Emergent+Literacy


 * Emergent Literacy Skills **
 * Definition: Emergent literacy is the reading and writing behaviors that precede and develop into conventional literacy (Sulzby, 1991)
 * Examples of pre-reading skills:
 * Knows that reading is for a purpose – attends to books
 * Holds book correctly
 * Recognizes front and back of book
 * Identifies the title of the book
 * Knows where to begin reading
 * Turns pages
 * Points to pictures or words
 * Differentiates between words and spaces
 * Knows that reading goes top to bottom, left to right
 * “Pretends” to read
 * Says repetitive phrases
 * Recognizes own name in print
 * Examples of pre-writing skills:
 * Knows that writing is for a purpose – attend to writing
 * Scribbling
 * Pseudo-letters
 * Developmental spelling
 * How do children develop these skills?
 * Through being in a literacy-enriched environment from birth
 * Through active engagement in the literacy process
 * This means choice making
 * This means opportunities to write
 * This means opportunities to ask questions
 * This means opportunities to comment about books
 * This means pointing at pictures
 * This means having meaningful interactions with print for over 1,000 hours (Heath, 1983)
 * Through meaningful experiences in their environment
 * Through independent and joint interactions with print
 * Children are developing understandings with emergent literacy, not mastery of skills
 * Trends for students with disabilities
 * Have many less print-enriching, emergent literacy experiences – not read to as often as typically developing children
 * Book-reading experiences are adult-driven with few opportunities for choice-making, asking questions, or active involvement
 * Have many less interactive communication experiences – not spoken to as often as typically developing children
 * Expectations for these children to read or write are low – this does not mean that these students can not develop the skills to read and write, though!!!!!
 * Assistive technology/augmentative communication is often not present during book reading or writing times
 * Supports to teach/provide students with disabilities emergent literacy skills
 * Have a literacy-rich classroom
 * Have books readily present and available in different formats
 * Provide books within students’ reach so they can look at them independently – have a library corner! (Research supports that students read/look at 50% more books when there is an “in-class” library)
 * Utilize schedules – show variations in the schedule as they come up
 * Label items in the classroom with print – students’ cubbies, different centers around the room, etc.
 * Provide adapted reading/writing supports
 * Use teacher-guided reading opportunities as well as opportunities for students to choose and participate in book-reading/looking activities independently
 * Read to students often – across content areas
 * Highlight reading/writing opportunities – “I can find out more about that in this book”, “I am going to write that on the board so I can remember it”
 * Make sure students can see the print that is being read
 * Big books
 * Each person has independent books
 * Emphasis of print in the everyday world
 * Reading a recipe
 * Reading labels
 * Writing a note
 * Writing a shopping list
 * Model how these are used!
 * Provide students with opportunities to scribble, play with words, play with letters, and make up stories (they don’t have to make sense!)
 * Emergent writing for a student with severe disabilities – What it might look like…
 * Keyboard exploration
 * Exploration with a talking word processor
 * Exploration of communication symbols
 * Playing with letters on device
 * Emergent reading for a student with severe disabilities – What it might look like…
 * Scrolling through a digital book
 * Exploring communication symbols while looking at a book
 * Going back and forth between the pages
 * Having pages be read over and over again
 * Having a device read the title page multiple times