Parent Information

How do children learn to read and write?   Let us first think about how children learned to listen and talk. 

All language learning- including speech- starts with the state of being unaware or unable.  But with exposure to language (talking),   explanation, modeling the whole need and function, encouraging use, step-by-step modeling, guidance while using, feedback on whole and parts, modeling with focus on parts, guided practice, independent practice and use, an awareness and ability to do it independently. Add to this, the acceptance of rough approximations, repetition through meaningful use, close approximations, and competency continues to increase. As with any new skill/knowledge, there is a need to modify skill/knowledge so it becomes automatic, and is internalized skill/knowledge.

Wow! That sounds complicated, doesn't it?  What does it really mean?

Let's look at speech. First, babies babble, a very important first step. They practice the sounds of the language they hear. They keep the sounds important to their language. Accent, tone, quality of sounds are practiced. Japanese children retain different sound patterns that fit their language they hear.  German babies keep the German sounds, tones, and patterns, etc.

A baby gurgles "BA BA DADA," and everyone around comes to see and see if the baby will do it again.  The baby learns that those were good ways to get attention and so these phrases and babbling get much reinforcement from parents, allowing them to continue.

"DA DA Ma Ma," gets much reinforcement and then the word becomes practiced as it should be said. The connection is then drawn to what they say to an object. "DA DA," at first is just babbling then it begins to represent dad. 

"Want, WA WA." These rough approximations are allowed for, encouraged and the correct model is provided by caregiver automatically. "What do you want? Water?"

Repetition continues through meaningful use. "Wa Wa," gets not only the water but also the correct pronunciation.

Two word models come next, "Go bye, bye". Then strings of words are put together. Child's actual pronunciations are still rough at this time and strangers often cannot understand your child even though your ear has been tuned and has no trouble understanding what your child is saying. We move to close approximations and then build toward the real thing. Adding more and more vocabulary as we continue to grow into our old age. It is all part of a continuing process.

So it is with learning to read and write.  The child must be immersed in the language of print, see that it is functional and useful, begin to "babble" or make rough approximations, get warm attention from parents for trying it, trying to do more, and so on.  The key is that the child needs to be surrounded by language, encouraged to use it, reinforced and supported, shown good modeling, have questions answered, allowed to use print in meaningful ways for own purposes, etc. Just as a baby learned to talk and understand language, so too will young children learn the language of literacy.  We can and will have literate children through supporting their efforts.

The work of Marie Clay has done much to add to our knowledge of how children learn language. Terms such as prereaders, reading readiness, or prerequisite skills do not reflect the latest thinking on literacy development. The term emergent literacy, is a better descriptor of children in the process of becoming literate. Writing does not wait on reading, there is a relation between the two, each influencing the other in the course of development. Emergent means that young children are in a developmental process; there is no single point where literacy begins. Emergent literacy does not mean beginning reading which is associated with formal reading instruction, it is instead literacy development and learning prior to formal instruction.  Children's literate acts emerge from their wealth of experience with oral language and their attempts to enter the rewarding world of print. The process of becoming literate is developmental. There is no reader or nonreader, but literacy development starts early and is ongoing on a continuum of increasing competence.  Children are not born smart; they learn how to become smart by being actively involved with the people around them. The primary role that parents and other caregivers play is to demonstrate literate behaviors of reading and writing print. Children observe these demonstrations as they construct their own knowledge about the world of print.  Literacy learning proceeds naturally if the environment supports young children's experimentation with print. Print awareness in young children
does not happen in a vacuum, but depends on an environment where print is important. The importance of a prereaders awareness of print is more and more being recognized. Adults assist children in developing reading/writing/ skills through sharing books, notes, lists, and environmental print , as well as, and very important through the talk associated with that sharing.

What are some of the skills children need to learn?  

• print conveys meaning
• directionality from left to right, top to bottom
• terms such as word, letter, sound
• that the words we speak can be recorded in print
• that there are patterns in the speech-to -print match
• names of the letters
• the sounds letters can represent.

Children continue to ask more questions about print. We give children opportunities to make marks on paper so that they discern that those marks have meaning and that they can convey their own meanings through print.  They discover the relation between sounds and letters and invented spellings appear. It is important for parents to realize that this is an active process. Therefore approximations must be allowed and encouraged. We want children to use the skills they have to continue to learn. We cannot fill their heads with knowledge, they must construct this themselves. We cannot wait for them to be ready because they are ready and asking questions on this continuum. We let them risk, use rough approximations as they move closer to standard form or competency.

Parents play a critical role in the development of literacy in their children in the following areas:

• Experiences: What families and communities believe and value about literacy is reflected in the level of preparation children bring to formal instruction, and affects the role of schools in providing literacy experiences and instruction.

• Storytelling, Rhymes, Cultural Communication Patterns:

  • Make reading aloud to your child a habit. Hold the book so that the child can see not only the pictures, but the words, as well. Occasionally, follow the words with your finger to show that you are reading from left to right. Repeat books often, letting the child finish familiar sentences, pointing to the words that your child "reads" as he says it. If you always read the words exactly as they are printed, your child will begin to recognize and "read" the words.

  • Ask questions as you read about the pictures, the story, and the words. "Show me the cow." "Where is the boy's knee?" "Can you find the letter 'c'?" Sound out letters and talk about the story, making predictions about what will happen next.

  • In the beginning include books that feature repetition, rhyming books, and books that concentrate on particular sounds.   Even after you child is reading to herself, read aloud books that are more advanced. This will increase her vocabulary as well as background knowledge to enhance her own reading. Children can understand many words they may not be able to read.

  • Choose books that are well written and illustrated for young children. Do "picture walks" before starting to read aloud. Take plenty of time to talk about the book and concepts. 

  • Storybook reading or reading aloud to children emerges as a key component in facilitating early literacy acquisition. Children acquire concepts about the functions of language, that print differs from speech, that print (not pictures) contain the story that is being read.  The most successful early readers are children who have had contact at home with written materials.
   
  • Storybook reading practices are characterized by routines that help explain how storybooks reading contributes to literacy learning. These routines appear to have developmental properties, with the adult acting as a scaffold - initially controlling those elements of the task that are beyond the child's ability, then gradually guiding and confirming the child's independent reenactments and attempts at decoding. 
    
  • How the parent reads to the child is important. The key role is the adult mediation. Language and social interaction between a parent and child during story book experiences may aid in developing language skills, familiarizing the child with the conventions of print, and serving as a model of reading.  The quality and quantity of interactions, as well as the presence of reading materials and a story time routine shaped early reading development.
    
  • Developmental properties in the context of parent-child reading sessions:
    • labeling and commenting on items in discrete pictures
    • weaving an oral recount of the pictures in order
    • creating a story with the prosody and wording of written language
    • attending to and decoding the actual printed story
      
  • Read and reread favorite nursery rhymes to reinforce the patterns of the the language and enjoy tongue twisters and other forms of language play together.
    
• Reread favorite poems, songs, and stories and discuss alliteration and rhyme within them.

• Play word games. Precursory phonological awareness skills such as rhyming  and alliteration can emerge in informal contexts before school and are seen  in young children who can neither read nor spell.

• Buy books. Search out garage sales, used book stores, and thrift shops to find old favorites for building your child's library. Get your child a library  card and make frequent trips to the library.

• Let your child see you reading. Invite your child to sit beside you and read her book while you read yours. Through exposure to written language (storybook reading and daily living routines) many children develop an awareness of print, letter naming, and phonemic awareness.

• Read alphabet books to and with children, and make alphabet books together.

• Interactive Dialogue: Parents of early readers and parents of children who are successful in school do more than read books and elicit labels, objects, and details of events. They guide children to relate information in books to other events, and engage them in discussing, interpreting, and making inferences. These representations of story book reading, as a scaffolded activity, demonstrate that the adult acts as a scaffold for children by connecting story elements with what the child already knows, by asking questions, and by encouraging the children to ask questions.
  
• Through exposure to oral language, preschool children develop listening comprehension, vocabulary, and language facility. Children who are behind in their literacy experiences upon entering school, become "at risk" in subsequent years.

The ability to map oral language onto print is important for early reading and writing experiences. Through interaction with others who model language functions, children learn to attend to language and to apply this knowledge to literacy situations.

Emergent Literacy and Phonemic Awareness

Emergent literacy is made up of so many little skills within an ever increasing understanding of print and its use.  It involves letter knowledge, phonological awareness (hearing the sounds), comprehension of text structure (cover, title, author,...), relationship of print to speech, awareness of print (signs, messages,...), developmental patterns, purpose and function of print, and the conventions of print (capitals, punctuation,...).

Parent involvement, especially in activities that directly support their children's school success, is correlated with reading achievement. Parents can do a great deal to build their children's literacy development. They can read to children from infancy through the elementary grades. They can monitor their children's home reading and ask teachers to require regular reading as homework. They can take children to the library and borrow or purchase books. Teachers can provide parents with special strategies to increase the value of home reading, such as talking to children about characters and plots, and asking them to make predictions or summarize stories.

Both teachers and parents can do various things to help children gain phonics knowledge in the context of reading and writing:

• Discuss words and make lists, word banks, or books of words that share interesting spelling/sound patterns.
• Discuss similar sounds and letter/sound patterns in children's names.
• Emphasize selected letter/sound relationships while writing with, for, or in front of children.
• Help children write the sounds they hear in words, once the children have begun to hear some separate sounds.
• Encourage children to spell the words as best as they can when they write.
• Encourage children to spell by writing the sounds they hear in words to develop word recognition and phonics skills sooner.
• Help children notice spelling patterns in words.

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When parents ask about children going into grade one and which type of reading program would be best...

This is an attempt to help clarify some of the current arguments that have concerned reading instruction for a long time and why there really is no simple answer.

No one program or method of reading instruction, be it phonic, whole-language or sight word, can meet the needs of every child it encounters. Phonetic knowledge, sight word knowledge and work within whole meaningful contexts are all important in the acquisition of reading skills. Direct teaching of phonetic knowledge and strategies is also important. The emphasis given to each area and skill will vary with the stage of reading acquisition a student is at.

Second, there is no known sequence of skills of specific knowledge, say of letter names, etc. that a child has to have before they can learn to read. In other words the publisher of that program arbitrarily sets the sequence of reading skills taught in any program. Therefore the order of skills taught can depend on your children's interests and needs.

Thirdly, the more rigidly a prescribed program or sequence of skills is followed the more children will slip through the cracks. Every program be it whole language, phonetic, or sight word based has its areas of risk. The need then is to design our programs with flexibility in mind to meet the varying needs of the children. There is, after all, more than one way to 'skin a cat' and more than one road to reading. A multi-disciplined approach is needed, one that is designed with active learners in mind and for a specific group of children.

We have learned some very important things about children's learning that have changed the way we approach reading instruction with children for the better. First, that children are not empty vessels a teacher just pours knowledge into. Children construct their own knowledge. Learning, therefore, is an active process and one that requires active learners.  Children use their experiences and the skills available at the time to construct that knowledge.

Because we need to develop active learners, and risk takers, children are encouraged to use the skills they have to solve problems they encounter as they read, write, listen or speak. Children are allowed to use phonetic spelling/scribble writing early because as they take part in the writing process, they learn. In reading they are encouraged to look for words and teachers try to make the children more conscious of what it is that they are doing. "Why do you think that? I like the way you stopped and went back over that tricky part, Are there other words you know that could help you with this one," are questions you will hear teachers ask children. This process has a different 'look' as well. Children are not simply sitting quietly and receiving information, but are actively pursuing information. Early assumptions and attempts are continuously improved upon.

We now realize that children come to us in pre-school with a great deal of knowledge about print if they have had modeling of language and have been read to at home. We also know that reading and writing skills progress very much like a child's speech development. We know that we need to accept approximations in the very early stages of emerging literacy just like we accepted "WA WA" for water. These first attempts to speak, read or write are encouraged and are not considered 'wrong'.

Children need an exposure to writing and reading in whole meaningful contexts. Literacy skills and behaviors (the behavior of reading - looking at words, looking for picture clues, looking for phonetic clues-moving in a left to right, top to bottom direction etc.) need to be modeled again and again. Learning any reading skill like letter names alone will not develop the reading behaviors you want young children to have. Pretend reading, or chanting favorite parts of a story, play reading very short books of repetitive phrases are all reading skills that young children can handle in a supportive environment. The child reveals to us their growing knowledge of the alphabetic principle and phonics as she/he begins to write and use their language in meaningful contexts. We DO NOT wait for young children to simply be ready to learn to read by maturation alone.

An effective reading program must have a strong word knowledge component. Direct and explicit instruction, demonstration, modeling, and application of word solving strategies must be taught. Phonemic knowledge (hearing the sounds of speech), phonics -phonetic knowledge of letter names and sounds, word patterns, onsets and rhymes, syllables, etc., are included in this area of reading instruction. The sequence or order of skills taught should come from the children and their needs or the teacher's purpose. The instruction is active in nature and involves children in an investigation through which they make sense of the way written language works. We look for patterns, we do not teach rules because our brains are pattern finders, not rule appliers. Thus we teach children to look for patterns and relationships in words- "at" words, "ate" words. Application of concepts learned occurs with real reading and writing materials. Children learn to solve words in many different ways through out the school day. You will start to see word walls, charts of word families, and print that children can access on walls around the room. Word knowledge skills are a very important part of any reading instruction and very important for emerging readers.

Young children are emerging in their language skills. They continue to gain in their knowledge of print according to their individual experiences. There is no such being as a non-reader, but an emerging reader, a child who is continuing to add to his/her literacy skills. A print rich environment is essential then to the young learner. Homes that encourage literacy tasks, answer their children's questions, encourage drawing and scribbling/writing attempts, and read to their children really are teaching their children how to read and write. Environmental print then plays a large role in reading instruction in the pre-school years. Classroom environments are just as critical in helping children to continue their literacy learning.

Programs then need to need the children where they are and move them forward. This is perhaps the hardest task to do and the most challenging one for teachers.

The language we use to teach our children with is important too. Sentences should follow our language rules so that children are better able to predict what comes next. It is easier for our children to read, "Look at Jane skating down the street.," said Jeff. "Let's go and skate with her." than it is to read "Look, look, oh look." said Jeff, "Jane is skating. Jane is skating down the street. Look at Jane skate. Let's skate. Let's skate with Jane".  It is even easier to read "Jane is walking down the street eating a banana. Bob is walking down the street eating an ice cream cone. I am walking down the street eating a cookie." when the children can use the repetitive phrase and picture cues.

The texts that our children read now are much more interesting and readable than the Dick and Jane I grew up with or the phonic texts of - Dan has a van. Dan put a pan on the van. - that you may have had to tackle. Our children read "real" literature.

We know that early reading intervention for children experiencing confusion or difficulties in their reading progress is much more cost effective and successful than waiting for the confusion to discourage children or result in the habituation of bad habits. Our teachers need to watch, observe and consult with each child more than before. We know too that children should be reading stories independently at a 95% degree of accuracy. This insures that each time the child reads, they improve by practicing known reading strategies.

We know reading is a very complex skill. It is somewhat like driving a car. As you drive to work you may be dreaming about the million dollars you are sure to win, or you may be singing your favorite song or planning your dinner menu. Meanwhile, your eyes are scanning the distances of the cars around you, noting red lights, crosswalks, or stop signs. Your arms are turning the wheel just the right amount so that you can maneuver a lane change or a curve in the road. Your foot is applying just the right amount of pressure to the gas pedal or brake to keep you going at a steady speed or your foot will apply just the right amount of pressure to stop the car for a red light. This is all done automatically as it were and you are somewhat unaware of all the work that you are really doing. As adults we read somewhat automatically as well and we easily forget that learning to read is a very complex task. We need to give our children time to practice and move from 'pretend' reading to the 'real thing'. The same applies to writing. They need time to move from approximations to standard form; from phonetic or invented spelling to standard spelling.

Marie Clay has done extensive research in New Zealand regarding much of the information presented above. While there is no single method or program of teaching reading that will work for everyone, some techniques work better than others and there are ways of delivering information that work better than others, especially with young children. The classroom environment, one of trust and support, is also crucial to learning because it allows children to take risks.

 
To conclude then, we know children must have a solid oral base in their every day language and book language. We know that many print and literacy skills need to be taught and modeled in meaningful whole contexts on actual materials first. We also need a growing knowledge of phonics and other word-solving strategies, as well as, a growing sight vocabulary. There has to be a flexibility of programs and some time to work out how we move children along a continuum of learning, making sure that they are progressing successfully, while being challenged and not frustrated. Children are now active learners, constructing their own knowledge as they work on language to learn new things. The debate of a single method of phonics, sight word, or a whole language approach is really defunct.