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Directed Learning Experience:

Essay Question #1:
Focus on Early Literacy
Jayme Allen-Vetz
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Scott
CIG 697
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Abstract

Early literacy is one of the most important topics in education due to the high

priority of setting an effective foundation for reading and writing in the early years. Early

literacy programs have been notorious for neglecting certain research based literacy skills

such as vocabulary development, comprehension, and writing. However, programs have

improved the implementation and recognition of students’ word reading skills.

Unfortunately, word-reading skills are not sufficient for learning the intricate skills of

reading and may lead to bigger gaps in other areas of literacy. When students reach the

upper grades and obtain absent literacy skills in certain areas, it is more difficult to

receive individualized instruction for improving their reading and writing. Early literacy

programs should include research-based practices of phonemic awareness, phonics,

vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing in order to improve literacy

skills throughout a child’s life. This paper discusses that caring teachers, culturally

responsive practices, and research-based reading and writing strategies create a quality

literacy program for helping children succeed.

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Early Literacy Program

Literacy opens up endless doors to new opportunities in life and helps ignite the

desire in people to learn more. Everyone should have access to quality literacy education

beginning in early childhood. Unfortunately, students that struggle with literacy skills at

the beginning of kindergarten are more likely to struggle with reading skills in 1st grade

(Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012). There is a high need for consistent, appropriate

programs in early literacy education. In fact, children’s literacy is viewed from the U.S.

Department of Education as the most important issue in American education and a

controversial topic that requires more consistency (Baker, Casey, & Cook-Cottone,

2012). “The United States Congress requested that a panel be created to conduct a

comprehensive and rigorous review of research in the area of reading acquisition, with

the goal of identifying appropriate, evidence-based practices and disseminating the

findings to inform instruction in the schools” (Baker et al., 2012, p. 74).

In addition, the National Reading Panel organized five main topics around the

100,000 research literature studies that include phonemic awareness, phonics,

vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension (Baker et al., 2012). School age children

spend a large amount of time in the classroom environment, and they deserve passionate

teachers that implement best instructional practices and support children’s unique

learning needs. A quality curriculum paired with skillful teachers positively impacts

students’ literacy skills in schools. Therefore, an effective early literacy program includes

a purposeful learning environment, quality instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics,

vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing.

Purposeful Learning Environment

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Every young child that enters a learning environment in school will emotionally,

cognitively, and physically absorb the environment. Students that begin an early literacy

program in a school context will naturally start to explore their senses through each

intriguing learning experience. In fact, “each experience helps either to grow new

neurons or prune away old ones” (Juala-Rushton, Larkin, & Rushton, 2009, p. 352).

Likewise, the electrical neurons in the child’s brain have a strong impact on students’

emotional experiences and wellbeing.

There is a large amount of research that supports the notion that the brain

networks that assist emotion, learning, and memory in humans are intricately and

primarily linked (Tracey & Morrow, 2017). Emotions stimulate attention, and attention

contributes to learning and children learn best through connecting their emotions to the

content (Juala-Rushton et al., 2009; Tracey & Morrow, 2017). In order for teachers to

create an appropriate early literacy program, the Attachment Theory must be ubiquitous

in the classroom. Behaviors that intend to create and maintain closeness and connection is

considered the Attachment Theory (Tracey & Morrow, 2017). Research shows that one

of the most important contributors to a student’s success in learning is the teacher and

learners’ interactions, and the teacher’s actions in the classroom (Juala-Rushton et al.,

2009). Essentially, teachers have the power to facilitate learning experiences for students

that have a positive impact on students’ overall wellbeing.

Teachers that create positive interactions with students, respectful protocols for all

activities, and genuinely care for children help generate a purposeful learning

atmosphere. One way that teachers could create encouraging interactions with students is

through getting to know their interests. Another approach is through a structured play-
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based program that stimulates important developmental literacy sills that connect to their

funds of knowledge. Learning new concepts, social skills, and communication is

enhanced through structured play. “When children are exposed to caring, imaginative

educators who accept the ‘whole child,’ and are encouraging of the natural progression of

learning, children will feel confident about their abilities, trust their teacher, and in turn,

will be more inclined to want to learn” (Juala-Rushton et al., 2009, p. 358).

Also, implementing a culturally responsive teaching approach in the classroom is

crucial for creating a purposeful learning environment conducive to early literacy growth.

Culturally responsive practices ensures that all students, including English Language

Learners, are immersed in a learning environment where they feel safe, confident,

validated, and empowered because their interests, differences, and individual needs are

embraced (Barrera IV, Bennett, Gayle-Evans, Gunn, & Leung, 2018). A culturally

responsive teacher contributes to understanding student’s cultures, addresses the needs of

individual students, and builds positive relationships in order to enhance learning.

Teachers that implement culturally responsive practices in their classroom use a

critical lens method because they enhance opportunities for students to develop multiple

perspectives, produce authentic experiences, and engage in respectful and courageous

conversations. Also, teachers that utilize a critical lens approach in the classroom

instruction enhance all students’ knowledge and problem solving skills through exposing

learners to conversations, picture books, songs, game boards, and a variety of oral and

written texts (Barrera IV et al., 2018). Teachers that implement best teaching practices in

early literacy through a critical lens approach are setting their students up for success in

school and the real world.

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Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is part of a broader language area known as phonological

awareness and it is one of the major foundational skills in early literacy (Baker et al.,

2012). Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate individual sounds in words and

phonological awareness focuses on identifying the parts of words such as onsets, rhymes,

and syllables. It is important for teachers to assess students’ phonological awareness at

the beginning of kindergarten, so educators understand which skills students need to

master. Research has found that phonemic awareness and letter knowledge are one of the

strongest contributors for students being ready for school (Callaghan & Madelaine,

2012).

Children naturally progress from larger units to small units of sounds. For

example, students find the skill of rhyming in words easier to identify than mastering

beginning phonemes (Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012). Research suggests that children

should be immersed in a literacy program that enables them to move through the

hierarchical system when learning phonemic awareness skills. Likewise, a developmental

program should end at the phoneme level because phonemes need to be explicitly taught

due to the difficulty of naturally identifying them in our speech (Callaghan & Madelaine,

2012). Research shows that larger phonological units such as syllables and rhymes are

less likely to improve early reading skills than smaller phonological units like beginning,

middle, and end phonemes (Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012). Rhyme activities are widely

used in early literacy programs, so it would be helpful for early literacy educators to

include systematic phonemic awareness instruction in order to contribute to reading

achievement.
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Also, teaching phonological awareness in isolation has a minimal effect on early

reading skills. “Research shows that teaching some letter sounds and/or names and their

corresponding graphemes would be an essential component of a preschool program to

increase phonemic awareness” (Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012, p. 17). Research indicates

learners that practice blending and segmenting become aware of the phoneme and

grapheme differences and gain additional knowledge towards phonological awareness

(Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012).

Some recommendations for teaching a phonemic awareness program are for

teachers to model and explicitly teach letter sound training and to say the phoneme while

children practice writing the letter. Also, sound boxes and using pictures to segment

words into phonemes are helpful when teaching blending and segmenting skills. Students

could point to and say sounds in individual boxes facilitated by the instructor to practice

identifying and manipulating the phonemes. It is important for teachers to help English

Language Leaners familiarize themselves to the words or phonemes they are

manipulating so they will be more likely to concentrate on the literacy task.

Phonics

Another key foundational skill in early literacy is systematic phonics instruction.

It is beneficial to pair phonics instruction with phonological awareness practices because

students learn how to apply connected skills to authentic learning (Block & Duke, 2012).

For example, when instructing students to blend sounds in a word, teachers could model

how to use the new concept in order to decode words as opposed to exclusively blending.

Research shows that different types of systematic phonics instruction are more effective

when learning how to read than non-phonics approaches in the classroom (National
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Reading Panel, 2000). Systematic phonics instruction that is directly taught in a sequence

of steps is advantageous over a non-systematic phonics program that sporadically teaches

concepts. Students benefit from systematic phonics instruction in small groups, whole

class setting, and tutoring.

Students around the age of 4-7 benefit most from phonics instruction because

they are developmentally ready to learn phonemic and phonics concepts. Studies show

that phonics instruction beginning in kindergarten and 1st grade has the biggest impact on

learning how to read as opposed to beginning readers in the upper grades (National

Reading Panel, 2000). Findings indicate that low-achieving students in the 2nd-6th grades

exposed to phonics instruction made little growth in their reading performance (National

Reading Panel, 2000). English Language Leaners may need additional support when

teaching how certain letters correspond to sounds. It may be necessary for students that

are learning English to have instruction tailored towards understanding some concepts of

the written print. Also, it is helpful to teach phonics and phonological awareness skills

with words that students understand.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction is a significant foundational skill in the area of early

literacy. Teachers should purposely plan high-quality academic vocabulary that occurs

often in different content areas and is common in the language of a variety of texts

(Austin, Baker, Coyne, Loftus-Rattan, McCoach, & Ware, 2019). Research shows that

young students effectively learn vocabulary words through direct instructional

approaches that are aimed for instruction and comprehension of targeted words (Austin et

al., 2019). Direct instructional approaches include opportunities for students to delve
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deep into the vocabulary in order to retain the information, definitions that are student

friendly, and using vocabulary words in different contexts (Austin et al., 2019). Findings

from a vocabulary study indicate that early vocabulary direct instruction and Tier-2

intervention that supports targeted language and vocabulary outcomes is beneficial for

students that are at-risk with lower initial vocabulary knowledge (Austin et al., 2019).

Essentially, students that have a lower awareness in vocabulary words would benefit

from whole class vocabulary instruction and a Tier-2 vocabulary intervention tailored

towards their needs.

Students should enter an early literacy classroom that displays a rich language

environment including printed labels and posters in students’ native languages used for

literacy, stimulating centers, writing tables, a variety of accessible quality texts, and

structured spaces that encourage social interactions. Student discussions about the

learning content and various texts give learners many chances to stimulate their

vocabulary development and enhance oral language skills. In fact, the Socio-Cultural

Theory supports the concept that children frequently enhance their literacy knowledge

through social interactions with others (Theodotou, 2017). “A good oral vocabulary is

necessary for students to make the transition to understanding written vocabulary”

(Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012, p.19). All students including English Language Learners

will enhance their vocabulary development through conversations with adults and peers,

so it is important for teachers to be mindful of creating multiple situations for speaking

and listening in school.

One method for improving oral vocabulary is arranging opportunities for students

to practice dialogic reading because it teaches learners to be active participants through

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direct questions and elaborating on answers from the text (Callaghan & Madelaine,

2012). Students could practice asking and answering questions with a partner about the

content in the story through the facilitation of the instructor to enhance oral language.

One way to help students learn new words is for teachers to elaborate on definitions

through asking questions before, during, and after read alouds. It is important to give

students plenty of time to answer questions so they can practice speaking in English.

Students in a small group could practice retelling different elements in a story in order to

use vocabulary words and concepts in a text.

Reading a text aloud more than once is another beneficial strategy because

students need multiple exposures to help them retain the word meanings and to have a

better understanding of how to use the word in authentic situations. Another instructional

method is providing engaging visual and verbal explanations of new vocabulary words in

order to help students use them in conversations and other contexts (Hindman, Snell, &

Wasik, 2015). It is important for educators to elaborate on context when explicitly

teaching vocabulary words to English Language Learners. Also, research shows that

students are more likely to learn vocabulary words when teachers use them in activities

and discussions after the read-aloud (Hindman et al., 2015).

Fluency

Fluency is a major component for early literacy development and becoming a

skilled reader. “Skilled readers read words accurately, rapidly and efficiently. Children

who do not develop reading fluency, no matter how bright they are, will continue to read

slowly and with great effort” (National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 3-3). Students that read

with great effort will have less working memory to comprehend the reading material due
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to concentrating on decoding words. Thus, decoding is crucial for becoming a successful

reader.

Research shows that repeated reading activities are helpful to develop fluent

readers. For example, guided oral repeated reading supports students’ word recognition,

fluency, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). One suggestion for teachers

to foster fluency in their students is to provide ample time for reading a large amount of

texts in the classroom. Encouraging students to read a variety of text has shown to

enhance fluent reading as opposed to silent sustained repeated readings of the same text

(Allington, 2014). Teachers that provide ample time for their students to read orally and

allow them to choose what to read could stimulate the likelihood of students becoming

fluent readers. Building stamina for reading time helps students become more successful

when decoding texts at a young age because their ability to read for long periods is likely

to increase. One suggestion to help English Language Learners become fluent readers is

for instructors to provide systematic instruction in letter-sound correspondence and

decoding so they can meet students’ literacy needs.

Reading Comprehension

Students need to use other strategies than decoding to comprehend reading

material. Comprehension instruction is an imperative part of early literacy instruction and

should not be taught in isolation. Many students can enhance their understanding of the

texts they read when they are taught reading comprehension strategies. In order for

students to select the right strategies during the comprehension process, teachers should

explicitly teach comprehension instruction through research-supported strategies.

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Asking and answering questions while reading is imperative to improving reading

comprehension because it helps stimulate other strategies. Teachers can help students

develop the skills to ask and answer questions about the text through modeling this

strategy before, during, and after reading in order to help students become strategic

readers. Instructors can help students develop a concise understanding of the text through

activating prior knowledge connected to the material. Activating prior knowledge about a

topic can stimulate comprehension and recall of important information for learners.

Modeling how to summarize the text orally through stopping briefly after reading a

section to recall the main points that were just read is an important comprehension

strategy for young students. This is also an efficient way to check for understanding of

the material. Instructors could help students create visual summaries of the reading

material through Venn diagrams and semantic webs tailored towards all learners.

Finally, it is crucial that teachers begin teaching fix up strategies during reading to

monitor comprehension so children are better prepared to independently use these

strategies in the future. Some fix up strategies include rereading sections or the entire

text, skimming ahead, and stopping throughout the text to connect topics to previous

knowledge. Teachers could help students learn how to monitor their understanding of

what they just read through asking who, what, when, where, and why questions

pertaining to the text (Neufeld, 2006). These questions will encourage students to have

more of a purpose for reading so they will be more likely to comprehend the material.

“Research suggests that deliberate efforts by a reader to better understand or remember

what is being read are associated with stronger reading comprehension skills” (Block &

Duke, 2012, p. 60).

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Writing

Writing contributes to an effective early literacy program and is vital for

improving students’ literacy skills. However, writing instruction does not consist of

practicing handwriting or penmanship in the early childhood classrooms. Handwriting

and penmanship skills are important, but a different type of writing is crucial for

enhancing literacy development in children. “Writing is the activity of expressing ideas,

opinions, and views in print” (Bingham, Gerde, & Wasik, 2012). This type of writing is

important to implement in an early literacy program. Research on writing is limited, but

studies show that writing in the primary grades contributes to later reading and literacy

skills including decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension in first grade (Bingham et

al., 2012). It is imperative that teachers understand how to effectively implement best

practices for writing instruction in students’ daily schedules.

Teachers that build writing into their daily curriculum are effectively

implementing an important approach for writing instruction. It is helpful to plan writing

lessons connected to the daily theme and to build writing stamina throughout the year. In

addition to incorporating writing into the daily instruction, teachers should embrace all

forms of writing in an early literacy program including scribbles. It is more important for

children to focus on the writing activity and generating ideas than letter formation

(Bingham et al., 2012). Having access to writing materials in all centers will build

opportunities for children to write during play. For example, students could create road

signs for the block center or generate a grocery list at the dramatic play area. These

activities will encourage a love for writing.

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Another suggestion for best practices to teach writing is for instructors to make

writing opportunities meaningful and find ways to connect students’ stories to their

families. Teachers could make writing opportunities more meaningful through providing

an audience for students to share their stories. The audiences could be the whole class,

small groups, partners, another classroom, displaying work in the school, or the

instructor. Also, students could write messages and letters to others to help them

communicate ideas and information. They could write thank you cards or messages to

family members in order to show their love and express their thoughts. Students could

also write letters to their parents about what they are learning in school. Encouraging

students to read what they write develops more of a purpose for writing and stimulates

ownership. “This helps children to celebrate the writing process and also helps them

make the connection that writing is something that is read, reinforcing the connection

between print and their writing” (Bingham et al., 2012, p. 354).

Purposefully scaffolding writing instruction is a crucial strategy for guiding

students’ writing development. There are many strategies that teachers can choose from

that align with students’ skill level when scaffolding writing. Some students may need

suggestions of how to make a letter, say the sounds in words, or more hints for generating

ideas for writing stories. Teachers could provide more explicit scaffolding that engages

children in conversations about their writing process in order to help students reach their

writing goals. Explicit instruction that includes modeling skills and strategies, providing

prompts and extra time, and connecting new concepts to students’ prior knowledge will

help all learners, including English Language Learners, develop important writing skills.
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Encouraging students to engage in invented spelling while writing is another

researched base strategy for teaching writing. Invented spelling occurs naturally, as it is

the process of a child’s individual experimentation with attempts to spell words (Senechal

& Ouellette, 2008). One study found that invented spelling paired with accurate feedback

helps children utilize essential skills including phonological awareness that are beneficial

for learning how to read (Senechal & Ouellette, 2008). Invented spelling is a naturally

occurring process for students that is essentially the foundation and helps stimulate

phonological and orthographic awareness along with learning how to read (Senechal &

Ouellette, 2008)

Conclusion

Students that have an excellent start in the area of reading and writing in the early

years of school are more likely to be successful in literacy and other content areas

throughout their life. Early literacy programs that incorporate best practices in reading

and writing will only show positive results with teachers that radiate passion, tailor the

instruction to their students’ interests, care about learners’ individual needs, and respect

different cultures in the classroom. If teachers incorporate a purposeful early literacy

classroom environment paired with best practices in the areas of phonemic awareness,

phonics, vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing students will have a

great chance at succeeding in school. Teachers should foster learning from the moment

students enter the early childhood classroom through greeting them by their first name

and showing every student that they are capable of succeeding and learning. This will

help encourage the love of reading and writing in all areas of their lives.
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