Emergent Literacy Group 2: Chelsea, Hannah, Sheree, and Elizabeth

Emergent Readers are…. Inventive Creative Quick learners Adaptive Interested in text,

pictures and how they combine to tell a story

Emergent readers are typically pre-school and kindergarten aged children who display curiosity toward reading and writing. They rely on pictures to tell stories, but are becoming more cognizant that print is important as well. Emergent readers have some literacy skills, but are not fluent readers or writers

Emergent Readers can… Recognize some letters and the sounds

they make Rely on memory to “read” a story

they’ve heard before Create stories not told in the book based

on pictures, not text Rely on familiar logos and signs to

“read” in the real world.

Emergent Readers should… Work toward letter and sound

recognition Comprehend the idea that stories have

beginnings, middles and ends. Understand that text flows from right to

left Build a mental warehouse of words,

phrases, and letters they can use when reading and writing.

Current Issues Regarding Instructional Practices

Teaching Caregivers is Important Children learn first in the home

environment Children with more instruction in literacy

development at home are more prepared for formal education.

Teaching caregivers important skills to help with emergent literacy development.

Research shows that educating caregivers can make a difference.

Dialogic Story-time Pros Shown to improve emergent literacy

skills, such as vocabulary building. Promotes interests of the child Requires only book and instruction Fun way to bond Can be done in home, in school, and in

library

Dialogic Story-time Cons Home life cannot be monitored, so

implementing strategies in library and school are important.

Caregivers and educators may not see the importance/difference of dialogic story-time compared with traditional story-time.

Education TV Programs: Pros Supplementing public educational

programs has been shown to help children in low-income preschools.

Teachers act as guides to ensure child participation.

Children learn a variety of emergent skills in different formats and are able to build socialization skills through participation.

Educational TV Programs: Cons Most educators are not supportive

initially. Belief that children will not develop

social skills. Belief that children will not learn literacy

skills.

Phonemic Awareness: Pros Phonemic segmentation: emphasizes

phonemic activities in the context of spelling and reading actual words, thereby engaging the child and showing relevance.

Phonemic segmentation and blending strategy is more effective improving reading ability than instruction in rhyme or vocabulary alone.

Teaching disadvantaged children early will help close the gap.

Phonemic Awareness : ConsPersuading Educators Most federally funded Head Start programs

believe that students are not ready for a curriculum of phonemic segmentation, they should wait until kindergarten or first grade.

Most Head Start programs teach vocabulary and rhyming skills only to promote reading development and phonological awareness.

Children learn letter sounds with little more instruction than through songs, games and rhyming.

Instructional Strategies Fingerpoint reading: Follow the words

with your finger from left to right as you read to your students.

Rereading the story: Have the student “reread” their favorite parts of the book to familiarize themselves with books and encourages them to be independent readers.

Instructional Strategies (2) Guided Reading: With a small group, read

through a text making sure to stop frequently to talk about key concepts like: word recognition, phonics, and comprehension.

Functional and Play-related print: Have these items displayed around the room in multiple formats (ex: menus, signs, labels, schedules, etc.) to help students form connections with different letters and letter combinations.

Practices for Emergent Readers: There are many programs that

librarians, can implement with emergent readers.

These practices can be used by both school librarians and public, and don’t require much more than a dedicated effort and time.

Readers Theatre Done by allowing the children to read from a

story/play aloud and act out what they are reading.

The reading is split up among all the participants making it less stressful on each individual.

The readers are able to associate what they are reading with the things they are acting out.

Reading aloud and repetition help to enforce how the words should sound and the structure of the sentences.

Readers Theatre: Example The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Give each of the children a picture/prop of the food eaten by the caterpillar.

Using a caterpillar puppet allow the children to come forward and “feed the caterpillar” while you read the story aloud to them.

The children feel involved and associate the actions they are performing with the book being read to them.

Interactive Read Aloud Allowing the children to go through the book

and discuss each picture, prompting them with what they think is happening and why.

Afterwards going through and reading the book aloud, letting them see if they were right about the story and how the words work with the pictures to tell the whole story.

Helps the children understand the correlation between the visual pictures and the text.