Emergent Literacy Observations

In response to the Sulzby & Teale article on Emergent Literacy:

Think about classrooms you have visited. What aspects of emergent literacy have you observed in young children? How have you seen teachers support the growth of young children's literacy?

In a K classroom, the teacher used literacy to accomplish goals by having her students keep science journals. The students would draw and label what they were studying (plants they were growing, frogs from books) and then write a sentence about it. The teacher had a list of words on the board that they used to label their drawings, but she allowed them to use inventive spelling or even scribble writing for their sentences. Then she would have the students read their writing to her and she helped them figure out the first sound for a word or something else that fit with where they were at.

In first grade reading groups I observed, students were always expected to write something about the story they read to tie together reading and writing. This helped them to do some thinking about what they were reading. In the beginning it was very scripted (Mark likes bananas. Write what food you like.), but as the year progressed the children were able to come up with their own ideas for writing about what they had read.

My Master Teacher does 2-3 read alouds a day (at least in September). She is trying to build up a fund of common reading knowledge for the class while also modeling thinking about what you are reading. She refers to these books when the children are reading (making text to text connections), writing (referring back to how some of the authors started their stories and trying those out in their own writing or borrowing “exciting vocabulary”). The kids spend a good part of their day in literacy activities including reading independently, using reading journals, listening to read-alouds, and writing their own stories. They often share both their reading thinking and their writing with the class. They are so excited to share. It makes them excited to read more and write more so they will have more to share.