MODULE 1A
Emergent Literacy
◦ Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy is the idea that learning literacy actually
begins at a very early age, long before official lessons in school.
This term is used to describe the knowledge a child has of
reading and writing before reaching the age where those skills are
taught.
Emergent literacy argues that right after birth, children are
already in the process of becoming literate.
Characteristics of Emergent Literacy
The key factors that support emergent literacy
include how some children come into their school
years already familiar with the reading and writing
process.
These children do not know how to combine
letters to make words, but they do know some
important things about literacy.
Characteristics of Emergent Literacy
Example:
Most children learn from the modeling of parents reading to them
at bedtime. Usually, children easily notice their mom or dad read their
bedtime stories from left to right.
So during this stage, children learn about directionality, or the
left to right, top to bottom direction used for reading.
At this stage, they do not yet finger point or track words accurately
but later on, when learning to read in school, they already know how
to start at the left of the page.
Characteristics of Emergent
Literacy
Secondly, emergent literacy involves learning
basic phonemic awareness. Phonemes are units
of sound. Young children can begin to realize
that blended sounds require more complex
combinations.
Characteristics of Emergent Literacy
Example:
‘Fr' is a phoneme and it is the first unit of sound in words like
'friend', 'frame', and 'freeze’.
At an early age, children do not relate the letters to that specific
sound, but they will begin to pick up on acceptable phonemes
within reading and writing. 'Fr' is an acceptable phoneme, but
something like 'tsw' is not. There is no word in the English language
that combines those letters to make one sound.
Characteristics of Emergent
Literacy
During emergent literacy, children begin to
learn the acceptable phonemes to increase their
phoneme awareness. This knowledge is very
important when they enter school and start to
learn to read.
Characteristics of Emergent Readers
knows some letters of the alphabet
understands that writing conveys a message
uses "scribble" writing when writing
may recognize some words or letters in their
environment (words like "stop" or "exit" or letters like the giant
"K" signifying Kmart or the golden arches "M" signifying McDonald's)
Theories on Emergent Literacy
Several important beliefs within the idea of emergent literacy. These
theories are based on approximate age boundaries of when certain
literacy skills develop.
1. stage 0 - extends from birth to first grade. These
first five years of life display emergent literacy.
2. stage 1 - lasts from first to second grade when
children learn how to sound out words and
translate the letters into blended sounds.
Letter recognition is complete and all
acceptable phonemes are realized. Once in this
stage, the child has left emergent literacy.
Literacy and Basic Skills
Top 5 Skills Needed for Childhood Literacy
Literacy skills are all the skills needed for reading and
writing. They include such things as awareness of the sounds
of language, awareness of print, and the relationship
between letters and sounds. Other literacy skills
include vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension.
1. Phonemic awareness (awareness of
sounds)
- the ability to hear and play with the
individual sounds of language, to create new
words using those sounds in different ways.
- usually occurs within the natural course of
a child's development .
2. Awareness of Print
- can be attained by exposing children to books and
other reading materials from a very young age
- begins in the home and the child's everyday
environment
Reading to children is crucial in order to foster this
awareness and to introduce them to the letters of the
alphabet.
Children also pick up print awareness from
environmental print, such words found on road
signs, cereal boxes, and the like.
It's important for children to have at least some
print awareness before entering first grade to
ensure they don't struggle when learning to read.
3.Vocabulary
Children learning to read (and most people) typically have
two kinds of vocabulary, which is the collection of all the
words a person knows and uses in conversation.
◦active vocabulary - words a person uses regularly in
speech and writing. Words in the active vocabulary are those
which a person can define and use in context.
◦passive vocabulary - those which a
person knows, but whose meaning he
may have interpreted through context
and use by others.
4. Spelling - the arrangement of letters to make
a word.
The way words are spelled and understanding
concepts behind irregular spellings help
children learn to read earlier, particularly if
they're encountering new words.
5. Reading Comprehension
If a child can read and understand the meaning of
something he reads, he's said to have reading
comprehension. More than just being able to read the
words, reading comprehension includes the ability to
draw inferences and identify patterns and clues in a
text.
