The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy - SAMPLE

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Teachers in training are provided with guidelines and examples to help develop their craft as literacy practitioners.

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Practising teachers will find alternative ideas for developing literacy skills in the classroom by the introduction of non-traditional approaches and strategies to enhance their repertoire. At the same time best practice with traditional approaches are emphasised.

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Institutions including universities, teacher-training colleges, schools and libraries will find this an invaluable coursebook and reference resource.

Additional resources for instructors can be found at: www.pearsoncaribbean.com/completeteacher

“A complete instructional guide and companion for Caribbean teachers in teacher-training institutions and practitioners in educational settings from Early Childhood to college and university levels. It educates, instructs and empowers all literacy practitioners and takes them to the threshold for leadership and advocacy for literacy development in the Caribbean that is informed by classroom-evidence based research” Dr Paulette Feraria, Lecturer, Language & Literature Education Advocate and Activist for Social Literacy in School and Community Mona School of Education University of the West Indies

www.pearsoncaribbean.com

S. Joel Warrican

S. Joel Warrican has been in the field of education for over 25 years, with teaching experience at all levels, from nursery to tertiary. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Language and Literacy Education from the University of the West Indies as well as a Master of Philosophy degree in Research Methods and a Doctorate in Education in Language and Literacy, both from the University of Cambridge. A trained teacher himself, Dr. Warrican has worked as the teacher training specialist with the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Teacher Training (CETT), the largest regional literacy initiative. He has a number of respected publications in the field of language and literacy education.

S. Joel Warrican

PL E

This literacy teaching methodology text presents the unique challenges surrounding literacy development in the Caribbean whilst at the same time outlining best-practice approaches and strategies for the classroom.

Literacy

SA

S. Joel Warrican

The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy

Literacy

The Complete Caribbean Teacher

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The Complete Caribbean Teacher

iv

Contents How this Book Works for You

1 Literacy in the Caribbean

viii

2

Opening Buzz Introduction Determining Levels of Literacy in the Caribbean Factors to Consider as We Strive to Improve Literacy Language Issues Other Issues of Diversity Conclusion

2 3 4 7 7 9 13

2 The Language and Literacy Curriculum: Performing a Balancing Act

14

Opening Buzz Introduction The Language Arts A Balanced Approach to Language Instruction Conclusion

14 15 16 21 32

3 Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom

34

Opening Buzz Introduction Promoting a Literacy-rich Environment in the Early Childhood Classroom Reading and Writing Instruction in the Early Grades Preschool to Kindergarten: Promoting Activities that Develop Literacy Skills for Students at the Emergent Stage Conclusion

34 34 36 43

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4 Essential Skills: Developing Basic Literacy Across the Grades

58

Opening Buzz Introduction Grades 1 to 3: Promoting Activities that Develop Literacy Skills for Students at the Initial and Transitional Stages Word Recognition Fluency Grade 4 to Secondary School: Consolidating and Building Reading and Writing Skills at the Basic and Refinement Stages Guided Reading Process Writing Conclusion

58 59

5 Making Sense of the Written Word: Promoting Comprehension Across the Grades

82

Opening Buzz Introduction What Does it Mean? Making Sense of the Written word Fostering Comprehension with Informational Texts Coping with the Special Demands of Textbooks and Other Informational Materials Conclusion

82 83 84 97 98 112

60 61 69 74 78 79 81

6 What Can I Say? Communicating Ideas through Writing

114

Opening Buzz Introduction The Strategic Writer The Writing Process Supporting the Writing Process Record-keeping and Evaluation Promoting Writing in Our Classrooms Conclusion

114 114 116 117 124 131 133 137

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vi Contents

7 Critical Literacy: Questioning the Source Opening Buzz Introduction Understanding Critical Literacy Creating a Model for Critical Literacy in Our Classrooms Critical Literacy in Caribbean Classrooms: Theory into Practice Conclusion

8 Using Literature as a Platform for Promoting Literacy and the Language Arts Opening Buzz Introduction The Value of Literature Children’s Literature Students Meet Books: Fostering a Love of Literature in the Classroom Responding to Literature Using Literature as a Tool to Plan for Instruction Conclusion

9 Promoting Literacy Through the Creative Arts Opening Buzz Introduction Integrating Drama into the Literacy Classroom Integrating Poetry into the Literacy Classroom Integrating Music into the Literacy Classroom Integrating Visual Arts into the Literacy Classroom Conclusion

138 138 138 140 141 146 151

152 152 153 154 155 158 163 168 171

172 172 173 174 179 182 184 187

10 Promoting Literacy with Games and Technology

188

Opening Buzz Introduction Integrating Technology into our Practice: Is there Sufficient Justification?

Using Technology to Promote Literacy Literacy through Games: Promoting an Environment of Learning and Fun Conclusion

188 188 190 192 200 202

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Contents vii

11 Assessment Matters: Meeting Curriculum Standards and Student Needs in the Literacy Classroom

204

Opening Buzz Introduction Assessment in the Literacy Classroom Types of Assessment Principles to Guide Informal Assessment Using Informal Assessment Tools in our Practice Interest Inventory Miscue Analysis From Assessment to Instruction: Covering the Curriculum and Catering to Individual Needs Conclusion

204 205 206 209 212 215 221 226

12 Literacy Leadership in Caribbean Schools: Roles and Considerations

236

Opening Buzz Introduction The School Literacy Professional Roles and Responsibilities of the School Literacy Professional Conclusion

230 235

236 237 238 239 249

References

251

Resources

259

Glossary

261

Index

269

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34

CHAPTER THREE Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom

Opening Buzz There are numerous stories of children who start their preschool education at private institutions but for whatever reason they are moved by their parents to government-run schools. Once the transfer is effected, then come the complaints. These complaints are about the deterioration in the standard of work that is being done by the students.

The parents complain that they are no longer learning the letters, reading words and counting. They even argue that the children are no longer given homework. According to these parents, all the children are doing is tapping, clapping, playing and listening to and talking about stories rather than reading. This is often followed by calls for schools to give the children real lessons rather than letting them just ‘fool around’.

Introduction For many years in the Caribbean, preschool education was for the most part administered by private institutions. In fact, in some Caribbean countries, kindergarten education has also traditionally been left up to private schools. However, in recent years many of these countries are rethinking their education policy to include preschool (three- to fi ve-year olds) and kindergarten (fi ve- to six-year olds) in their primary school systems. Many of our primary schools in the region now have preschool and kindergarten programmes with trained teachers teaching these young ones. Unfortunately, a number of the private preschools and institutions that work with kindergarteners are staffed with predominantly untrained teachers who may not even meet the basic entry requirements to teach in our education system.

The difference in qualifi cation and professional exposure of these two groups of education providers makes the difference in the quality of exposure (as described in the scenario above) for our very young students. Parents, in their eagerness to tell of their children’s intelligence beyond their years, are quite often enthralled with the prospect of their children supposedly learning to read and count before they enter Grade One. Thus, the activities described in the opening buzz as done in the private preschools are quite attractive and gratifying to these parents. The activities that are often criticised by wellmeaning parents and other adults (tapping, clapping, playing and listening to and talking about stories) are in fact excellent for helping these very young children to bloom into fully literate individuals.

35

Vocabulary development Phonological awareness

READING

Fluency

Comprehension Word recognition Figure 3.1 Skills developed when learning to read

In this chapter, we will focus on catering to the literacy needs of children in preschool and kindergarten classes. To do this, we will examine the types of reading and writing activities in which we should engage these students, as well as suggesting the type of environment that should be promoted in these classes. This exploration is best approached by taking into consideration the full range of skills to be developed at the primary level. For example, Figure 3.1 shows a set of basic reading skills to be developed through the years starting from preschool to Grade 6. While these skills can be practised at any grade depending on student needs, it is important to note that at different levels of the student’s school career, emphasis is placed on the development of particular skills. Before we look at activities to hone the reading and writing skills of our students in these early years, let us fi rst consider the literacy environment that we want to foster in these grades.

Coming up…

The importance of establishing a literacy-rich environment at the Preschool/Early Childhood level.

Factors to consider when promoting a literacy-rich environment in the Preschool/Early Childhood classroom.

36  The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

Promoting a Literacy-rich Environment in the Early Childhood Classroom

Figure 3.2  A print-rich classroom has many benefits to children learning to read and write

The learning environment at every stage of schooling is very important, but in the early childhood classroom it is even more critical. It is now a well-established fact that if children How would you get a solid foundation in these grades the likelihood of describe the learning success in the later grades is multiplied (Soderman, Gregory environment of your & McCarty, 2005). In the early literacy classroom, this classroom? foundation is better fostered when there is an atmosphere that not only focuses specifically on the skills of reading and writing, but also pays attention to the physical environment. Literacy thrives Question in the early childhood environment with certain special Why is the learning conditions. These include classrooms that are print environment so crucial rich and encourage oral/aural activities. Before especially at the early discussing the basic skills of reading and writing that childhood level? should be developed at this level, let us spend some time discussing these two special conditions.

Question

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 37

Establishing a Print-rich Environment A print-rich environment is necessary for students at all levels of primary education but it is even more vital in the early childhood classroom. In the early childhood classroom examples of print should have a ubiquitous presence. In writing about the importance of a print-rich environment, Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005) assert, ‘These examples [of print] should be everywhere, used in ways that are both functional and illustrative’ (p. 62). It is paramount that in the early childhood classroom we surround our students with a wide variety of printed material representing both their shared interest and lived experiences. Thus, the print that they see is not unfamiliar to them. By Question using the familiar, we help our students to make What are three benefits the connection that words and other print are that could be derived tools used to represent their worlds. Such from the establishment material includes names (including their own), of a print-rich early books, posters, labels, pictures/photos with childhood classroom? labels and words of stories, songs and poems dictated by the students.

In surrounding our young students with print, we should ensure that much of it is environmental. Environmental print is the ‘material that surrounds us every day on labels, signs, advertisements and packaging’ (Soderman, Gregory & McCarty, 2005). Our students are usually familiar with such print as it is found everywhere. Environmental print is, for example, found on television, billboards and products in the home, supermarket and stores. Because of their familiarity to our students, they are likely to learn to read these words before other words. The strength of environmental print as a learning aid is that it helps our students to associate words with Question something tangible that they know. For In what ways could you example, the children who read ‘cereal’ on transfer students’ knowledge the box are not necessarily doing so of and familiarity with because they have decoding skills but environmental print and possibly because they associate the label labels to other reading/writing with what is in the box. Of course, the contexts? students must be familiar with the contents of the box.

In our quest to make our classrooms print-rich, there are some guidelines that we can follow to make it happen, as shown on page 38.

38 The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

A Print-rich Classroom Print should be at the children’s eye level to facilitate comfort. If the print is too high or too low, the students will find it tiring to read.

It should be purposeful, that is, driven by factors such as student interest or familiarity (within students’ culture and experience).

While we want the classroom to be attractive, the main aim is not decoration but the enhancement of literacy.

Do not clutter the class with print; it defeats the purpose. It could be confusing to the children in that there will be too many things on which to focus and eventually, it will all just become background.

Opportunities should be provided for the students to observe others using print. In that regard, we as teachers need to be models thus helping our students to see how print functions.

Students should be able to interact with the print. They should be able to use it during regular activities. This means that it must be within the students’ reach (Neuman & Roskos, 1998; Neuman, 1999; Soderman, Gregory & McCarty, 2005; Warrican & SpencerErnandez, 2006).

In transforming our classrooms into print-rich environments, we should always strive to keep the parents of our students involved in the process. It What are some other is in fact a good idea to send home a letter to the ways in which teachers parents encouraging them to help their children collect can get parents involved environmental print samples to bring to school. We in developing a print-rich also should bear in mind that this transformation of environment? our classes is not a one-shot activity, but something we should continue throughout the school year. In that regard, we should send reminder notes to the parents from time to time.

Question

Another important feature of the transformation to which we should pay attention is labelling. Since the main purpose of establishing a print-rich environment is to convey the message that print carries meaning, labelling the objects around the classroom helps students to make that connection. Labelling should not only involve the objects that we bring into the classroom, but also the things Give it a Go! that are permanent fixtures in the class. For example, we should label the desk, chairs, classroom library, windows, doors and Label some of the cupboard. In labelling, we could also use adjectives to describe objects around your objects. Thus, we can label a ‘box’ as ‘a colourful box’. It is also classroom, and get the important that we include our students in the process of labelling. students to help you.

Some students can help to make the labels while others help to place them in their appropriate places.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom  39

Transforming our classroom into a print-rich environment is not a prescriptive process.

We will each have our own creative ideas for doing so. The important thing is to do it in a way that helps the students to make the link between print and meaning. Let us now turn our attention to an environment that promotes listening and speaking.

Question What are some ideas you have about transforming your classroom into a printrich environment? Share these ideas with your colleagues.

Establishing an Aural/Oral Environment in our Literacy Classroom Listening and speaking are essential tools to help develop literacy. The importance of listening and speaking has even greater significance in the early childhood classroom. We should always remember that even before our students can read or write conventionally, they are able to listen and talk. What we want to do in this chapter, however, is to show how we can use listening and speaking to facilitate the development of literacy with our students. Let us start with listening.

Listening (aural) is the language art that children and adults use most. Though this is the case, Smith (2003) reminds us of the inverse relationship between the real world and the classroom, in that it is the language art taught the least. It is important that we pay some attention to listening (especially for the early grades) since it is the means by which young children access information in books before they can read conventionally for themselves.

Through listening we can teach comprehension skills to our young students long before they understand how print works.

There are many activities that we can discuss here for honing listening skills generally, but we will focus on some that specifically promote literacy. In essence, we will discuss how we can use listening to get our students interested in print as well as how it can be utilised as a comprehension tool.

Question What resources do you have available to help you engage your students in listening activities?

Getting students to listen to stories and other material requires some thought. Perhaps the most important facet in this process is maintaining student interest. To do this we must call on our creative energies. We may have to use devices such as puppetry, special voices, audio books, sound effects and games. We must always bear in mind that young children have short attention spans and lose interest quite quickly. Thus material presented in oral form stands the chance of accomplishing its goal more if it is done in a way that brings the story or information alive. Young children learn better when there is sound, imagery and props to help them to visualise what they are hearing (Jalongo, 2007).

Jalongo in fact suggests a number of activities utilising sound, imagery and props that we can use to make it happen as we promote listening in our literacy classrooms. These are presented in Figure 3.3.

40 The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

Play a variety of musical selections

This helps students to focus attention, listen without interrupting, remember details, interpret what is heard and enjoy listening to selections. For example, after listening uninterruptedly to a musical selection, we can let our students write about what they enjoy most about it.

Make picture book and music connections

Students listen to a story accompanied by music. They are directed to think about how music is used to create a mood and enhance the story.

Tell a story

After they have heard a story several times, students can demonstrate their listening skills by retelling the story in their own words.

Sound effects

Students listen to a story with sound effects. They then record their own version with appropriate sound effects.

Use story songs

Have students listen to a song that tells a story such as ‘Inch by Inch: The Garden Song’ (Mallet, 1997). As they listen, encourage them to form images about the various objects. After listening, invite them to create pictures that correspond with their listening experience.

I tell, you do

Students work in pairs. One tells the other about an object or event in his or her mind. The other student can draw or write it depending on their level of literacy development.

Storyline

Students can practise their listening comprehension of a story by arranging the story events on a line (a storyline that resembles a clothesline).

Translate sounds

Students convert what they hear into written, graphic, musical or dramatic form.

Summarising information

After teaching how to summarise, read a story or informational text to students and ask them to summarise the procedure.

Story map

After listening to a story, students make a large map or chart on the floor that shows the story character’s travels. In guiding the students, the teacher first questions them about the setting, then asks questions about the main character that focus on his or her goals, and finally the steps the character takes to achieve those goals. As the teacher questions, the students discuss the answers and map them out.

Figure 3.3 Classroom activities to support listening (adapted from Jalongo, 2007)

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 41

Along with these activities adapted from Jalongo (2007), we should find useful Strictland and Morrow’s (1989) listening-based literacy strategy: The Directed Listening/Thinking Activity (DLTA). This strategy has three basic parts: 1. Prepare for listening with questions and discussion.

2. Read the story.

3. Discuss the story after reading.

This activity is excellent for any level but is presented here as an early grade activity since many of our students cannot yet read conventionally. It is excellent to help build our young students’ listening comprehension skills, which they can transfer to reading as they mature.

Speaking (oral), like listening, is often not given sufficient prominence in our classroom.

Jalongo (2007) posits that this neglect of instruction in talk is possibly because children enter our preschool or kindergarten class being able to talk. As a result we take it for granted that we do not need to instruct them to communicate through talk as we do with other language arts. Hart and Risley (1995), however, offer a sound reason why there is need for direct intervention to encourage instruction in talk. They argue that while most children arrive in the preschool or kindergarten class being able to converse with their peers and adults, the words they know and use vary significantly. Such variance in vocabulary will continue throughout the grades unless there is consistent and explicit instruction (Biemiller, 2001) or opportunities for incidental learning from an environment that provides students with the opportunity to interact through talk (Roskos, Tabors & Lenhart, 2004).

To create an environment that encourages talk, Jalongo (2007) suggests that, as teachers, we ourselves must be good role models. Recognising the link between listening and speaking, she recommends that our modelling extends also to being attentive listeners.

Additionally, in planning activities for our students, the advice is that we use the students’ interests as a springboard for conversation. Importantly, she recommends that we refrain from making judgemental comments about our students. This point has particular relevance in our language context since much of the talk in our classroom may not be in Standard English but in the Creole, which is often devalued in our Caribbean setting.

Vukelich, Christie and Enz (2008) suggest that we must provide our students with stimulating experiences that promote quality talk. These activities, they suggest, should be well thought out, with a major goal being, among others, to create vocabulary-learning moments. We can look at some of the activities recommended by Jalongo (2007) in which we can engage our students to make it happen, page 42 ‘Promoting Talk’.

42 The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

Promoting Talk Dictated Stories: Students dictate a story based on their experience. This story can be dictated by the entire class, groups or individuals. As students dictate their story, the teacher or even another student records the story. As they dictate the story, the teacher can elicit vocabulary from them to help the story. For example, if a child says, ‘He drove the car quickly’, the teacher can ask for words to replace quickly (e.g. rapidly, swiftly, speedily). By seeking alternative words, the teacher is in fact helping to expand the students’ vocabulary.

Group Discussions: Groups of students gather to share their experiences, brainstorm about an issue, share concerns or talk about a story. This activity requires a teacher who can keep the students on topic but is yet flexible enough to make necessary adjustments.

This activity works best when questions are open-ended and the teacher should be skilful at formulating and moderating such. Again, the teacher could do scaffolding activities to help students to broaden the vocabulary used in the discussions. As with many of these types of activities, the behaviour that we want to see in our students should be modelled by the teacher.

Role-Playing Solution: Students are presented with a scenario or problem made up by the teacher. The teacher asks them to role play the scenario or problem. To do this, they should be given time to talk it over before the enactment.

Dramatising a Story or Portion of a Story: Students are given the opportunity to enact part or the whole of a story. This of course is always better if the story readily lends itself to dramatic performances. It is an excellent idea to choose a story with different characters so that each can be used as a speaking part. Additionally, stories with humour and drama are likely to get students interested. It is important that students have an interest in the story.

Narrated Theatre: This is often used with children who are not yet reading. While the teacher reads the story, the students enact it.

Along with these activities adapted from Jalongo (2007), we should find useful Ogle’s (1986) KWL strategy for promoting talk in our literacy classrooms. Though this strategy is normally promoted as one to help students understand informational text, it has relevance here: it is one that facilitates talk as students work through the different steps. The KWL has three basic steps: 1. K: What we Know: Before reading an informational text (read either by the teacher or by students themselves), students will talk about what they know about the topic. The teacher will record on the chalkboard what they say they know on the K section of a KWL chart. The students can also do the recording themselves.

2. W: What we Want to Learn: Before reading, students will also talk about what they want to learn about the topic. The teacher will record this in question form on the W section of the KWL chart. Again, the students can also do the recordings themselves.

This step is useful in helping the students to set a purpose for reading.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 43

3. L: What we Learned: The teacher reads aloud the text while students listen for the answers to the questions that they asked related to what they wanted to learn. At this point the students are free to add more questions about what they want to learn. After the reading, the teacher and students will discuss (talk about) the answers to the questions, and whether any of the questions were not answered or if there is any other information that they would like to find out.

Clearly, this strategy, though designed to aid comprehension of informational text, is also excellent to promote talk, as well as to link speaking to reading and writing.

Question What other activities would enhance or promote talk in the Early Childhood classroom?

Question How can the activities listed above be adapted to/incorporated into the Caribbean context?

Having discussed the issue of environment for the early grades, let us turn our attention now to some strategies and activities that will enhance reading and writing in the classroom.

Reading and Writing Instruction in the Early Grades We have explored the issue of environment and related activities to ensure an atmosphere that lends itself to learning in the early grades. We will now consider some instructional practices that will facilitate success in these classes. In an effort to place these instructional practices into perspective, there is a major issue that we should consider: the interrelatedness of reading and writing – both reading and writing are meaningconstructing processes (Tompkins, 2009; McGee & Richgels, 2004). As our students learn to read and write, we should also be aware that they move through various related developmental stages. O’Donnell and Wood (2004), for example, describe students’ literacy developmental path as a process with five stages: emergent reading, initial literacy, transitional, basic and refinement. Although the first three stages are described with reading as a referent, they all consider development in terms of both reading and writing and their intertwining relationship. Following this stage theory, children must first gain an understanding of print and how it works. Early on also, as they strive to represent language in print they form mostly approximations, but as they develop, this representation becomes more conventional. Additionally, as they develop, they recognise that both reading and writing are meaning-making processes, and they come to realise that writers write to communicate a message or idea that someone else may eventually read. Likewise, when they read, the text contains a message that the writer was trying to convey. By the time they get to the stages of basic literacy and refinement, they are able to use their meta-cognitive abilities to gain meaning as they read and write a variety of material. Figure 3.4 provides details of the five stages of literacy development as outlined

by O’Donnell and Wood (2004). The information in this figure will play a vital role in our exploration throughout this publication and we will return to it shortly to examine how it impacts the organisation of the information in the next few chapters.

44 The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

Stages of Literacy

Student Entry Characteristics

Major Goals

1. Emergent Reading (typical of preschool– kindergarten)

Has oral language facility Shows interest in print

Seek out and enjoy experiences with books and print Become familiar with the language of literature and patterns of stories Understand and follow the sequence of stories read to them Begin to acquire specific understandings about the nature, purpose, and function of print Experiment with reading and writing independently, through approximation See themselves as developing readers and writers

2. Initial Literacy (typical of Grades 1–2)

Reads some words Has developed some specific print concepts Matches some speech sounds with letters

Understand that reading is a meaning-making process Acquire sight vocabulary Make balanced use of the cueing systems in written language (syntax, semantics and grapho-phonemics) to identify words not known at sight See themselves as readers and writers

3. Transitional (typical of Grades 2–4)

Recognises many words at sight Successfully applies word identification strategies Reads independently

Increase fluency in reading and writing Increase motivation to read and write Focus on meaning in reading and writing

4. Basic (typical of Grades 4–6)

Reads a variety of materials independently Has an extensive sight vocabulary (reads fluently)

Expand breadth of experience in reading Comprehend increasingly complex reading material Extend meaning vocabulary Develop awareness and use of study strategies

5. Refinement (typical of Grade 6 on)

Has acquired functional literacy Reads for a variety of purposes

Extend goals undertaken at preceding stage with increasingly advanced and abstract materials

Figure 3.4 Developmental stages of literacy (adapted from O’Donnell & Wood, 2004, p. 8)

In support of the issue of the interrelatedness of reading and writing is the fact that they have comparable processes. Tompkins (2002), in describing the meaning-constructing nature of reading and writing, suggests that readers use a number of problem-solving strategies to interpret the author’s words and construct meaning for themselves. Likewise, writers use problem-solving strategies to decide what readers need, as they themselves construct meaning for the reader, as well as themselves. In both activities, meaning

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 45

is constructed through a process (the reading and writing processes). Through these processes, readers and writers form ideas as they read or write and continually refi ne them until satisfactory meaning is achieved. Figure 3.5 below illustrates the reading and writing processes which helps us to see their similarities.

What Readers Do

What Writers Do

Stage 1

Pre-reading Readers use knowledge about • the topic • reading • literature • language systems Readers’ expectations are cued by • previous reading/writing experiences • genre • purpose for reading • audience for reading Readers preview the text and make predictions.

Prewriting Writers use knowledge about • the topic • reading • literature • language systems Writers’ expectations are cued by • previous reading/writing experiences • genre • purpose for writing • audience for writing Writers gather and organise ideas.

Stage 2

Reading Readers • use word-identification strategies • use comprehension strategies • monitor reading • create meaning

Drafting Writers • use spelling strategies • use writing strategies • monitor writing • create meaning

Stage 3

Responding Readers • respond to text • clarify misunderstandings • develop interpretations

Revising Writers • respond to text • clarify misunderstandings • develop interpretations

Stage 4

Exploring Readers examine the text by • considering the impact of words and literary language • exploring structural elements • comparing the text to others

Editing Writers examine the text by • correcting mechanical errors • reviewing paragraph and sentence structure

Figure 3.5 A comparison of the reading and writing process (taken from Tompkins, 2006, p. 72)

46 The Complete Caribbean Teacher: Literacy

What Readers Do

What Writers Do

Stage 5

Publishing Writers • produce the finished copy of their compositions • share their compositions with genuine audiences • reflect on the writing process • value the composition • feel success • want to write again

Applying Readers • develop projects to extend knowledge • share projects with classmates • reflect on the reading process • value the piece of literature • feel success • want to read again

In essence, reading and writing enjoy a symbiotic relationship, which we should guide our students to tap into as we help them to become literate. We will explore how reading and writing can be taught together to provide the best results for our very young students.

Indeed, throughout the rest of this book we will explore activities that promote reading and writing in the same lesson or unit of work.

Before we go into the reading and writing activities, let us for a moment return to the developmental stages of literacy as presented earlier in Figure 3.4. It is important to note that in this chapter we will focus primarily on the fi rst stage of literacy development: emergent reading. Thus, we will focus on activities for children in preschool and kindergarten.

We will use the delineation of the stages to organise this and the next three chapters.

O’Donnell and Wood (2004) emphasise that when following this approach to organising instruction, it should also be borne in mind that some instructional goals are not stagespecifi c; that is, they are applicable to students at any stage of their development.

Let us now turn our attention to some instructional practices that should help our young students to develop their literacy skills. As was mentioned before, but should be stressed again, many of these activities and strategies will promote reading and writing simultaneously to ensure that the potential synergy of these two processes is realised fi rst by our teachers and ultimately by our students.

Key Points • •

Reading and writing are meaning-constructing processes, which are both guided by certain steps.

Reading and writing should be promoted simultaneously.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 47

Preschool to Kindergarten: Promoting Activities that Develop Literacy Skills for Students at the Emergent Stage During this stage students are not yet reading or writing conventionally but they are making the connection that oral language can be represented in print. In the past, it was generally felt that children were not ready to read or write until around the age of six years. Thus, before this apparent magical age, teachers in preschool and kindergarten were expected to concentrate on getting their students into a state of readiness for reading. Though occasionally, the concept of reading readiness is still touted by some proponents, as described by Jalongo (2007), this is an echo from the past, from as far back as the 1940s. It is an echo that fails to recognise that there are several literary milestones in children’s lives before they get to the first grade of school and certainly before they can read independently. For example, as was mentioned earlier in the chapter, very young children notice environmental print such as signs and logos. From observing adults, they learn how to hold a book, turn the pages and call words to portray the story that they perceive is represented in the book. They also attempt to represent their names, objects and own stories in print (Clay, 1985).

Braunger and Lewis (1998) aptly describe emergent literacy as ‘those behaviours by very young children as they begin to respond to and approximate reading and writing acts’ (p. 16).

Earlier in the chapter, we highlighted the issue of creating an environment that supports literacy in these early years. The environment described is particularly relevant to the emergent classroom since in these years children need to hear language used orally, as well as getting the opportunity to experiment with oral language. Importantly, they need to be able to make the connection that oral language could be represented in print, and thus the importance of promoting a print-rich classroom. Having established the importance of classroom environment, let us now turn our attention to some key activities which also promote literacy. We will focus on phonological awareness activities, shared reading, shared writing and interactive writing. It should be stressed that although we focus primarily on these four activities, there are many others that should be promoted in the emergent classroom. Some of these other important activities will come out as we explore these four broad ones. It is also important to note again that many of the activities are not stage bound in that they have relevance throughout students’ literacy development. As such, some of the activities relevant to the emergent literacy stage will come out when we explore the next stage of literacy development (initial reading) as well as at subsequent stages.

Phonological Awareness In the Caribbean, the concept of phonological awareness is vocalised more and more by our teachers. Many of our preschool and kindergarten teachers have accepted that this is a very important concept that must be given prominence in their classrooms. However, there seems to be some confusion with some key, related concepts. Many of our teachers

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for example use phonological awareness and phonemic awareness interchangeably, and some even believe that these concepts along with phonics are synonymous. Thus, we need to pause at this point to give clarity to these terms.

Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005) describe phonological awareness as a necessary skill that must be addressed with young children since it has been found to correlate positively with their eventual success in learning to read and spell. They define phonological awareness simply as ‘knowledge of the sounds of speech’ (p. 34). With phonological awareness, children are able to recognise the various components of oral language. They recognise, for example, that: • • • •

sentences can be broken into words (the – dog – is – big) words can be broken into syllables (con-so-nant) words can be broken into onsets and rimes (st – and) words can be broken into phonemes (/m/ /a/ /t/)1 – the smallest units of sound that convey a distinction in meaning (the /m/ conveys a different meaning than if it was substituted for /c/ to form ‘cat’).

Additionally, children who are phonologically aware are able to manipulate the various components of oral language. For example, they substitute the onset ‘st’ in ‘stand’ for ‘l’ to form ‘land’ or delete ‘st’ to get ‘and’. It should be noted that phonological awareness begins at infancy and is usually fine-tuned (especially with direct intervention in the classroom) by age eight (grade 3).

In terms of phonemic awareness, Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005) describe it as a subcategory of phonological awareness, which does not begin until about age four.

Cunningham and Allington (2007) define phonemic awareness as the ability to take words apart (segmenting – e.g. /m/ /a/ /t/), put them back together again to hear the flowing sound of the word (blending), and change them either by substituting (e.g. /c/ for /m/ to change from ‘mat’ to ‘cat’) or deleting phonemes (deleting the /m/ from ‘mat’ to form ‘at’). We must stress here that phonological awareness is the bigger concept, with phonemic awareness being a subset of it. In fact, phonological awareness is described as a continuum of skills ranging from rhyming to phonemic awareness, with phonemic awareness being the most sophisticated of the skills (Smith, 2003). We should also note that phonological awareness and all its subsets (including phonemic awareness) are all oral skills. Once we move to the point of linking sounds to symbols in print, we are operating in the realm of phonics. Phonics is described as an instructional approach, which helps individuals to associate the sounds of spoken language with letter symbols (Vukelich, Christie & Enz, 2008; Shanker & Ekwall, 2003). Although phonics utilises the same skills associated with phonological awareness, it moves from the purely oral to matching sounds to symbols. As such, the phonological awareness skills gained during the early years are indeed a good platform for phonics development.

Having made the distinction among these three concepts, we will now turn our attention to providing instruction in phonological awareness. When we explore instruction for the initial reading stage in Chapter 4, we will return to phonics.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 49

Activities that Support Phonological Awareness As was mentioned before, skills that represent children’s phonological awareness exist on a continuum. Smith (2003), in describing this continuum, suggests that there are five broad sets of skills that children need to acquire as they progress on the continuum: rhyme and alliteration (the least complex); sentence segmentation; syllable segmentation; onset and rime; and phonemic awareness (the most sophisticated). In providing activities to help our young charges develop these skills, it is important that we make them lively and fun. Our classes should come alive with clapping, singing, stamping and any creative activity that will promote fun while helping our students to become sensitised to the sounds of English. In the Caribbean, these activities are particularly critical because of the similarities of the Creole and English. As we said earlier, the lexicon of most of the Creoles in the region is English-based. However, quite often they have variations in pronunciation from their English derivatives. For example, it is not unusual to hear a child saying ‘dankey’ rather than ‘donkey’ or ‘bess’ rather than ‘best’. Thus, phonological activities should help the students to recognise Standard English sounds that they would otherwise misrepresent. Let us now look specifically at each skill on the continuum and examine the types of activities in which we can engage our students.

Rhyme activities focus students’ attention on the ending sounds of words (e.g. whale, sail, pale, bail) that have the same pronunciation. Remember, phonological awareness activities are oral. Thus, although the endings of the rhyming words provided above are not all spelt the same, that should have no effect on the students’ recognition that the words rhyme.

Rhyme identification is often taught through the use of nursery rhymes such as ‘Jack and Jill’. The teacher and/or the class recite nursery rhymes, then students are asked to say which words have the same ending sound. Naturally, we may have to help the students by identifying the first sets of rhyming words, but once the students get the hang of it, they will identify them without our help. In fact, as they recite the nursery rhymes, they can be allowed to supply their own rhyming words. Apart from nursery rhymes, regular children’s books can be used to teach rhymes since a feature of many of these is an abundance of rhymes. Teachers can also use appropriate songs from famous Caribbean artists. This would help students to understand how applicable what they are learning is to their daily lives.

Alliteration occurs when consecutive or closely connected words in a sentence begin with the same sound (e.g. Peter picked a peck of peppers). Thus, to raise the students’ sensitivity to beginning sounds in words, we can expose them to sentences, songs and stories in which there is alliteration. Once we get our students to see the sound patterns, we can then get them to infuse their own words into the sentences, songs or stories to extend the alliterative patterns. Using the sentence above, we can model extending it by making it ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’, then ask students to have fun by adding to the sentences. It does not matter whether or not the sentences make sense.

The emphasis is on the students recognising and producing the target sounds. In fact, young children will have more fun when silly, nonsensical sentences are produced.

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Sentence segmentation involves activities that help students to recognise that sentences are divided into words. Sometimes we take it for granted that because our very young students can utter words, they are explicitly aware of the discrete words in sentences. Young children, for example, quite often think that the syllables in multisyllabic words are individual words, especially when the syllables do sound like familiar words. For example, they think that the ‘for’ and the ‘got’ in ‘forgot’ are separate words.

To help our students to recognise the individual words in sentences, it is imperative that we again model activities then get them to participate. For example, as we read sentences, we can use our fingers or any object in the classroom to represent each word that we call. The key is to help them to recognise each word. Once they can do that, we can have them clap for each word as we read to them, or snap their fingers or stamp their feet. Again, creativity is the key. It does not matter what we get the students to use as markers for the words. The important thing is to ensure that the class is enlivened and that the students have fun.

Activities related to syllables are of two types: segmenting and combining. These two skills prepare students for the eventual sophisticated task of segmenting phonemes (dividing words into individual sounds) and blending phonemes (putting the sounds back together). Syllables are units of spoken words that are larger than phonemes. We will get back to the concept of syllables later when we explore activities for phonics. Once our students can segment and combine syllables in words they are well on their way to phonemic awareness. The activities for segmenting syllables are pretty similar to that of sentence segmentation. Again, it is important to model the activity to help the students to understand the concept of syllabication. Activities that have students counting, clapping out, or stamping to syllables can bring great excitement into the early literacy classroom.

Once the students have broken a word into syllables, the next thing is to bring it back together. Combining syllables also calls for modelling. We have to let our students hear us run the syllables back together then invite them to do the same. One way to help them to combine syllables is to play the game ‘Three Cheers’ (Cooper & Kiger, 2003).

Give it a Go! In this activity students are given the opportunity to say the word three times as a cheer. Thus, for the word ‘banana’, the teacher will say it slowly while stressing each syllable (ba-na-na), then the students will chant ‘banana, banana, banana’.

Onset and rime activities bring children one step away from phonemic awareness. Onsets and rimes are families of words that end with the same vowel and consonant cluster, with the beginning consonant or cluster of consonants being the onset and the rest of the word from the vowel being the rime (Vukelich, Christie & Enz, 2008). Let us for example use the words ‘lake, rake, sake, fake and stake’ to get a better understanding of the concept of onset and rime. Clearly, all five words belong to the same family in that they have the same ending. In all of these words, the rime is ‘ake’ with the beginning consonant (l, r, s and f) or consonant cluster (st) being the onset. The concept of word families will come up again in phonics as students link sound to letter representation

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom  51

but here, as with all the other subcomponents of phonological awareness, onset and rime activities are purely oral. Therefore, it is the sounds the students will be concentrating on and not the spelling of the word families.

As with syllabication activities, it is important that we give students the opportunity to use markers to represent the word parts (the onset and the rime). Thus, for example, as we say the word, we should ask our students to put down objects such as beads or blocks to represent each part they hear. Additionally, they can clap, stamp or snap their fingers to indicate that they recognise the sounds of the word parts.

Phonemic awareness, as we discussed before, is the most sophisticated subcomponent of phonological awareness. There is research evidence pointing to the power of children being phonemically aware. It has been found that phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of success in learning to read (Adams, 1990), and that as early as Grade 1, the difference between good readers and weaker readers is often accounted for by the students’ phonemic awareness (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg & Beeler, 1998). Unfortunately, for many of our children acquiring phonemic awareness is difficult, and time needs to be given to these activities. As we mentioned earlier when we discussed the distinction among the three related terms (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics), phonemic awareness is the consciousness that words in speech are made up of individual sounds (phonemes). Children who are phonemically aware are not only able to recognise individual phonemes but can also segment, blend and manipulate them. It is imperative that we expose our students to these activities because once they can segment, blend and manipulate phonemes they will then be able to apply the same principles when they move on to letter-sound relationships. Let us now therefore explore how we can help our students not only to recognise phonemes in spoken words but also to segment, blend and manipulate them.

Phoneme recognition is the first of the skills on which we should concentrate. Initially, this can pose significant problems for young children. For many words the phonemes seem to fuse together and it is not easy for children to discern where one begins and the other ends. For this reason, Yopp (1992) strongly suggests that we should expose our students to direct instruction. To help our students to recognise individual phonemes in words, Yopp and Yopp (2000) suggest that we can for example show them pictures (e.g. cat, bird, monkey) and ask which begins with the /b/ sound. Shanker and Ekwall (2003) suggest that we start with one-syllable words (e.g. bat, tip, sit) and ask them to identify the sound at the beginning, middle or ending, depending on the focus of the instruction.

Initially, also, we should avoid using words with consonant clusters such as blends (e.g. pl, pr, tr, str) or digraphs (e.g. ch, th, sh) since they can present unnecessary difficulties for the students. In Chapter 4, when we explore phonics, we will return to the concept of consonant clusters.

Phoneme segmentation allows students to separate words into their constituent parts.

Again, it’s a good idea to begin this type of activity with small one-syllable words. As we say a word (e.g. sat), stretching it out into its individual parts (/s/ pause /a/ pause /t/), we should ask our students to identify the various sounds. We should also give the students

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the opportunity to separate the words themselves phoneme by phoneme and identify the sounds they hear. Once they can do this, we need to teach them how to blend.

Give it a Go! In this game, the teacher tells the class that s/he is thinking of an object, and then says its name enunciating each phoneme (e.g. /b/-- /a/-- /t/). The students are then asked to blend the sounds together and come up with the name of the object.

Phoneme blending, like phoneme segmenting, is best introduced using simple one-syllable words. Initial activities towards blending are also more likely to be effective if we use concrete words linked to objects, animals and people that the students can identify. Yopp (1992) suggests the game ‘What am I thinking of?’ as an example of a good activity to introduce phoneme blending.

As with all these activities, it is important that we first model them. Once they can recognise, segment and blend, we should then help our students to manipulate phonemes, that is, deleting and substituting.

Manipulating phonemes involves the deleting of phonemes where either the initial or ending phoneme is dropped from a word (e.g. dropping the /p/ from /p/ /i/ /t/ to form /i/ /t/), and substituting the initial or ending phoneme for another (e.g. replacing the /p/ in /p/ /i/ /t/ with /h/ to form /h/ /i/ /t/). Both deleting and substituting phonemes build naturally on phoneme blending. Thus, once we get our students to, for example, blend the phonemes of the word ‘pit’, we can then ask them to drop the first sound and say what the sounds that remain are. They will then blend the remaining sounds to say /i/ /t/. Similarly, we can ask them to give a new sound for the beginning of the word and then let them identify the new word (e.g. /h/ for /p/ to form /h/ /i/ /t/). A good book to use for substituting is Dr Seuss’s There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. In this book, Dr Seuss manipulates words through substitution (e.g. wocket for pocket). The interesting thing about Dr Seuss’s book is that after the substitution many of the words are nonsensical but still help children with the substitution skill. Importantly, the children have fun playing with words and through their creative energy come up with novel words.

Dr Seuss and other books can be used to heighten students’ phonological sensitivity as they move along the phonological awareness continuum. We will now turn our attention to shared reading, an activity that relies on books to help develop literacy among our students.

Shared Reading Shared reading continues with the trend of oral work that our very young charges need.

It is built on the concept that children should not be denied access to literature simply because they cannot yet read or because the material is too difficult for them. O’Donnell and Wood (2004), though acknowledging that shared reading can be used at any level, strongly advocate it to initiate children into reading. This approach, which is credited to Holdaway (1979), acknowledges that reading aloud to young children is in itself a powerful tool to teach reading. Shared reading, also referred to as shared book experience, is described as an approach that ‘develops children’s awareness of the purpose of print through the use of enlarged versions of favourite stories, poems and songs’ (O’Donnell and Wood, 2004, p. 78). Shared reading is about the teacher scaffolding, modelling and

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 53

giving direction to help the students to grow in their awareness and understanding of literacy. Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005), in providing some guidance, suggest that at the beginning we would do the reading in the classroom. As our students gain understanding and awareness of literacy, the interactions will become more shared where the students are leading the reading and we are doing the following. However, to get to this point, we are expected to continuously model positive literacy behaviour.

So how does shared reading work? Using steps outlined by Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005) let us explore it procedurally to show how we can make it happen. To do this, we will also use the reading process, which we outlined earlier, as a guide, adapted from Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005).

Shared Reading Materials A book large enough to follow for all involved to see both the text and the pictures. As the children’s reading skills develop, multiple copies of the book can be distributed to students for them to follow along as the text is read.

Pre-reading • Show the children the cover of the book.

• Ask them to predict what the book will be about.

• Read the title, and then ask if there are any more predictions.

• Tell the children that you are going to take them on a ‘picture walk’ through the book. As you go through each page, let the students discuss what is happening in the pictures. The great thing about this activity is that it links reading to two other language arts: speaking and listening.

Reading • Go back to the beginning of the book. Tell the students that this time you are going to read the words of the story.

• Read the title. As you read the title, point to the words. Read also the name of the author and illustrator, reminding or asking the students what these people do.

• Read each page in a way that brings the text alive. For example, give each character its own voice. As you read, point at each word. Ensure that the pointer is well above or below the word so that the students can get an unhindered view of the words and pictures on the page. After each page is read, you can have some conversation about what was read.

Responding • After the reading, invite general comments from the students. You could also have conversation about some dimension of the story. For example, you can talk about the characters, the rhyme or making connections between the children and events in the story. This should be planned to the point that you know the areas on which you will focus beforehand. Of course, there can be unplanned moments of instruction which you should never ignore.

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Exploring • You may choose to point out specific print awareness concepts within the text or you may point out specific focus words that occur often in the book. You may even decide to teach in a mini-lesson a related concept such as ‘words that rhyme’ (phonological awareness). Additionally, you can promote a conversation which compares the text with one read previously.

Applying • At this point, students can act out the story (visual representing), or together with the students, you engage in a shared writing activity where you for example write about a particular character in the story (linking reading and writing).

It is important to note that with young children one reading of a text is hardly ever enough. In fact, Soderman, Gregory and McCarty (2005) posit that the rereading is as important as the first reading. During the rereading they suggest activities such as reviewing concepts and skills learned previously as well as teaching new concepts and skills. The great thing about this strategy is that it allows (as was demonstrated) for the integration of the language arts.

It also provides space to pause to teach important skills such as those on the phonological awareness continuum. We will now turn our attention to a related strategy: shared writing.

Shared Writing Shared writing, based on the work of Moira McKenzie (1985), is a collaborative process involving teacher and students. While this activity can be conducted at any level, it is particularly ideal for very young students who are not yet able to write conventionally or at least have very limited conventional writing skills. In this type of writing, the emphasis is on composing where the teacher helps students to develop and organise ideas. According to McKenzie, while the students, with our help, compose a text, a primary role we should assume is that of scribe for their ideas since they are not yet writers. Therefore, although it is a shared writing activity, we as teachers have more than an equal role. We are charged with receiving our students’ ideas, and through our comments and questions sustain their interest and production of ideas. We should encourage them to think about appropriate language as we help them to elaborate, or to focus their text. McKenzie also emphasises the importance of us promoting discussion about the ideas and the whole process of writing. This discussion ultimately will help raise our students’ awareness and understanding of what writing is about and what readers can make of their writing. We can use a model for the conducting of interactive writing activities to illustrate how we can make it happen, adapted from Freeman (2003).

Shared Writing Talk about a common experience before writing. That common experience could be a field trip, a project or a book read in class (promoting talk).

List key words related to the common experience.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 55

With children contributing sentences using the key words and ideas, write the piece in front of the students on easel or board.

Display the word list and piece for children to review the vocabulary and to identify their contributions. The review process should take the form of a discussion. Questions such as the following should be asked: What do you think…? Should we include…? How about…?

Where shall we put…?

Make adjustments to the text based on the students’ suggestions during the discussion.

It’s actually a good idea to leave sufficient spaces between each line to allow for additions and adjustments.

If students cannot yet read conventionally, read the text to them (linking reading and writing).

Place it in a prominent place where they can see their work. Remember – it should be at the students’ eye level.

Freeman (2003) suggests that we use shared writing to reinforce print principles: the left to right movement of text or ending sentences with full stops. To facilitate this, she advises that we talk aloud as we write to show what our thought processes are. For example, we can say, ‘This is the end of the sentence so we need a full stop’ or ‘We are starting a new sentence so we must begin with a capital letter’ or ‘We used the word huge before, so we could try gigantic instead since they have similar meanings.’ By observing us modelling our thought processes, the students are able to get a sense of what writers do and apply the principles in their own writing as they themselves blossom as writers.

Interactive Writing As with shared writing, interactive writing provides an excellent opportunity for us to model conventional writing and to support our students as they write. It occurs when the teacher and young children share the writing experience, that is, they collaborate on constructing the text to be written and write it together (Tompkins, 2009; Cox, 2008). In essence, it helps our students to extend their understanding of how written language is constructed and apply what they are learning about written language to their own practice.

While the ultimate goal of shared writing and interactive writing is the same – helping our students to compose the text – the major difference lies in the amount of help we provide during the actual act of writing. In shared writing, we the teachers are primarily the scribes but with interactive writing we share the pen with our students. However, the amount of sharing or support that we provide is dependent on the writing levels of our students (Tompkins, 2009). O’Donnell and Wood (2004) also stress that while trying to keep a balance between student writing and teacher writing, it is paramount that the sessions be kept short and interesting.

Let us now consider how interactive writing sessions could be executed, by using the model (p. 56) for the conducting of interactive writing activities we can apply its suggestions as we make it happen, adapted from Tompkins (2009) and O’Donnell and Wood (2004).

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Interactive Writing Present a stimulus activity or set a purpose for the writing activity. The stimulus could be in the form of reading a book. Thus, the book read in the shared reading activity could be used as the stimulus.

Ask the students to gather around an easel or other writing surface with chart paper attached. They should be able to see the paper and be able to reach it easily when asked to come forward to help with the writing.

Sit next to the easel and write clearly with a dark marker. Let the students hear your thoughts as you write (‘thinking aloud’). Thinking aloud works as a scaffold in that they can hear your ideas (which they can extend by sharing in the writing), plus they are able to gain insights into your thought process as you write. In essence, you are modelling writing behaviour.

Invite students to come forward and contribute by making contributions to the writing.

Their writing contributions can be, for example, in the form of word parts, whole words or a sentence depending on their writing development. You should complete words or sentences where necessary. The writing task that you give the students should be dependent on the objective you want to achieve. For example, you may want the students to come up and write the first letter of words in sentences to focus on capital letters.

Teachers often use one colour marker to write and let students use another. In that way the teacher is able to keep track of what students can do. You could, for example, keep a poster of upper and lower case letters for students to consult when they are unsure about a particular letter form. After each word is written, you can ask a child to act as a ‘spacer’ by using his or her hand to mark the space between words and sentences. You should get students to reread the sentence from the beginning each time a new word is completed. When appropriate, the teacher will draw students’ attention to capital letters, punctuation and other conventions of print. You could even teach a mini-lesson to address a particular concept Ask students to add artwork to finish the writing chart (visual representing).

Post the finished piece in the classroom and have the students reread the text using shared reading (linking reading to writing).

Interactive writing can be applied for whole classes or small groups. Although interactive in nature, it is not easy to get each student involved in the writing task in a whole class situation. Thus, many teachers prefer to apply it in small groups. Additionally, because the text is edited as the writing takes place, some teachers do not like its focus on correctness. They argue that children are then influenced to focus on correctness in every writing task at a time when they should be experimenting with ‘invented’ spelling as they grapple to master letter-sound relationships. We must be mindful of this criticism and seek to find ways to allow our students to take risks and experiment while writing.

Key Points •

There are some key activities that promote literacy at the emergent literacy stage.

These are: phonological awareness activities, shared reading, shared writing and interactive writing. These activities are not confined to the emergent literacy stage.

Literacy in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom 57

• • •

•

Phonological awareness exists on a continuum with five broad sets of skills that children need to acquire as they progress on the continuum: rhyme and alliteration; sentence segmentation; syllable segmentation; onset and rime; and phonemic awareness.

Shared reading is an excellent tool that teachers should use to expose children to literature/print at the emergent literacy stage. Shared reading is guided by a five-step process: 1) pre-reading, 2) reading, 3) responding, 4) exploring, 5) applying.

Shared writing is another excellent tool to promote literacy skills at the early developmental stages when children have limited conventional writing skills. Shared writing focuses on composing. The teacher plays an important part in helping children to develop and organise their ideas.

Interactive writing, like shared writing, allows teachers and children to collaborate on writing tasks. The main difference between shared writing and interactive writing is the amount of assistance that the teacher receives with the actual writing of the text. In shared writing, the teacher does most of the transcribing; in interactive writing, the teacher and children share the pen. Although this distinction between the two is highlighted, it is important to note that the level of assistance provided by the children in interactive writing is still dependent on the children’s writing levels.

Conclusion As we move to the next chapter related to initial and transitional literacy, it is important that it is stressed that the activities outlined in this chapter and the upcoming one are not prescriptive. They are merely guides, which we could use to help our students on their journey to literacy. We should feel free to let loose our creative energy as we guide our students. These activities in essence could be adopted wholesale, but importantly we should feel free to modify them to meet the needs of our students and our local contexts.

Remember, reading and writing are connected, thus we should not for example believe that we should deliver the writing activities in one session and the reading in another.

Sometimes we can do so, but should make the connection between the two. The connection could be through the use of a theme as we discussed in the previous chapter.

It also could be simply by using what was done in one activity as a platform for the other.

Creatively, we can also combine activities in interesting ways to meet the needs of our students. Each of us will do this differently depending on our creative styles.

Questions/Activities Why is a print-rich environment necessary in early literacy development?

Plan a lesson that will involve your students in speaking and listening activities.

Plan a lesson that involves your class in shared reading and writing. Select a book that can be read together and then be used to prompt discussion and shared writing about a character in the story.

Note 1 A phoneme is represented by its letter placed between two slanted lines as in /m/.

The Complete Caribbean Teacher

S. Joel Warrican This literacy teaching methodology text presents the unique challenges surrounding literacy development in the Caribbean whilst at the same time outlining best-practice approaches and strategies for the classroom.

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Teachers in training are provided with guidelines and examples to help develop their craft as literacy practitioners.

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Practising teachers will find alternative ideas for developing literacy skills in the classroom by the introduction of non-traditional approaches and strategies to enhance their repertoire. At the same time best practice with traditional approaches are emphasised.

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Institutions including universities, teacher-training colleges, schools and libraries will find this an invaluable coursebook and reference resource.

Additional resources for instructors can be found at: www.pearsoncaribbean.com/completeteacher

“A complete instructional guide and companion for Caribbean teachers in teacher-training institutions and practitioners in educational settings from Early Childhood to college and university levels. It educates, instructs and empowers all literacy practitioners and takes them to the threshold for leadership and advocacy for literacy development in the Caribbean that is informed by classroom-evidence based research” Dr Paulette Feraria, Lecturer, Language & Literature Education Advocate and Activist for Social Literacy in School and Community Mona School of Education University of the West Indies

www.pearsoncaribbean.com

S. Joel Warrican

S. Joel Warrican has been in the field of education for over 25 years, with teaching experience at all levels, from nursery to tertiary. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Language and Literacy Education from the University of the West Indies as well as a Master of Philosophy degree in Research Methods and a Doctorate in Education in Language and Literacy, both from the University of Cambridge. A trained teacher himself, Dr. Warrican has worked as the teacher training specialist with the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Teacher Training (CETT), the largest regional literacy initiative. He has a number of respected publications in the field of language and literacy education.

The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy

Literacy

The Complete Caribbean Teacher

Literacy S. Joel Warrican