Title: Developmental Strategies for early literacy: Where are we and where should we be going
1Developmental Strategies for early literacy
Where are we and where should we be going?
- Professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
- Temple University
2Early childhood on the front page!
- Learning starts here
- Born learning
- Civitas Family and work institute
- No child left behind
- Government accountability
- Americas promise
- Marketable skills
3WHY? Because
- The gap between rich and poor
- 25 of low income families have fewer than 10 age
appropriate books in their homes (Whitehurst) - Vocabulary disparities
- Children ages 0-6 are spending more time on
entertainment media than on reading, being read
to and playing outside combined (Rideout, 2003) - Language and literacy skills are the single best
predictors of later academic success
4WHY? Because
- There is a clear research basis telling us which
developmental strategies work for promoting
language and literacy - We know that intervention helps!
- Head Start
- Early Childhood Longitudinal Study
- High Scope
- Abecedarian
5A talk in 6 parts
- Introduction
- Burnout on the front lines
- Language Development
- The foundation for reading
- Narrative development
- Where language meets reading
- Literacy
- Writing
- A partner for reading
- Conclusions
6Burnout on the front lines
- Even if it is with the best of intentions.
7Examining the pressures
- No Child Left Behind
- Good idea /bad execution
- Accountability
- Outcomes vs. process
- Testing The problem
- You cant fatten a pig by weighing it
- Closing the gap between teaching and testing
- Forging a new road
- from language to narrative to literacy to
writing
8Language Development
- The foundation for reading
9What you see Landmarks in production
- 0-3mo coos, burps
- 3-6 mo coos laughs, cries, gurgles
- 6-9 mo babbling turn taking pat-a-cake
- 9-12mo points first words Bam Bam
- 12-18mo 2 words per week 50 words at
- 18 mo., names for body parts, animals, imitates
- 18-24 mo naming explosion Whas sat?
- Talk about here and now loves stories over and
overfollows simple commands
10What you see continued
- 2-3 yrs 500 words asks questions
- past tense Wh- sits 20 minutes WHY? pronounce
clearly - m,n,f,b,d,h,y uses fuller sentences
with in, and on. girls might appear to
stutter - 3-4 yrs 800 words contractions - wont
- cant can follow plot in story line time words
- morning afternoon adds sounds k,g,r,l may
still distort v,sh,ch,j and th wonderful new
made-up words like, Michael wave or vampire
11What you see continued
- 4-5 yrs 2000 words speaks clearly most
- of the time can make up stories use complex
sentences still might mispronounce
s,r,th,t,v,sh,ch, j. - 5-7 yrs retells stories with more depth
- participates in discussions learns
relationships like big/little/happy/sad - 1st grade 11,000 words
- 3rd grade 20,000 words
- 5th grade 40, 000 words
- YOU 52,000 words
- Big jump in school age What causes this?
Addition of derived words like sadness, manager
Kids seems to have root words and inflected words
and idioms but greatly add in compounds and
derived words
12Beyond words to conversations
- Building vocabulary through dialogue
- Questions not answers
- Playing with language
- Jokes
- Games
- Youre mama.
13Cautionary notes
- Pediatricians have had this chart for a long time
- Different strokes for different folks
- Groups
- Individuals
- Its not all over at 4 years!
- There is a lot of variation and what I showed you
are just general guides to the patterns in
language development
14The role of language in reading
15Two models
16(No Transcript)
17Direct
18Given the importance of language for reading..
- What can you do to help language growth?
19Enhancing language
- Talk with not at children
- Hart and Risley
- Responsive, contingent conversations on their
topic of interest - Read, read, read and read some more
- Dialogic reading (Whitehurst)
- Vocabulary games
- Snark, snarkist, snarkly
- Taking the Latin and Greek out of English
- Heal and health
- Tell stories -- from you, jointly
20Narrative
- Structuring the stories of our lives
21Stories
- The role of stories
- From Thanksgiving to Christmas
- Grids for experience
- Decontextualized language
- Distance between sender and receiver
- Complex sentence structure
- High degree of cohesion
22The Structure of Narrative
- Setting (place, characters)
- Initiating event
- Problem
- Resolution
- Most 3 year olds have setting,
- most 5 or 6 year olds have parts with no
embellishment, - most 10 year olds have full plots.
23Cross cultural differences
- Asian
- mouth is source of misfortune
- African American
- topic association rather than topic centered
performance, exaggeration - Caucasian American
- Topic centered rather than topic association
- Respect individual differences!
24Literacy
25A definition
The earliest sign of a childs interest in and
abilities related to reading and writing.
Whitehurst Lonigan, 1998
The case of 12 month old Kelly and 21 month old
Jim
26Key components of emergent literacy
- Phonemic awareness
- To understand that speech is composed of units
- Letter recognition
- The ability to associate letters with appropriate
sounds - Awareness of print
- The understanding of print and word conventions
- Early writing development
- Attempts to produce written text (scribbling,
invented spelling) - Oral development
- Vocabulary, discourse and narrative
27How we help children learn these skills?
- Talk with them
- Tell stories
- Read aloud and expose children to print
- Targeted learning of code skills and phonological
development
28Reading aloud
- Going beyond the covers of the book
- Reading the same thing over and over and over
again - Using the book as a spark for conversation
29Reading aloud What to avoid
- Shushing --
- the technical term for forcing silence
- Reading every word as is with no breaks
- Meaningless reading that children cant identify
with or understand - Spot the dog
30Targeting Phonological SkillsCode learning
- Pointing out similar sounds
- Rhyming games
- Singing
- An example
- Playing the alphabet games
- What starts with this letter/sound?
- Creating print rich environments
31What to avoid
- Boring repetition with no meaning
- Only learning the 10 letters of the alphabet
- Why MNOP is one letter!
32Writing
33Writing as.
- The right arm of reading
- Tell a story -- write a story
- Writing as relevant
- Labeling your clothes
- Getting your way
- What you can do
- Writing letters on issues that matter for
children - Writing to stuffed animals or Santa Clause
- You tell the end of a story and have the children
write the beginning
34Interventions that work
- Creating language rich environments
- The castle on the hill -- in the classroom
- Creating literacy rich environments
- Signs and charts
- Telling stories
- While -- building forts, blowing bubbles
- Learning to play and playing to learn
- PLAY LEARNING
35Conclusions
36Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards
Program Standard Early care and education
programs in Wisconsin will provide the
environment, context, and opportunities for
children to develop their abilities to listen and
understand.
37The way out of the crisis in education
- Think process not just product
- How you learn is as important as what you learn
- Reclaim education
- Its for educators not for business people.
Children are not widgets. - Close the gap
- between what we know about how children learn and
what we are doing in the classroom - Add PLAY to the equation
38Then we will have
Smart and happy children in our classrooms today
who become sensitive and creative adults in the
workplace of tomorrow