1. Stages of Literacy Development

2. Literacy begins at birth.
Prior to schooling literacy is made possible by providing children with a literacy-rich environment in which they are able to participate in literacy activities and interact with item such as books, paper, markers, etc.

3. Literacy experiences prior to schooling develop:
Interest in books
Interest in environmental print
Enjoyment in reading with an adult
Ability to describe pictures in books
Ability to label pictures
Beginning stages of writing

4. The Four Stages of Literacy During the Early Years of Schooling
Emergent ( Pre-School – 1st )
Early ( 1st – 2nd )
Early Fluent ( 2nd – 3rd )
Fluent ( 3rd - 4th )

5. Characteristics of Emergent Readers and Writers:
Understand that written words have meaning
Begin to match spoken words with the print
Pretend to read by turning pages of books and
inventing stories using the pictures
Identify some letters and some letter sound associations
Recognize some words and letters in books or in their
environment
Inconsistent with the concepts of word and letter
Write some letters
Write in scribbles or strings of random letters
Read their writing, but may not be able to re-read it later
Match some words to print

6. Experiences for Emergent Readers and Writers:
Seeing reading and writing modeled by adults
Reading predictable books with pictures
Experimentation with writing
Build letter and sound recognition
Rhyming and word play
Oral and written language activities

7. Characteristics of Early Readers:
Understand that reading needs to make sense
Attentive to print
Identify most letters by name
Able to use some letter/sound knowledge to decode some words
Aware of some punctuation and capitalization, but may not use them consistently in their writing and reading
Recognize some sight words
Use pictures, story patterns, context, and phonics to read

8. Characteristics of Early Writers:
Use spaces between words, inconsistently
Spell using some sound/letter associations
Able to re-read own writing most of the time
May mix upper and lower case letters and may reverse some letters

9. Experiences for Early Readers/Writers:
Exposure to shared and guided reading
Modeling and teaching of strategies to figure out words and make sense of print
Games and activities to increase sight word recognition
Games and activities to build phonemic awareness
Encouragement to write using invented spelling
Language experience activities
Discussing and retelling stories read aloud

10. Characteristics of Early Fluent/Fluent Readers:
Recognize many words in and out of context
Apply phonics and other strategies to figure out new words
Monitor their reading for meaning and self correction
Read with increased fluency, accuracy, and expression

11. Early Fluent/Fluent Writers:
Use drafting, revising and editing in their writing
Express their ideas more elaborately
Use more conventional spelling
Increase their use of punctuation

12. Experiences for Early Fluent/Fluent Readers/Writers:
Opportunity to read and discuss challenging texts
Practice reading for meaning using comprehension strategies
Reading to build accuracy, fluency, and expression
Silent reading
Continue writing using strategies for revision and editing
Discussing a variety of literacy types

13. At this point..
Literacy skills move from learning to read and write to learning from reading and writing.