 The terms beginning reading and writing or

early literacy development actually include

several phases of learning through which
children progress in different ways and
tempos.
 It is an exciting and complex process.
 As in most other areas of development, all
children do not follow one clear sequential
path in lock-step.
 Rather, individual children may take a variety
of routes to reading and writing mastery.
 Literacy learning is circular or "recursive";
learners may move forward in some areas
and seem to step back as they consolidate
understanding in others.
 Thus, reading and writing may not develop
evenly.
 A child may be fluent in one area and
emergent in another.
 Ultimately however, whatever the timetable
or path, the goals are the same for all:
 to become fluent and efficient readers and writers
who can make sense of and convey meaning in
written language;
 to become thinkers and communicators who are
actively reviewing and analyzing information;
 to enjoy reading and writing; and,
 to feel successful as users of literacy for a variety
of purposes.
 understand that written language conveys
messages 
 pretend read and write: they turn pages of
books, invent the story using pictures and their
memory of a story
 begin to match spoken words with print
 may know some letter names and some letter
sound associations
 may recognize some words and letters in their
environment or in texts; but not again in a
different context; they may still be unsure of the
concept of "word" or "letter“
 can write some letters, usually those in their own
names
 in writing may reverse some letters, and may use
mostly upper case letters
 may make scribbles or strings of random letters
with no spaces; one letter may represent a
whole word
 May read or attribute meaning to his or her
marks; may not be able to "re-read" these marks
at a later time.
Children in this phase benefit from:
 seeing reading and writing modeled through
listening to good stories and seeing others
write meaningful messages
 supported practice while reading and
engaging predictable books with pictures
that clearly relate to and illustrate the story
line
Children in this phase benefit from:
 encouragement to experiment with writing
 experience with sorting words and pictures to
build letter and sound recognition
 experience with rhyming and other word play
 activities that engage students in using oral
and written language
 know that reading needs to make sense
 are more attentive to print and know more
print conventions
 understand that books have exact and
unchanging messages carried by print as well
as pictures
 can identify most letters by name, and can
use some letter/sound knowledge (i.e.: the
sound of the first letter) to help figure out
words.
 know the meaning of some punctuation
(capitals), but may not use consistently in
writing and reading
 can recognize, by sight, a small but growing
store of words in different contexts
Early Writers:
 use spaces between words, but not
consistently
 include more sound/letter associations in
spelling, especially initial or final consonants;
may write some whole words or word parts
(like "ing") from memory
Early Writers:
 can usually re-read his or her own writing
 have variable handwriting: may use more
lower case letters, but still could be mixed
with caps, may reverse some letters (writing
b instead of d)
Children in this phase benefit from:
 continued exposure to shared and guided
reading of pattern stories and other
predictable books, with clear print and
pictures
 modeling and explicit teaching of and
practice with strategies to figure out words
and make sense of print
Children in this phase benefit from:
 games, activities to consolidate voice/print
match and build sight word recognition
 games and activities to build phonemic
awareness
 language experience activities
 hearing, discussing, retelling a variety of
stories read aloud
 recognize many words in and out of context
 can apply phonics and other word analysis
skills to figure out and confirm new words
 monitor their own reading for meaning and
self correct as needed
 read with increased fluency, accuracy, and
expression
Early Fluent/Fluent Writers
 are more comfortable with drafting, revising
and editing
 show influence of the texts they have read
 express their ideas more elaborately
 use spelling that is closer to conventional
spelling
 increase their use of punctuation
Children in this phase benefit from:
 continued opportunities to read and discuss a
variety of increasingly challenging and
personally meaningful texts
 continued practice reading for meaning using
various strategies: integrating cuing systems,
self monitoring and self correcting
 exposure to and practice with more aspects
of word analysis
Children in this phase benefit from:
 practice building accuracy, fluency,
expression
 practice reading silently
 guidance and practice with specific
comprehension strategies
 encouragement to continue writing with
increasing support for revision and editing
 hearing and discussing a variety of literature
read aloud
Making Connections Between New and
Known Information
 All readers bring to the reading/writing
process their own growing knowledge of
language, the world and their understandings
of how print is used to convey meaning.
 A child who is often read to, or who regularly
sees adults reading and writing for personal
tasks and pleasure will expect that reading and
writing play useful roles in life and are valued
activities.
 A child who has limited exposure to reading and
writing will have very different expectations and
understandings.
 Each of these situations, however, provides
some of the background knowledge that
children bring to the act of reading and writing.
 Effective teaching fosters of reading and
writing as purposeful and meaningful acts,
and builds on learners' diverse areas of
knowledge through thoughtful selection of
reading materials and activities.
 For example, a child is interested in and
knowledgeable about dinosaurs will be well
equipped to explore a new book about these
prehistoric creatures.
 Another child who is less familiar with
dinosaurs may be equally intrigued by the
same book, but will benefit from some
preliminary introduction to the content.
 For example, before reading, the child might
spend time looking at a variety of pictures of
dinosaurs--skeletons as well as "life-like"
images, or talking about when they existed,
or what they ate.
 Activating background knowledge before
reading is an important step that is often
overlooked in teaching young readers.
 As an experienced reader, you use your
background knowledge automatically,
without realizing it.
 If a child is about to read a book about a
Farm, subconsciously the child can have
mental images about a farm looks like.
 Beginning readers, too, need to learn to use
their own background knowledge.
 Helping them activate and extend this
knowledge and selecting texts that build on
what they already know or understand about
their world support their attempts to make
sense of what they are reading.
 If chilren do not have any background
knowledge on the topic of the reading
material that is to be used, then:
 every effort should be made to build that
knowledge through prior discussion,
 looking at pictures or objects, or
 through other means before introducing the new
text.
 It will lead to much greater success with the
reading experience.
 The experience of learning a new language can
vary significantly from one individual to the next.
 If the child has not had any formal reading and
writing instruction in his/her first language there
are several ways in which you can proceed.
 If the child has received instruction in reading
and writing in his/her first language, the process
will be slightly different.
Speed and fluency with a new language will vary
from one child to the next.
 Like adults, children vary in the speed with
which they acquire a new language.
 Some children may have perfect pronunciation,
but may not understand the meaning of the
words they speak, and
 Some children may communicate well with
peers in the playground or park, but may not
understand any of the words spoken by a
teacher at school.
 Language acquisition is a very complex
process that may not always follow a straight
path.
 A student may appear to be communicating
with increasing regularity, but then will
become silent and shy.
 While an observer might see an apparent
decrease in the student's language skills, a
teacher may understand that this is part of
the natural course of learning a new
language.
 The learner is simply more aware of the
language he or she doesn't understand, and
therefore is more shy about participating in
conversation.