DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE LITERACY INSTRUCTION AT THE PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN LEVEL

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE LITERACY INSTRUCTION AT THE PRE-SCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN LEVEL 

By Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

          In effective child-centered classrooms,  the goal is to create the conditions whereby all students can develop their full literacy capacities.  This occurs when children are engaged in authentic literacy experiences, with explicit modeling, scaffolded instruction, and lots of time to practice reading and writing.  (By the way, these same conditions should be applied to literacy learning at all levels.)  

Direct and Explicit Skills Instruction  

    Child-centered approaches to literacy instruction use very direct and explicit instruction to teach alphabetics, phonics, and phonemic awareness and other sub-skills.  However, these sub-skills are taught in ways that are developmentally appropriate and in the context of authentic reading and writing.  While a skills-based approach starts with direct instruction of sub-skills and moves on to real reading and writing later; a child-centered approach immerses students in authentic reading and writing experiences first; then teaches essential skills within that context.  This is actually results in more-direct instruction than a skills-based approach.  Here the necessary skills are taught in the direct context in which they are used.  Also, students are not asked to make a link between abstract skills taught in one context and real life literacy in another context.

        Learning to read and write cannot be reduced to simply mastering a predefined set of sub-skills.  Instead, early literacy learning is more like systems theory in that there is an interrelationship among multiple elements: linguistic, cognitive, emotional, and social systems (Dickinson, McCabe, & Essex, 2006), as well as knowledge and experience (Neuman, 2006).  Each element reinforces as well as draws upon the other.  Thus, an effective child-centered approach focuses on nurturing and developing each of these elements in developmentally appropriately ways.

Developmentally Appropriate Instruction

          There is a reason why effective kindergarten instruction does not look like instruction in first grade: Kindergarten is not first grade.  There are certain types of instruction and experiences that are very effective for older students, but are simply not developmentally appropriate for young children (IRA & NAEYC, 1998).  Thus, you want to avoid what is called the push-down curriculum.  This is where a first grade curriculum gets pushed down into kindergarten or pre-school. 

          Keep in mind that children’s brains are not adult brains in miniature.  Children think in qualitatively different ways then adults.  They also think in qualitatively different ways at different stages of development.  Thus, instruction for young children must be developmentally appropriate.  Sooner does not mean faster.  More of something does not mean better.   From a developmental stand point, educational experiences must fit students’ social, emotional, cognitive, and physical developmental levels.   This does not mean that you can’t address alphabetics, phonics, and phonemic awareness in pre-school and kindergarten classrooms.  It does mean that the form that this instruction takes should be developmentally appropriate.  It’s not the ‘what’ as much as the ‘how’.  Worksheets and time spent drilling and practicing are not developmentally appropriate practices at the emergent levels.  Most instruction here should be incidental or involve play.  This is how young children learn.

Whole-to-Part-to-Whole Instruction

           Learning complex skills (such as reading and writing) is most efficient when addressed whole-to-part-to-whole (Donnelly & Davidoff, 1999; Helmut, 2005; Julia, 2006;  Lim, Reiser, & Olina, 2009; Tanaka & Gauthier 1997). When learners can get a sense of the whole, they are better able to see where smaller bits (such as reading sub-skills) fit within this context.  Using this model, we want to get students immersed in authentic reading and writing experiences in pre-school and kindergarten.  We want them to read real books.  Now, their reading at this level may rely more on picture cues than letter cues, but they are creating meaning with print.  Activities include picture reading, pretend reading, echo reading, and choral reading.  As well, we want them to write real things.  Their writing may rely more on drawing than writing, but as the next section shows, there are developmentally appropriate ways to “teach” writing at this level.

       Early Literacy Instruction 

          So what does effective literacy instruction look like in a pre-school or kindergarten setting?  Below are described some of the developmentally appropriate practices you might see.  This is by no means an exhaustive or complete list, but it should provide you with a sense of the types of activities that are appropriate for literacy learners at this level. 

          1. Lots of talk. Teachers should be having conversations with children, directing their conceptual learning, as well as introducing new words into their vocabulary. Oral language ability, vocabulary and general knowledge are strong predictors of reading achievement and comprehension in the later grades (Biemiller, 2006; Neuman, 2006).  Thus, there should be individual and large group teacher-directed conversations as well as structured and unstructured opportunities for children to interact with other children.  Also, small bits of teaching, both planned and incidental, provide rich opportunities to build students’ knowledge based and vocabulary.

          2. Lots of reading. This reading should take a variety of forms.  Foremost are teachers reading books with children.  These provide opportunities for incidental learning about words and concepts found in the book.  This is also the place for the incidental teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics skills.  Example: “Boys and girls, this story is called, ‘Big Bunny’.  See the ‘B’?  It makes the ‘buh’ sound like ball and boy.”

            There should be narrative texts (stories) as well as expository text (informational books).  The classroom should be filled with lots of good books on a variety of subjects.  Big books are used as well, with the teacher pointing to individual words as they are read.  Sometimes children read along with the teacher (choral reading), other times the teacher reads a line of text and then children read it back (echo reading).  The teacher should also model the reading of lists, signs, and environmental print.  There is picture reading where children read or re-tell a story using the pictures in the book.  Children are provided lots of opportunities to talk about and explore books.  Finally, there should be recorded books on CD or on the Internet in which students can listen.  There should be head phone available.  With Internet texts, an ideal book highlights the words as they are read to the student. 

          3. Lots of writing. Large group writing should involve language experience activities where students are asked for ideas and the teacher records their ideas on a poster or board.  Example: “Boys and girls, yesterday we went to the zoo.  What should we say about that in our morning letter?  Who has an idea?”  The teacher then writes down what the student says, saying each word as she or he writes so students can see the letter-sound connection.  You want to have short sentences and grammatically correct sentences.  Thus it is acceptable to paraphrase and edit.  Choral reading or echo reading are used to practice fluency and word identification skills.  As will be shown in other places in the book, this is an excellent place for short, phonics mini-lessons. 

          Knowing that writing develops in stages, there should be lots of paper, pencils, white boards, child, or other writing utensils laying around for children to mess around with and explore.  Allowing time and opportunity for children to explore enhances the development of their literacy skills.

          Early writing takes the form of ‘driting’.  This is a combination of drawing and writing.  In writing a letter or story, the child starts with a drawing.  The teacher asks the child, “Tell me about your story.”  The teacher writes what the child says on the picture.  When the child proudly takes the letter or story home, it is used to practice reading.  

          Writing should also take the form of predictable stories..  Here an open ended sentence is written or printed with a space for students’ individual responses.  Student responses can be dictated or you can encourage them to write.  

           The teacher should model writing whenever possible to students.  Lists or reminders work well here. Example: “Boys and girls, I need to remind myself to take my apple to lunch.  What should I write?”  As students provide an idea, the teacher writes it on the board, sounding out each word as it is written.  You can also model writing posters and signs.  The point is, students see you using writing for real purposes.  You are able to teach and reinforce words and letter sounds in authentic, meaningful writing contexts.

          4. Play. Play is how children come to know the world.  It is the best modality for learning at the emergent level.  Play should be used to both introduce and reinforce skills and concepts.  For example, when teaching the /b/ sound, toys or objects that start with the letter /b/ would be labeled and featured.   When teaching a unit on birds, a teacher might have toys or figures related to birds with which children can play.  Games in which children have to match an object and pictures with letter sounds are effective.  Play could also involve flashcards and simple IPAD and computer games.

          5. Planned, systematic, direct, and explicit instruction. This may seem contradictory to the child-centered approach described above, but remember, it’s not the ‘what’; it’s the ‘how’ and the ‘how much’ that is important when considering direct instruction of reading sub-skills.  It is effective to systematically work your way through all the letter sounds using short bits of explicit instruction (30 seconds to no more than four or five minutes), followed by play or other creative and developmentally appropriate activities to reinforce the letter-sound.  It’s systematic because you keep a chart making note of the skills taught and the date.  You also keep a chart or checklist to record when you notice students’ mastering each sub-skill.  Not only are you using direct instruction here; but you are using direct assessment.  This same approach can be taken with sight words, phonograms, and phonemic awareness skills.

 MINI-LECTURES RELATED TO EMERGENT LITERACY 

Developmentally Appropriate Literacy Instruction for Young Children

Emergent Literacy vs. Reading Readiness 

Language Experience Approach 

Pre-School and Kindergarten Literacy Instruction 

Emergent Literacy 

Phonemic Awareness 

Emergent Literacy

         This is an excerpt from my book, 10 Essential Instructional Elements For Students With Reading Difficulties: A Brain-Friendly Approach, published by Corwin Press (2016). 

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