manipulatives • Froebel – play in learning, “kindergarten” • What was reading like? • An oral tradition • ABCs taught through gingerbread • Books with pilgrims in new schools, religious books • Instruction: memorizing (Morrow, 2009, p. 16-22) (Ward, 2011)

7. Before all this…The Historical Perspective • Twentieth Century Philosophers of Education • Dewey – progressive education, interest based • Skinner – “Behaviorism”, systematic, direct, structure • Montessori – mastering one skill, then another • Piaget – cognitive development • Vygotsky – schema and scaffolding • What was reading like? • Basal Readers: 1930s-1980s • IRI done by Betts: 1949 • Look-Say Reading ex. “Dick and Jane” • Reading Wars: Whole Language vs. Skills Instruction • Controlled vocabulary? • Whole language– trade books • Balanced Literacy (Morrow, 2009, p. 16-22) (Ward, 2011)

8. Theories Constructivist : Construct meaning as you get you info. Holistic and exploratory “dirty learning” *Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, Vygotsky* Behaviorist : Training, memorization, rote learning Positive/Negative Reinforcement Systematic, teacher directed, lecture “clean learning” *Skinner* Schema Theory : How much prior knowledge you hold Prior info. + New info. = schemata Schema must be built; helpful to have in school *Vygotsky* Transactional Theory : (schema related) Prior knowledge aids comprehension “transaction” between reader and text Set different purposes for reading *Rosenblatt* (Morrow, 2009), (Ward, 2011)

9. Theories Psycholinguistic: Cognitive processes govern language use Biological/Neurological Ex. Phonology, Morphology, Orthography, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics Sounds, structure, letters, patterns, meaning, content Sociolinguistic: Society shapes language use Models surroundings, influences Norms, expectations, context Code switching : different “talk” Zone of Proximal Development: Where they need to go – useful for instruction; “the staircase” Scaffolding and modeling *Vygotsky* (Ward, 2011)

10. The Five Principles 1. Phonological Awareness -Sound awareness (units of sound) and putting sounds together -Emergent: -WORD, SYLLABLE and SOUND AWARENESS 1. Rhyme (“bat, hat, mat, rat”) and alliteration (Bill bakes brownies) 2. Words and syllable (clapping) Activities: Isolating: /m/ may Segmenting: /d/ /o/ /g/ Categorizing: picture sorts Deleting: “meat” without /m/ Blending: /pup/ / “Odd Man Out” Manipulating: change /c/ in cat to /m/ Phonemic Awareness -Spoken words and syllables can be a sequence of phonemes (the smallest units of sound) (Ward, 2011)

11. The Five Principles 2. Alphabetic Principle -Sounds correlated to letters -These are “graphemes” (letters) that correspond to sounds – the “phonemes” Concepts about Print (CAP) and Books! -Title, Author and Illustrator -The print corresponds to the written story -You read a book from left to right Activities: Shared Reading, Dialogic Reading, Interactive Writing, Environmental Print, Books on Tape Phonics -Speech sounds all correlated with letters, words, etc. Ways to Teach Phonics SYNTHETIC Small parts – whole Bottom up ANALYTIC Decoding, chunking Whole word - parts Top down EMBEDDED Not explicit, authentic Discuss as it occurs ANALOGY Whole to part Taught explicitly Comparing – cake = bake, rake, make (Ward, 2011)

12. The Five Principles • 3. Fluency • -Transition from decoding to reading • -Greater exertion on decoding – less attention to meaning • -Comprehension is the main goal • -Using prosody shows understanding of meaning • IMPORTANT: • -Accuracy in decoding • -Automatic word recognition • -Appropriate prosodic elements (stress, pitch, phrasing) • Activities: • -Repeated Readings • -Choral and Echo readings • -Readers’ Theatre • -Buddy and Paired Readings (Barone and Morrow, 2003)

13. The Five Principles 4. Vocabulary -Word recognition: not just sight words! -“Academic English” GOAL: enhance understanding, encourage expression -Tiered words Tier 1 – ex. “nice” while a Tier 3 would be content words Activities: -Only teach 2-4 purposeful words at a time -They should be contextualized in conversation and books -Techniques: Semantic webs or semantic gradients List, group, label… now write a paragraph “Four Square” Every person response – thumbs up! Word Walls (Ward, 2011)

14. The Five Principles 5. Comprehension -Main goal of reading  -Readers make meaning of what they read or hear -Has to do with: Prior knowledge and experience Social interaction Reading or listening ability 8 strategies: Predicting, Summarizing, Using Prior Knowledge, Imagery, Using Graphic Organizers, Recognizing Text Structure, Generating and Asking Questions and Monitoring Meaning/Metacognition Many Activities: Directed Listening and Thinking Activities, Shared Book Experiences, Repeated Readings, Small Group and One-on-One Readings, Answer Questions (by students and teachers!), Graphic Organizers and Reading Response Groups  (Ward, 2011)

15. *Brainstorm Activity!* • Directions: • With a person or two you are sitting with, choose one of the “5 Principles” • On each Sticky Note, please brainstorm some activities that you have done in your classroom or plan to do in your classroom • Post them up front! Let’s see if we can give each other new ideas or talk about ones that we all see working!

16. Guiding Practices • Concept of Word • Reading the “white spaces” • Tracking • Oral vs. print • Can they identify words? • Writing • Letter-sound awareness • Phonemic Awareness – putting sounds together • Phonics – using patterns they know • Where are they? Shows what they know! (Encoding) “C.O.W. LADDER” 1. Scribbles 2. Some symbols- “letter like” 3. Random letters and numbers 4. Beginning/salient sounds 5. Beginning and some endings 6. Spelling by letter name (Ward, 2011) (Morrow, 2009)

17. Guiding Practices: Helping Students Become Actively Involved in Literacy • Metacognition • Actively involved in the construction of their own literacy • Motivation • “Initiating and sustaining a particular activity” • For reading… they read on a regular basis for a variety of reasons • Intrinsic “for me” vs. Extrinsic (a positive reinforcement – reward) • Four ideas help motivate students • Choice, Challenge, Social Collaboration, Success • Classroom activities that motivate students • Literacy Centers, Classroom Library, Read alouds, Storytelling, Independent reading and writing, Technology (Morrow, 2009, p. 285)

18. Helping “English Language Learners” • What is “first language acquisition”? • -Learning the “first language” or the native language • What is “second language acquisition”? • -Learning a second language • -Easier to teach a second language to children • -Instruction needed • *These are the students that we teach* (Morrow, 2009)

19. Helping ELL Students • Make students feel comfortable in the classroom • Give student a “buddy” / peer assisted learning • Tasks should be active (can be nonverbal) • Activities – maximize the use for language • Modeling and direct instruction • Practice! (with guidance and then independently) (Morrow, 2009, p. 79)

20. Helping ELL Students • Encourage students’ language and literacy development • Classroom library: English and also primary language of all students (also examples) • Provide daily extensive vocabulary lesson – visuals! • Teach basic greetings and expressions • Have students make their own “word books” • Use high interest picture books Can you think of any ideas that might help the ELL students in your class? (Morrow, 2009, p. 80)

21. Helping ELL Students… more ideas! • Encourage students’ language and literacy development • Buddy reading and writing • Repeated Readings of a story • All manipulatives! Games, puppets, visual figures, etc. • Cloze activities – fill in the blank • Cut up sentence strips to sequence Turn to someone next to you! Which of these suggestions are you going to put into place in your classroom tomorrow?  (Morrow, 2009, p. 80)

22. References Barone, D. M. & Morrow, L. M. (2003). Literacy and young children: Research based practices. (pp. 210-225). The Guilford Press. New York, NY. Mason, J. M., & Sinha, S. (1993). Emerging literacy in the early childhood years: Applying a Vygotskian model of learning and development. In B. Spodek (Eds.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 137-150). New York, NY: Macmillan. Morrow, L. M. (2009). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write. 6th edition. (pp. 186-231). Pearson Education, Inc. Boston, MA. Ward, A., (6/9/11, 6/14/11, 6/16/11, 6/21/11, 6/28/11, 7/7/11, 7/12/11). [PowerPoint slides]. George Mason University. EDRD 630.