Emergent Literacy Chapter 4 Cohen and Cowan

What is Emergent Literacy?

Key Terms Alphabetic principle Phonemic awareness Reading readiness Cognitive development Auditory perception Visual perception Motor skills Shared literacy experience Zone of proximal development Invented spelling Graphemes

Emergent literacy…. Begins before formal instruction Learning about reading, writing and print Understand functions of print Alphabetic principle Phonological awareness Storybook reading

Strong Relationship between Language development and Literacy skills..

“What the child learns at home is the foundation for all literacy development.”

Emergent Literacy vs. Reading “readiness”

Cognitive Development Concept development Language development Listening development Classification* Quantitative skills (more than; #’s)

By Kindergarten 8000 words (know almost all basic grammatical forms of their language)

Components Phonological awareness Experiences with Print Experiences with using language Letter recognition Storybook Reading

Invented Spelling 5 Stages: –Precommunicative (3-6 yrs.) –Semiphonetic 1-2 letters; consonants 5-9 –Phonetic (others can figure it out) 6-12 –Transitional (vowels; “real”) 7-12 –Conventional 8-adult

Zone of Proximal Development Gap between child’s actual development and his potential development (Child receives instruction in the zone; therefore work is a little hard) »(Vygotsky)

Experiences that promote EL Shared literacy zone of proximal development Invented spelling Phonemic awareness

Identifying special needs Children Inadequate motor development Language delays Speech disorders Poor cognitive development

Are computers appropriate for this age?

Assessment Portfolios Checklists Anecdotal records Published tests Systematic observation