question

EIGHTH EDITION

Literacy Development in the Early Years

Helping Children Read and Write

Lesley Mandel Morrow Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Hoboken Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City São Paulo

Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Vice President and Editorial Director: Jeffery W. Johnston Executive Editor: Meredith Fossel Editorial Assistant: Maria Feliberty Director of Marketing: Margaret Waples

Senior Marketing Managers: Christopher Barry and Krista Clark Production Project Manager: Mary Beth Finch Operations Specialist: Deidra Skahill Cover Designer: Diane Erlenberger Manager, Rights and Permissions: Johanna Burke Lead Media Project Manager: Caroline Fenton Program Manager: Karen Mason Full-Service Vendor: Cenveo® Publisher Services Cover Photo: Courtesy of Lesley Morrow

Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text.

Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2009, 2005, 2001 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290.

Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Morrow, Lesley Mandel. Literacy development in the early years : helping children read and write / Lesley Mandel Morrow. -- Eighth edition.

pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-357429-6 ISBN-10: 0-13-357429-6

1. Reading (Early childhood)--United States. 2. Language arts (Early childhood)-- United States. 3. Literacy--United States. I. Title.

LB1139.5.L35M67 2015 372.4--dc23 2014034366 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN-10: 0-13-357429-6 www.pearsonhighered.com ISBN-13: 978-0-13-357429-6

To Mary and Milton; Frank; Stephanie and Douglas; James and Natalie, My very special

parents and husband, my very special daughter and son-in-law, and my very special

grandson and granddaughter.

James and Natalie, You light up my life

About the Author

Lesley Mandel Morrow is a Distinguished Professor of Literacy at Rut gers University’s Graduate School of Education, where she is Director of the Center for Literacy Development. She began her career as a class room teacher, then became a reading specialist, and later received her Ph.D. from Fordham University in New York City. Her area of research deals with early literacy development and the organization and man agement of language arts programs. Her research is carried out with children and families from diverse backgrounds.

Dr. Morrow has more than 300 publications, including journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and books. She received Excel lence in Research, Teaching, and Service Awards from Rutgers Univer sity. She was the recipient of the International Reading Association’s Outstanding Teacher Educator of Reading Award and their William S. Gray Citation of Merit. She also received Fordham University’s Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement. In addition, Dr. Morrow has

received numerous grants for research from the federal government and has served as a principal research investigator for the Center of English Language Arts, the National Reading Research Center, and the Center for Early Reading Achievement. She was an elected member of the Board of Directors and President of the International Read ing Association (IRA), an organization of 60,000 educators from 100 countries. Dr. Morrow was elected into the Reading Hall of Fame and was president of the Hall of Fame as well. In 2010 she received the Literacy Research Association’s Oscar Causey Award for research that has added knowledge and caused change in literacy practice. She is the extremely proud grandmother of James Ethan and Natalie Kate.

Brief Contents

1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development 1

2 Assessment in Early Literacy: A Guide for Designing Instruction 30

3 Literacy and Diversity: Teaching Children with Special Concerns 65

4 Language and Vocabulary Development 96

5 Strategies to Figure Out Words: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and More 136

6 Developing Comprehension of Text and Concepts about Books 198

7 Writing, Spelling, and Literacy Development 258

8 Motivating Reading and Writing with Well-Known and New Literacies 318

9 Organizing and Managing the Literacy Program 373

10 Family Literacy Partnerships: Home and School Working Together 418

Afterword 454

Appendix A • Children’s Literature for the Classroom: Multigenre and Multimedia for 21st Century Learners 459

Appendix B • Integrated Language Arts Thematic Unit: Animals around the World 473

Appendix C • Technology Resources 486

Appendix D • Professional Associations and Related Journals Dealing with Early Literacy 489

Appendix E • Suggestions for Instructors 490

Appendix F • IRA Standards, 2010 499

v This page intentionally left blank

Contents

Foreword xvii Preface xxi Acknowledgments xxv Introduction xxvii

1 • Foundations of Early Literacy Development 1 The Historical Roots of Early Childhood Education

Theory 4 Rousseau—1712–1778 4 Pestalozzi—1746–1827 5 Froebel—1782–1852 6

The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Theories and Practices 6 Dewey—Progressive Education 6 Skinner—Behaviorism 7 Montessori—Senses and Systems 8 Piaget—Cognitive Development 9 Vygotsky—Schema Acquisition 10 Reading Readiness 11 The Research Era 12

Key Approaches to Early Childhood Literacy 12 Emergent Literacy 12 Constructivism and Whole-Language Instruction 13

Explicit Instruction and Phonics 14 Balanced Comprehensive Approach 15

The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy 17 National Reading Panel Report (2000) 17 National Early Literacy Panel Report 22 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) 23 Common Core State Standards 24

vii viii Contents

Summary 28 Activities and Questions 29

2 • Assessment in Early Literacy: A Guide for

Designing Instruction 30 Assessing Early Literacy Development 31 Authentic Assessment: Measures and Strategies 32

Anecdotal Observation Forms 33 Daily Performance Samples 33 Audio and Video Recordings 34 Teacher-made Pencil-and-Paper Tests 35 Student Evaluation Forms 35 Surveys and Interviews 35 Conferences 35 Checklists 35

In-depth Measures of Assessment 38 Running Records 38 Informal Reading Inventories 42 Portfolio Assessment 44

Standardized Tests: The Pros and Cons 46 Concerns Associated with Standardized Testing 46

Literacy Standards and Shifts in the Literacy Curriculum 48 Standards for Prekindergarten 49

Implementing and Assessing the CCSS 52 Implementing the CCSS 53 Assessment and the Common Core 54

Stages of Child Development 55 Summary 62 Activities and Questions 64

3 • Literacy and Diversity: Teaching Children with Special Concerns 65

The Impact of Diversity on Literacy 67 The Role of Shifting Demographics 67

Contents ix

Responding to Cultural Diversity 68 Helping English Language Learners Communicate at School

69 Children’s Responses to Language Differences 70 Respecting the Different Cultural Backgrounds of

Children at School 71 Strategies Useful for Teaching English Language Learners to

Read and Write 72 Strategies for Children with Special Concerns 81

Gifted Students 81 Students with Learning Disabilities 82 At-Risk Students 83 Students with Physical Impairments 84

Addressing Diversity through Differentiated Instruction 86 Multiple Intelligences and Literacy Development 86

Steps for Differentiating Instruction 87 Intervention Programs 88 Response to Intervention 91

Cultivating Empathy for Diversity in Literacy Needs 92 Summary 94 Activities and Questions 95

4 • Language and Vocabulary Development 96 Language Development and Reading

98 Theories on Language Acquisition and Development 99

The Behaviorist Theory 100 The Nativist Theory 100 Piagetian and Vygotskian Theories 101 The Constructivist Theory 101 Halliday’s Theory of Language Development 102

Stages in Language Development 102 The Role of Brain Development 103 Learning Language Rules 104 Specific Stages 105 The Effect of Vocabulary Deficits 107

x Contents

Objectives and Strategies to Enhance Language Development 108 Strategies for Language Development from Birth to Age 2 110 Strategies for Language Development in Early Childhood

Classrooms 113 Developing Language with Thematic Units 116 Children’s Literature and Language Development 119

Sustaining the Learning Environment 120 Expanding Vocabulary and Word Meaning in Second and

Third Grades 121 Promoting Conversation and Dramatic Activity 124

Assessment of Children’s Language Development 129 Informal Assessments 129 Standardized Language Assessment 132

Summary 133 Activities and Questions 135

5 • Strategies to Figure Out Words: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and More 136

Theory and Research Concerning Figuring Out Words 137 Psycholinguistic Cueing Systems 139 Standards for Foundational Skills or Word Study 140

Strategies for Teaching the Alphabet 140 How to Introduce Alphabet Letters 141 Explicit Instruction of Alphabet Letters 142 Evaluating Mastery of the Alphabet Letters 143

Strategies to Figure Out Words 145 Using Print 145 Using Context and Pictures to Figure Out Words 153

Developing Sight Vocabulary 154 Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness 160

Reading-Readiness Activities 164 Strategies for Teaching Phonics 167

Consonants 168 Contents xi

Vowels 168 Explicit Synthetic Phonics Instruction 170 Combined Analytic-Synthetic Lesson 171 Meaning-Based Phonics Strategies 171

Evidence-Based Strategies for Teaching Phonics 173 A Center for Word-Study Activities 176 Teacher Concerns about Phonics 177

Assessing Knowledge of Word-Study Skills 179 Summary 195 Activities and Questions 197

6 • Developing Comprehension of Text and Concepts about Books 198

Concepts about Books 200 Activities to Develop Concepts about Books 200

Theory and Research on Comprehension of Text 203 Objectives and Standards for Developing Comprehension of

Narrative and Informational Text 204 Integrating Comprehension into the Curriculum 205

Formal Strategies for Teaching Comprehension 208 The Reading Workshop for Narrative and Expository Texts 209 Directed Listening/Reading and Thinking Activity 210

Reading Experiences that Enhance Comprehension 213 Collective Reading Experiences 213 Collaborative Reading 220 Close Reading 226 Repetition 228

Strategies for Actively Working with Texts 230 Interactive Discussions 231 Graphic Organizers 234 Summarizing by Retelling 238

Fluency as a Path to Comprehension 245 Methods for Practicing Fluency 245

xii Contents

Materials for Fluency Training 248 Evaluating Fluency 250

Assessment of Concepts about Books and Comprehension of Text 251 Summary 254 Activities and Questions 256

7 • Writing, Spelling, and Literacy Development 258 Different Theories of Writing Development

259 Relationships between Reading and Writing 259 Early Writing Acquisition 260 The Development of Writing Ability 264 Objectives and Standards for Writing 267

Strategies for Early Writing Development 269 Strategies for Writing Development from Birth to Age 2 269

Writing in Pre-K Classrooms 270 Strategies for Writing in Kindergarten through Grade Three 272

Create a Writing Center to Provide a Writing Environment 274 The Writing Workshop 279 The Process Approach to Writing in Early Childhood 281

Interactive Writing 285 Independent Writing and Reading 286 Journal Writing 288

Types of Writing 289 Informational and Explanatory Texts and Writing 289

Narrative Texts and Writing 297 Writing Poetry 299

The Mechanics of Writing 302 Handwriting 302 Spelling and Punctuation 302

Assessment of Children’s Writing 307 Summary 315 Activities and Questions 317

Contents xiii

8 • Motivating Reading and Writing with Well-Known and New Literacies 318

Fostering a Literacy-Friendly Atmosphere 320 Increasing Motivation 320 Establishing Good Reading and Writing Habits 322

Literacy Centers 323 Features of Well-Designed Literacy Centers 324 Motivating Reading and Writing Using Literacy

Center Activities 331 Reacting to Literacy Center Activities 332

The Role of the Teacher in Motivating Literacy Interest 333 Making Story Reading Pleasurable 334

Storytelling with and without Creative Techniques 336 Encouraging Independent Reading 338

Literature Activities Initiated by the Teacher 339 Story Reading and Storytelling Vignettes 341

Motivating Literacy Learning in the Digital Age 343 Computer Software 344

Integrating the Internet into Literacy Instruction 346 New Devices 350 Leveraging the Unique Capabilities of Technology 351

The Role of Dramatic Play in Motivating Reading and Writing 352 Objectives for Play Experiences 352 Observations of Literacy Behavior during Dramatic Play 353

Integrating Literacy Learning into Thematic Units 360 Objectives for Art Experiences 361 Objectives for Music Experiences 362

Objectives for Social Studies and Science Experiences 362 Objectives for Mathematics Experiences 363 Preparing a Thematic Unit 364

Assessing Children’s Attitudes toward Books 365 Summary 370 Activities and Questions 372

xiv Contents

9 • Organizing and Managing the Literacy Program 373 Helping Children Manage Their Behavior 374

Theory and Research Concerning Literacy-Rich Physical Environments 375

Preparing Literacy-Rich Physical Environments 376 Print in Your Classroom 377 Classroom Centers 377

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Organizing the Classroom 380 Organizing for Differentiation of Instruction 386

Whole-Group, Small-Group, and One-to-One Learning 386 Explicit Instruction of Skills 388 Putting a Guided Reading Lesson into Practice 397 Differentiated Instructional Materials 401

Organizing and Managing Literacy Instruction: Daily Schedules 404

Summary 415 Activities and Questions 416

10 •  Family Literacy Partnerships: Home

and School Working Together 418 Family Literacy 419

Why Family Literacy Is Important 420 Homes That Promote Literacy 421 The Role of Responsive Adults 423 Challenges in Developing Family Literacy 425

A Parent-Involvement Framework 425 Materials and Activities for a Rich Family-Literacy

Environment 430 Reading to Children at Home from Birth to Age 8 432

Materials for Writing in the Home 434 Technology Ideas 434 Literacy Activities to Do at Home 435

Contents xv

Multicultural Perspectives on Family Involvement and Family Literacy 435

Cultivating Family Involvement 439 Connecting the Classroom to the Family 439 Establishing Successful Programs and Activities 441 Family Involvement Initiatives 442 Resources for Teachers and Families 450

Summary 451 Activities and Questions 452

Afterword 454

Appendix A • Children’s Literature for the Classroom: Multigenre and Multimedia for 21st Century Learners 459

Appendix B • Integrated Language Arts Thematic Unit: Animals around the World 473

Appendix C • Technology Resources 486

Appendix D • Professional Associations and Related Journals Dealing with Early Literacy 489

Appendix E • Suggestions for Instructors 490

Appendix F • IRA Standards, 2010 499

Glossary 505

Children’s Literature Bibliography 511 Bibliography 513

Index 527 This page intentionally left blank

Foreword

Literacy Development in the Early Years: Helping Children Read and Write was published in its first edition in 1989. With the publication of this 8th edi tion, it has now been in print for 25 years. New features were added to each of the previous editions, as they are in this new edition. In the eighth edition, material dealing with what was sound and good practice 25 years ago was retained, and other material was updated based on current research, policy, and practice. This book was one of the first on the topic of early literacy and has prevailed as one of the most utilized texts of its kind in the country.

The first edition of Literacy Development in the Early Years appeared when research on emergent literacy was just beginning to be implemented. We once thought that children learned to speak and listen during their early years and later learned to read and write at 6 and 7 years of age. We also believed that early childhood was a time to learn to read and the elementary grades were a time to read to learn. We now know that children begin to develop early forms of language and literacy ability concurrently and from the day they are born. We now know that learning to read and reading to learn go hand in hand. We have discovered that excellent strategies are good for all children at all ages. Excellent literacy instruction is created in literacy-rich environments in social contexts through immersion in literacy experiences, explicit instruction, practice, and modeling by teachers—all with constructive feedback. Lesley Mandel Morrow based her book on her own research as well as that of others and her practical experience as a classroom teacher, read ing specialist, researcher, mother, and now grandmother. She took a look at historical theories and philosophies about how children learn. As time passed and policy changes in teaching reading were legislated, Morrow took these developments into account and shared this very important information. With these new laws came new challenges, especially in the area of testing. There is a great deal about assessment in this edition so that teachers can assess chil dren’s needs by doing a case study with all materials in this new volume.

English language learners (ELLs) make up a large portion of our school population. Morrow has added more material to the chapter dealing with diversity and has incorporated an ELL icon to indicate activities throughout the book that work particularly well with children who are English language learners. Morrow demonstrates the value of involving children in many types of language and literacy experiences. She provides insightful examples of chil dren’s approximations of writing and reading as she establishes the necessity of giving them unlimited opportunities to practice. Further, she illustrates the ways in which adults provide models, explicit instruction, and feedback for young learners as they attempt to read and write. Morrow takes a compre hensive perspective toward literacy instruction by selecting the best techniques based on sound learning theories, such as a constructivist model or problem solving approach to more explicit instruction.

Children’s literature plays an important role in Lesley Morrow’s literacy environment. Literature serves as a model for language learning and provides

xvii xviii Foreword

strong motivation for learning to read and write. It is a springboard for many literacy-related activities. Most important, literature is a way of knowing. It is shaped around story whether it is narrative or expository—a primary act of human minds. She is also aware that in early literacy development, materials designed for instructional purposes are necessary for skill development and to attain national, state, and local standards for literacy learning.

Lesley Morrow recognizes the importance of parents, siblings, grandpar ents, and other caregivers reading to children and enjoying books together. She shows how reading to babies influences their grasp of language and story patterns that serve them well as they learn to read and write. She illustrates how children learn concepts about print, book handling, and conventions

of stories as they interact with books. She establishes that adults teach by example as they enjoy shared reading and shared writing with children. She shows the impact of having a literacy center in a classroom and the effects of storybook reading aloud by a teacher. She illustrates that when children know authors and illustrators as real people, they want to read their work and write in a manner similar to them. Morrow states that storytelling is similar to read ing aloud in its impact on children. She also recognizes the necessity of skills that involve learning concepts about print and books. For example, children need to develop phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, and phonics for reading success. They also must learn to construct meaning from text by learning strategies for comprehension. Speaking from her own experiences as a teacher, researcher, parent, and grandparent, Morrow charts a path that leads to successful literacy learning.

Lesley Mandel Morrow has taken a long view of literacy development in the early years, showing its historical roots. She also knows and draws

on the research of today’s leaders because she is a member of that research community. She succinctly summarizes language theories and relates current research to shape sound practices. She has conducted much of the original research herself, testimony to the fact that she can bridge the gap among theory, research, and practice. Her examples are anchored in real classroom experiences—her own and those of other teachers with whom she works col laboratively. The examples are authentic and add credibility to the content of this book.

Morrow spends a significant amount of time on organizing and manag ing language arts throughout the day. In case studies and outlines, she takes the reader step by step to show what exemplary literacy instruction looks like. This edition puts a great deal of emphasis on the use of technology in the early childhood literacy classroom, differentiated instruction, response to intervention, and content-area literacy instruction. Her book is filled with photographs, figures, and illustrations that take the reader into classrooms, and reproducible strategies for the classroom are sprinkled throughout the book. There are references for online video clips where students can see strate gies come to life in the classroom.

Lesley Morrow’s treatment of literacy development is on the cutting edge of current knowledge. She is well informed about her subject and makes

con nections among all aspects of literacy learning. She is a sensitive observer and writer, letting children and teachers speak for themselves

through their work. Dr. Morrow states that few children learn to love books by themselves.

Someone must lure them into the wonderful world of the written word. She Foreword xix

shows us how to do that and enriches our lives and the lives of children through her work. Her contribution to the literacy development of children from birth through grade 3 is a lasting one.

Linda B. Gambrell, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Education Clemson University

This page intentionally left blank

Preface

Literacy Development in the Early Years, Eighth Edition, is for teachers, read ing specialists, administrators, students in teacher education programs, and parents. It is appropriate for graduate, undergraduate, and professional devel opment courses in early literacy, and it complements texts on teaching reading in the elementary school, children’s literature, child development, early child hood curriculum, and teaching language arts.

I wrote the book because of my special interest in literacy development in early childhood. I taught in preschool, kindergarten, and the primary grades; I was a reading specialist; and then I taught early childhood curriculum and lit eracy courses at the university level. My research has focused on instructional strategies in early literacy. Over the years, research in early literacy has gener ated new theory. It has implications for new instructional strategies and rein forces older practices based on little or no research to establish their validity. The book describes a program that nurtures literacy development from birth through third grade. The ideas in the book are based on research. They have been tried and

they have worked, but not all are appropriate for all teachers or all children. The good teacher functions most effectively with strategies he or she feels most comfortable with. The teacher needs to be a decision maker who thinks critically about the design of his or her literacy program and the selection of materials. Children come to school with diverse social, emotional, physical, and intellectual abilities and achievement levels. They have diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences, and exposures to literacy. All must be addressed appropriately.

Underlying this book is the merging of the art and the science of teach ing. The science involves theories based on research findings that have gener ated instructional strategies. The book is also based on current standards for teaching literacy and current policy. Most of the book contains descriptions of strategies and steps for carrying them out. But the research does not neces sarily take into account individual differences among teachers and children. The art of teaching concentrates on those human variables. This book pro vides a comprehensive and balanced approach to early literacy instruction. Constructivist ideas that involve problem-solving techniques

are blended with explicit direct instructional approaches so that teachers can decide what works best for the children they teach. There is a strong emphasis on learning to read through the integration of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing. There is also a strong emphasis on the integration of these literacy skills into content-area learning. Differentiation of instruction is a major theme. That theme suggests that teaching must be directed to the individual needs of every child and, in addition, there is a strong emphasis on the diverse nature of children.

The Introduction places you in an early childhood classroom immediately. Its purpose is to provide you with an exemplary model of excellent literacy instruction.

xxi xxii Preface

Chapter 1 provides a framework of theory, research, and policy from the past and present that has influenced strategies for developing early

literacy. Chapter 2 covers the important issues of assessment and provides you

with concepts for authentic assessment, portfolio assessment, and standard ized assessment. This chapter emphasizes how assessment must guide instruc tion and how they are connected. With this philosophy in mind, strategies for assessment are integrated into all chapters.

Chapter 3 is about the diversity in our classrooms. The chapter has been expanded because of the diverse nature of our children. There is an emphasis on English language learners (ELLs) in the chapter as well as discussion of special learning needs such as learning disabilities, physical disabilities, gifted children, and others. This chapter provides strategies for teaching children who are diverse in many ways. However, meeting the needs of these individu

ELL als is focused on throughout the book. An icon indicates that a particular strategy is important not only for native speakers but for English language learners as well.

Chapters 4 through 7 deal with oral language and vocabulary develop ment, word analysis, comprehension, and writing. These chapters discuss theory and research—specifically, developmental trends, instructional strate gies, and methods for assessment. The book views the development of literacy skills (reading, writing, oral language, listening, and viewing) as concurrent and interrelated; the development of one enhances the development of the others. Furthermore, the theories, stages, acquisition, and strategies associated with each are similar, and it is difficult to separate them entirely. To make the volume more readable, however, I have treated the various areas of literacy in different chapters.

Chapter 8 places a strong emphasis on motivation. This chapter focuses on how to deal with materials that are relevant in children’s lives. It empha sizes the interrelatedness of the areas of literacy and describes how they can be integrated into the entire school day within content areas. There is an enhanced section on technology in literacy in early childhood and the impor tance of playful literacy. An important goal is to teach reading but also to cre ate lifelong readers.

Chapter 9 provides the organization and management of the components presented in the book that are organized to create a successful program. The best strategies will fall apart if the school day is not organized well. Ways of scheduling the school day are discussed, as

are how to organize whole-group, small-group, and individualized instruction. An area of extreme importance to teachers is how children can learn to work independently at centers while teachers instruct small groups to meet achievement needs. This is accom plished through differentiation of instruction.

Chapter 10 discusses the strong influence of the home on the development of literacy, especially in a child’s earliest years. It discusses broad perspectives con cerning family literacy, such as integrated home and school programs, intergen erational programs, and sensitivity to cultural differences to provide programs that are not intrusive but build on the strengths of the families being served. Each chapter begins with expected outcomes to focus on while reading the text. Important vocabulary in the chapter is listed at the beginning of each chapter. The questions and vocabulary are followed by a vignette from the classroom, theory and research, and then practice and assessment. Each

chap Preface xxiii

ter has multiple and reproducible strategies throughout. The chapters end with a summary that focuses on the expected outcomes with questions and activities for further study. There is also a quiz at the end of each chapter for students to use to test themselves. The appendices supplement the text with lists of materi als that teachers use in carrying out a successful program to develop early liter acy. Appendix E offers the instructor ideas for his or her college classroom. Key words dealing with early literacy development are defined in the glossary at the end of the book. An online Instructor’s Resource Manual is also available.

What’s New in the Eighth Edition New features of the eighth edition include the following:

Pearson eText ■ This edition is available for the first time as a Pearson eText*. The afford able, convenient, interactive version of this text includes tools to help navi

gate and understand important, current content. The Pearson eText* is available with a black and white, loose-leaf printed version of the text.

Features of the Pearson eText* include: • Tools to take and share notes, highlight and bookmark chapter

concepts, and search by keyword • Accessible from your computer, iPad and Android tablets with the

Pearson eText app • More affordable than a traditional text book • Extended access upgrade is available

■ Videos: These videos offer a glimpse at the real world of teaching. View interviews of experts and footage of teachers and administrators discussing and applying chapter concepts.

Throughout the Text ■ The format of each chapter has changed and begins with Learning Out

comes. The major headings in the chapter are aligned to those outcomes. Each Chapter ends with a summary of the learning outcomes and a quiz for students to test themselves on chapter concepts.

■ Activities and Questions: Each chapter includes questions that test students’ knowledge of the content they have just read throughout the chapter.

■ There is a strong emphasis on the new Common Core State Standards. When applicable a standard is written above a strategy. There is an empha sis on the use of

informational text, integration of literacy throughout the CCSS curriculum, a look at

close reading, and dealing with complex text.

*eText enhancements are only available via the enhanced Pearson eText, and not other third-party eTexts such as CourseSmart or Kindle.

xxiv Preface

■ More strategies than ever before are embedded within the book with vignettes for putting them into practice.

■ A new Integrated Language Arts Unit in Appendix B about Animals uses Common Core State Standards in the content areas.

■ Continued emphasis is placed on research and policy in early literacy devel opment, including findings from the National Reading Panel, the National Early Literacy Panel, Preventing Reading Difficulties, Reading First, the Rand Report, the implications of the No Child Left Behind legislation, Race to the Top, and the Common Core State Standards.

■ Updated photographs, as well as tables, and illustrations enhance the text. ■ There are additional strategies for developing literacy in writing workshops,

reading workshops, independent and partner reading, organizational meth ods, and comprehension development.

■ Appendixes for children’s literature, early literacy software, and multiple websites for teachers and children have been updated.

■ There are additional assessment tools for carrying out a very complete case study of a child’s abilities and needs in Literacy Development and an

emphasis on assessment guided instruction. ■ Emphasis is placed on school relevance and motivation. ■ There is a strong emphasis on how to organize children with similar

needs for small-group instruction.

Acknowledgments

I extend my heartfelt appreciation to those who helped with the eighth edi tion. These individuals always said yes to whatever request I had and worked tirelessly on many parts of the book with me. Photos of these professionals appear below in alphabetical order as follows: Marilyn Birnbaum, Lisa Bratus, Stephanie Bushell, Jennifer Chen, Jennifer DelNero, Jennie Dzurrila, Maureen Hall, Kellyanne Healey, Jennifer Kamm, Cathy Kobylarz, Kenneth Kunz, Donna Ngai, Gina Molinari-Schiano, Bethany Reichwein, Christina Speizio, Patricia Taitt, and Sharon Weldon.

xxv

xxvi Acknowledgments

I extend my appreciation to Meredith Fossel, Acquisitions Editor at Pear son, for supporting the eighth edition of this book, and for the guidance she offered during the revision process. I would also like to thank Mary Beth Finch for her careful attention to the permissions required. This process is dif ficult and tedious. In addition, thank you to Cenveo’s project manager, Susan McNally.

Thank you to students, teachers and administrators who worked on the other 7 editons: Paula Batsiyan, Lisa Mullin, Kathy Minto, Sara Stofik, Doug Bushell, Elizabeth Freitag, Stefanie Lederman, Stacy Stannzel, Joellen Surace, Thu Win, Danielle Wintringham, Julie Anastasi, Lara Heyer, Kristen Valvanis, Patricia Addonizio, Susan Burks, Kathleen Cunningham, Katie Farrell, Mary Ann Gavin, Laura Babarca, Tricia Lyons, Melody Olsen, Michele Preole, Mary Joyce Santoloci, Sari Schnipper, Karen Szabo, Patricia DeWitt, Erica Erlanger, Michael Gravois, Katherine Heiss, Pamela Kelliher, Lisa Lozak, Stacey Rog, Monica Saraiya, Amy Sass, and Connie Zauderer, Stephanie Adams, Ellen Abere, Bonita Bartholomew, Maxine Bell, Lynette Brenner, Karen Buda, Pat Burton, Barbara Callister, Heather Casey, Jennifer Castio, Melissa Colucci, Shannon Corcoran, Tom DelCasale, Judy DeVincenzo, Fran Diamente, Tami Lyn Eisen, Gina Goble, Arlene Hall, David Harris, Lori

Harrje, Catherine Hickey, Joanne Jacobson, Adriann Jean-Denis, Noreen Johnson, Tracy Kahn, Linda Keefe, Sheryl King, , Gail Martinez, Nancy Mason, Joyce McGee, Carna Meechem, Dennis Monaghan, Stephanie Moretti, Joyce Ng, Susan Nitto, Ellen O’Connor, Catherine Ogletree, Lucy Oman, Barbara Oxfeld, Mary Payton, Tammye Pelovitz, Cynthia Peters, John Quintaglie, Robert Rosado, Sonia

Satterwhite, Joyce Schenkman, Linda Schifflette, Christine Temple, Patty Thaxton, Marcia Wesalo, Susan Yoder, and Margaret Youssef, Andrea Shane, Milton Mandel, Howard Manson, Cheryl Devine, Kate Brach, Danielle Lynch, Lynn Cohen, Lisa Rosenfeld, Jennifer Chiaramida, Kelly Lamar, and Amy Sass and Michael Gravois.

Thank you to the children I taught, my college students, and the excellent teachers I have observed and from whom I’ve learned so much. I am grateful to the researchers in early literacy who have provided exciting information in the field. I consider this book a cooperative effort as a result of the contributions of so many in both direct and indirect ways.

To those who reviewed the seventh edition of the book and offered sug gestions for what to include in the eighth edition, I appreciate your thoughtful comments. Thanks to Lynn Baynum, Shippenburg University; Laurie Curtis, Southeastern Oklahoma State University; Jan Harrison, Patrick Henry Com munity College; Cathy Rivera; and Rachael Waller, Montana State University Billings. To the college professors, college students, teachers, and parents who purchased earlier editions and demonstrated their support for the publication, the eighth edition was made possible by you.

Finally, I thank my parents, Mary and Milton Mandel, who provided a literacy-rich environment for me and a work ethic that gave me the ambition to take on this task. And to my family, specifically Stephanie M. Bushell, Doug Bushell, and Frank Morrow for their love and friendship, and my grandson James and granddaughter Natalie for demonstrating the validity of many of the concepts expressed in the book.

L. M. M.

Introduction A Look at an

Exemplary Language Arts Classroom Photo credit: Lesley Morrow

In this introduction, I describe an early childhood teacher and her students in the beginning of first grade. The purpose of this introduction is to give you

an idea of what an exemplary early childhood classroom in which literacy is emphasized looks like. This will provide a framework for what you will read in the rest of the book. This introduction presents what you should know and be able to do after reading the book. By previewing this case study, you will have some background information about what is to come. In the description of this classroom, many critical components, materials, and routines of exemplary literacy instruction are discussed. After completing the book, read this introduction again.

Introduction to the Teacher and Students Wendy Hayes has been teaching first grade for the past seven years. Recently, she completed a Master’s degree, with a reading specialist certification. She teaches in a working-class community. She has twenty-two students in her class, including six Caucasian, five Asian American, seven African-American, and four Hispanic children. Twenty percent of Wendy’s class speaks one of four languages at home: Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, or Mandarin Chinese. Twelve students are girls and ten are boys. There is a full-time aide assigned to one student who is physically disabled and uses a wheelchair.

Wendy’s philosophy of teaching includes integration of the curriculum so that students can build connections between content areas. She purposefully integrates literacy skill development in reading, writing, listening, speaking,

and viewing with her social studies and science themes as much as possible. Her small-group literacy instruction emphasizes her belief in

differentiated instruction. In the small groups, she teaches skills in an explicit manner. Ms. Hayes uses both narrative and informational texts. She is

spending more time on expository books than she has in the past since she recognizes that children gain background knowledge and vocabulary from this material. She is aware that people read a variety of informational texts such as how-to manuals, applications, instructions, recipes, and websites. Consequently, Ms. Hayes understands that children must be introduced to

multiple genres at a young xxviii Introduction

age. She is working to embed appropriate goals from the Common Core Standards into her early literacy program.

Setting the Stage for Wendy’s Teaching Wendy’s classroom is warm and inviting, with well-defined centers. The displays on the walls clearly reflect the theme being studied. They also show considerable evidence of the children’s growing literacy development. The displays include charts that Wendy wrote with the children and samples of children’s writing and artwork. Wendy has an easel with chart paper for the morning message, a calendar, a weather chart, a temperature graph, a helper chart, a daily schedule, a list of classroom rules, a pocket chart, and a word wall in the area where she teaches the whole group.

Wendy’s largest center is the literacy center, which has a rug for independent reading and whole-class meetings. The area includes lots of space for storing books. One set of shelves holds books organized in two different ways. There are baskets of books leveled for difficulty coordinating with Wendy’s small group reading instruction. For example, students reading books in the green basket during small-group instruction know that these are the books they can read independently. Other shelves hold baskets organized by themes, such as dinosaurs, sports, and weather. Wendy rotates books in the baskets monthly. Colored stickers on the books and baskets assist students in returning them to the correct spot. Student-made class books and stories are displayed in another basket. Books about the current theme are on an open-faced shelf.

The literacy center has a felt board and felt characters, a magnetic board with magnetic characters, puppets, and props for storytelling. There is a rocking chair for the teacher and other adults to use to read to the class.

The children use the rocking chair to read independently and to each other. The listening area in the literacy center has a CD player for listening to stories. There are manipulative materials for learning about print, which include

magnetic letters, puzzle rhyme cards, and letter chunks on small tiles for making words. Wendy has an electronic white board for presenting lessons in word study and comprehension and activities for students to do on their own. Finally, she embeds the use of technology in her teaching with digital texts, accessing information from the Internet, and posting information on the class website. She and the children also create PowerPoint presentations and use programs that enhance literacy and engage children such as Animoto and Puppet Pals.

The writing center is an extension of the literacy center. There is a round table for small groups of children to meet with the teacher. Shelves hold many types of paper (lined and unlined), a stapler, markers, crayons, colored pencils, dictionaries, alphabet stamps, and ink stamp pads. A word wall in the writing center has the letters of the alphabet taped on horizontally. When the children learn a new word, it is written on a card and taped under the letter it begins with on the word wall. Children use the words when they need the spelling of a word or to practice reading. During instruction, children are asked to think of words that begin with the same letter and sound as a word on the word wall, or to think of words that rhyme with a word on the word wall. Wendy puts her students’ names on the word wall. She also puts high-frequency sight words that her children are expected to learn.

Introduction to the Teacher and Students xxix

Wendy’s science center provides a home for the class guinea pig, rabbit, and hermit crab. Equipment in this center includes plants, magnets, magnifying glasses, and objects that sink or float. Materials are added to match the themes being studied, and there are always new hands-on experiments for students to complete.

The dramatic play center includes a table, chairs, and a bookshelf. Changes are made to the area to reflect the themes studied during the year. This center has been converted into a restaurant where children take orders and read menus. The restaurant helps with learning about multicultural food and customs. This year, the class had a restaurant that changed from Italian, to Chinese, Mexican, a Jewish deli, and Japanese. Dramatic-play settings also included a newspaper office, a post office, and a travel agency.

The block center includes wooden blocks of all sizes and shapes and other toys for construction, such as Legos. There are toy trucks, cars, trains, people, and animals in this area with labels designating where

each toy goes. Also supplied are 5 × 8 cards and tape for labeling structures created by the children. There are signs written by children such as “Please Save” on buildings under construction and signs naming finished structures. Children sign their names on the labels.

Located near the sink is the art center, which contains an easel, table, and chairs. There are scissors, markers, crayons, and paper of many colors, types, and sizes. Collage materials such as cotton balls, doilies, foil, wallpaper, stickers, and paste are also included.

The math center contains math manipulatives for counting, adding, measuring, weighing, graphing, and distinguishing shapes. There are felt numbers to use on the felt board, magnetic numbers for magnetic boards, numbers to sequence in a pocket chart, and geometric shapes such as

squares, triangles, cylinders, and rectangles. The children sit at tables clustered together. In a quiet corner of the

room, there is a round table that Wendy uses for small-group instruction. Shelves near the table have materials for small groups, such as letters of the alphabet, rhyming cards, leveled books, sentence strips, index cards, white boards, markers, and word-study games.

Center Management Wendy uses her centers daily, since primary-grade children learn best when they are manipulating materials and collaborating. Wendy assigns centers at which the children work. After about 15 minutes, she rings a bell for children to change centers. To assure that all children get to all centers in a week, she makes a note of which centers children were at each day and they go to ones the next day that they did not visit the day before. The completed work from a center is placed in the basket labeled “Finished Work.” At the end of each day, Wendy reviews completed work from the centers and assigns centers for the next day. Any incomplete work, or work that indicates a child needs help with a concept, is placed in the “Not Finished” folder. Time is allotted each day for completing unfinished work. After completing work at three centers, the students may choose other centers in which to work. Thus, the children have a combination of required activities in centers assigned by Wendy and self-selected activities in centers of their choice.

xxx Introduction

Assessing Students to Determine Instructional Needs To provide instruction to meet the varied reading and writing levels of her

students, Wendy spends considerable time assessing them with formal and informal measures. In September, January, and June, she assesses students’

phonics knowledge, their ability to read sight words, vocabulary development, their reading comprehension, fluency, and writing ability. She plans instruction based on the needs she identifies. She also looks at daily performance samples. Wendy takes monthly running records for children who are reading and checks knowledge of Concepts about Books and Print (CBP) for those not yet reading. These assessments identify the types of errors that children make, the decoding strategies they use, and their comprehension and reading levels. A comparison of previous running records to new ones and CBP tests indicate student

progress. Wendy writes anecdotal notes about child behavior that indicates achievement and what help is needed. She collects samples of children’s writing, evaluates them, and places these in student portfolios. Wendy also observes students for social, emotional, and physical development.

Small-Group Reading Instruction Wendy developed a schedule that allows her to work with small groups of

children to develop reading skills. Using the collected assessment information, she places students with similar needs together for small-group instruction.

As she works with children, she takes careful notes regarding progress in literacy and adjusts the members of her various groups as needed. While in

small groups, Wendy provides skills instruction for the children. She works on phonics skills, comprehension, fluency, writing, and vocabulary development. Wendy currently has four small groups and meets with each

group three to four times a week. On Fridays she meets again (this time individually) with

struggling children.

Wendy’s Daily Schedule 8:45 - When children arrive at school, they have a DO Now:

Carry out their jobs Partner Read Make entries in their journals Complete unfinished work

9:00 to 9:15 - The group meets as a whole for the Morning Meeting: Morning greetings are shared The calendar and weather are discussed The schedule for the day is reviewed

9:15 to 10:00 - Vocabulary Morning Meeting There is a vocabulary lesson to match the theme being studied. Vocabulary

words from the theme are reviewed and some new ones added to the list. With a partner, the children create sentences with the new vocabulary. In this vocabulary period, grade-level vocabulary is also introduced.

A Typical Day in Wendy’s Classroom xxxi

10:00 to 10:20 - Comprehension Reading Workshop The teacher does a read-aloud based on the theme being studied and

does a mini-lesson to build comprehension using either an informational or narrative book dealing with the current theme. After the lesson, children select from a group of books the teacher has provided. They read with a partner to practice the skill taught. The teacher moves around the room and conferences with children about their reading, offering guidance when necessary. The class as a whole shares what each student learned from partner reading based on the comprehension skill taught in the read aloud.

10:20 to 11:10 - Small-Group Differentiated Reading Instruction and Center Activities

11:15 to 12:00 -Writing Workshop The teacher does a mini-skill lesson for the whole group focusing on one

writing skill. The children write alone or with a partner to practice the skill. The teacher holds conferences with the children as they write. The children share their writing.

12:00 to 12:45 - Lunch and Indoor or Outdoor Play 12:45 to 1:15 Word Work 1:00 to 1:40 - Math 1:40 to 2:15 - Theme-related activities in social studies or science in

which reading and writing activities are purposefully embedded

2:15 - Creative arts, music, or gym (specials or classroom teacher—related to classroom theme studied and tied into literacy skills provided by the classroom teacher)

2:50 - WRAP UP: Read-aloud or silent reading Sharing and reviewing the most important things learned

that day Planning for tomorrow

A Typical Day in Wendy’s Classroom Wendy and her students are studying dinosaurs. In her classroom, read ing, writing, listening, speaking, and content-area subjects are integrated into the dinosaur theme. On Monday, she organizes activities for the week.

It is Monday morning and Wendy’s room fills with quiet chatter as her students arrive. Classical music plays in the background as children complete their morning routines. Children move their name tags on the attendance board from the side labeled Not Here to Here and place their name stickers into the Buy Lunch or Milk can. Some children cluster around the easel, where Wendy has written the morning message and at the end included the question for the day. The message says, “Good morning, children. Today is Monday, April 3rd. We will have art today as our special. Our question for today is how many dinosaur names do you know? Write them in your journal and we will talk about it later.”

xxxii Introduction

Children check the helper chart for jobs such as feeding the animals, watering plants, and recording the temperature and day’s weather on the weather graph. Wendy puts pictures next to each step to help with reading the chart. This is particularly useful for struggling readers and English Language Learners

(ELL). Students know it is Do Now time and write their weekend news in their

journals. On other days of the week, they partner read three times and journal write one more time. Wendy greets each child as she circulates among the readers or writers. A two-minute warning bell rings, letting children know that it is time to gather on the rug for the morning meeting.

The Morning Meeting: Vocabulary Development Wendy says, “Good morning,” and the children repeat the greeting to each other and shake hands around the circle. Because they are beginning the new month of April, they echo read and then choral read a poem about the month that Wendy showed on the digital white board. She gives the children a paper copy of the poem to put in their Poem Books, along with other poems for each month. Next, Wendy leads the class in reading the morning message together. She

asked the children to look at the morning message and read it together. It said, “Good morning, children. Today is Monday, April 3rd. We will have art today as our special. What dinosaurs did you write down? Can you tell me something about them?” The morning message is used to develop vocabulary. They discussed the dinosaurs and Wendy brought pictures to show of them as they are mentioned. New dinosaur names were added to the themed word wall to continue vocabulary development.

Comprehension Reading Workshop: Comprehension Development and Independent Reading

Wendy has her class move to another portion of the room for Reading Workshop. She will do a read-aloud and comprehension mini-lesson. The

book is an informational book about dinosaurs. They look through the pages together and decide what the book will be about. It seems it might be about plant- eating dinosaurs. Wendy tells them to listen for all the types of plants that the animals eat. She tells the children to compare characteristics of meat-eating dinosaurs they read about recently and the plant-eating dinosaurs she was going to read about today. The children have copies of the book and follow along as the teacher reads. After reading, they discuss the facts in the book and compare the meat eaters to the plant eaters.

After the discussion, children choose a book to read from a selection of dinosaur books. The books are about meat-eating dinosaurs and plant eaters. Children are to remember facts about the meat-eating dinosaurs and the plant-eating dinosaurs to compare. While they read with a partner, the teacher circulates and listens to readers. She offers assistance if needed. She may even conference with some who seem to need additional help.

After their partner reading, the class shares and compares facts together. They discuss the differences between plant-eating dinosaurs and meat-eating dinosaurs on a Venn diagram and discuss things they have in common.

A Typical Day in Wendy’s Classroom xxxiii

Center Time Wendy spends a few minutes reviewing the center activities and describing new ones placed in the centers for the exploration of dinosaurs. Centers have materials that are in place over a period of time, and they are enriched with activities that reflect the current theme and skills that need to be practiced. A description of what has been added to each center related to the dinosaur theme follows.

Writing Center: Dinosaur-bordered writing paper, dinosaur-shaped books, a dinosaur dictionary, a dinosaur-shaped poster with words about dinosaurs, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, markers Literacy Center: Fiction and nonfiction dinosaur books, dinosaur books with accompanying CDs, a dinosaur vocabulary puzzle, a dinosaur concentration memory game, a teacher-made dinosaur lottery game Computer Center: Games, information on different types of dinosaurs, and a video about fossils. Science Center: Small skulls and old animal bones, along with a mag nifying glass and rubber gloves to examine the bones and draw what they think the entire animal may have looked like; dinosaur pictures to sort into meat eaters and plant eaters; other pictures to be sorted into “walked on two feet” and “walked on four feet.” There are recording sheets for all activities. Math Center: Measuring tools in a basket and sheets to record the measurement of various plaster bones of dinosaurs; dinosaur counters; little plastic dinosaurs in an estimation jar; a basket containing 50 little dinosaurs numbered from 1 to 50 to be put in sequential order. Blocks Center: Toy dinosaurs, trees, bushes, and some dinosaur books Art Center: Dinosaur stencils, dinosaur stamps, clay models of dino saurs, and many pictures of dinosaurs to help students make their own sculptures. Dramatic Play Center: The dramatic-play area is transformed into a pale ontologist’s office with chicken bones embedded in plaster of Paris, carv ing tools and small hammers to remove the bones, safety

goggles, paper and pencils for labeling bones, trays to display them, dinosaur books, and posters of fossils and dinosaurs.

After Wendy reviews center activities, she assigns her students to centers. Activities that must be done are skills that students need practice in, such as matching pictures with letters to reinforce long and short vowel sounds. When they complete the have-to activities, children may select any center.

Small-Group Differentiated Reading Instruction Center time allows the teacher to work with small groups and individuals while the children are working independently. Wendy’s first group is reading a new book. She does a book walk to introduce the children to the difficult words and pictures. Wendy and the children talk about each page. During the book

xxxiv Introduction

walk, the students are asked to find particular vocabulary words that are new to them. They also discuss the names of the animals in the book. Wendy reads the story to the children first. Next, the children are asked to read the book orally at their own pace. As the group reads, Wendy notices that one student reads the book quickly without making any errors. Wendy makes a note to think about moving him to a more challenging reading group. After the children finish reading, Wendy asks everyone to turn to page eight. “I noticed that James read, ‘We saw the pot bear’ and then changed it to ‘polar bear,’ since he looked back at the letters and took into account the meaning of the sentence. He remembered that the words have to match the letters and what you read has to make sense.”

While the children were reading, Wendy did a running record on one child. She noted that this student read tooth instead of teeth and said winds instead of wings. Wendy will help this child pay more attention to the print when working with him.

Wendy’s next group is reading a different and more difficult book. This group is more advanced than the first. The group has worked with this book before; therefore, the lesson that Wendy will carry out will help her children become more independent readers. She will teach them how to figure out

unknown words by using the meaning of a sentence and by looking at the letters in the words. They begin with a game called “Guess the Covered Word,” similar to an activity they used during the morning message. This time, the covered word in the sentence “I can blank fast” is the word run. The children are encouraged to select a word that makes sense in the sentence and then look at the letters in the word to see which is the correct word. Words generated for the missing word were walk, eat, hop, sleep, and run. The activity is repeated in other sentences throughout the book.

The next group is reading another book. In this lesson, Wendy focuses on teaching the children to look at ending sounds to figure out words. Wendy wrote, “I am go to the store” on the chart. She reads the sentence and the children quickly point out that it does not sound right. Joan writes a second sentence, “I am going to the store.” They identify the difference in the two

sentences by pointing to the words go and going. Wendy reminds the children to look at the ends and beginnings of words when reading. They read the book with special attention to the word endings. After the first reading, she starts a discussion to demonstrate their ability to infer and asks them if they could think of another way to end the story.

A quick snack For a snack there are dinosaur animal crackers and what Wendy refers to as “dinosaur juice.” Children read independently when finished with

the snack.

Writing Workshop The children gather for writing in the whole-class meeting area. Wendy prepares them for a school-wide activity. They will survey all students in the school to find out what their favorite dinosaurs are. Wendy does an interactive writing activity to draft a letter asking the teachers and children in other classrooms to participate. She begins by reviewing the format of a letter, which was introduced

A Typical Day in Wendy’s Classroom xxxv

during a previous unit on the post office. They discuss how to begin and end a letter. Using chart paper, Wendy asks the children to offer suggestions to start the letter and write the letter. The children and their teacher compose the text. Wendy types the letter and distributes it to each classroom. The original shared writing chart will be posted on the cafeteria door.

Next, Wendy introduces the writing activity for the week. The children will be writing informational texts about dinosaurs. They are each to select their favorite dinosaur and answer the following questions before they begin their writing:

What are the parts of your dinosaur? What does your dinosaur eat? Where did your dinosaur live? What else do you know about your dinosaur?

Each child selects a partner to work with and a dinosaur to study. Jamal and Damien chose a tyrannosaurus. Wendy has provided books for looking up information in the categories outlined and has identified website for children to review. Each child takes two sections of the book on which to write.

Through this initial activity, the children have learned that brainstorming is a crucial step in the writing process. Brainstorming helps children decide what they will write. On Tuesday, they will continue to browse through dinosaur books for information and start to draft. Children will write the facts collected into informational stories and illustrate them. When the activity is completed at the end of the week, children will share their informational dinosaur stories.

Lunch and Play Lunch is in the cafeteria. After eating, if weather permits, the children play outside. If not, they play in the gym or their classroom.

Word Work

The school where Wendy teaches has a phonics program that makes sure children systematically learn the skills they need to read automatically and independent. This program includes many manipulative materials that engage children in building words using initial consonant blends and digraphs, and word families at the end. In addition to using the phonics program, Wendy always adds something that brings meaning to the lesson. For example, with the study of dinosaurs that are meat eaters and plant eaters, she points out that meat follows the rule she has taught that says when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. She asks the children for other words with ea that follows that rule. Children mention treat, seat, and beat. They also look at the word plant to notice the blend at the beginning of the word. They think of other words that have the pl blend at the beginning such as place, plot, and play.

Math There is a specific math curriculum that Wendy follows in her school. She also ties her math to her theme and literacy. Children are working on subtracting a one-digit number from a two-digit number. After working on the skill, she asks

xxxvi Introduction

the children to write a word problem that involves subtraction and dinosaurs. James wrote the following, “Fifteen dinosaurs went for a walk in the forest. They were plant eaters and munching on plants along the way. Five of them at the end of the line got lost. How many dinosaurs were left in the big group.”

Science: Theme Activity and Center Time Wendy has planned a theme-related art activity. Everyone will contribute to a mural and construct a habitat environment for dinosaur sculptures the children will create with the art teacher. To introduce the mural and habitat activity, everyone listens as Wendy explains the details. Children talk about a piece of the mural they would like to work on, such as trees, vines, a cave, a river, or plants. Wendy writes the children’s names on a chart with the item they would like to draw with markers.

One-third of the students remain on the carpet to work on the mural. These children huddle around books depicting plants and trees from the time of the dinosaurs. Animated discussions take place as each child draws food, shelter, water, and other elements necessary to sustain dinosaur life. The rest of the children use this time to complete unfinished journal writing or center work. If they have completed all their work, they can select any center activity they wish. This is a playful time of the day when children build with blocks, play in the dramatic play area, do an art project, explore in the science area, or look at books. Students who did not get to work on the mural will have a chance another day during the week.

Art, Music, Gym At this time of day, the class goes to a special teacher for art, music, or gym. Wendy has coordinated with these teachers about the current class theme so the art teacher is working on paper-mâché dinosaur sculptures with the children. The music teacher has found some great dinosaur songs and one about habitats as well. The gym teacher has thought of some movement

activities to help the students walk like dinosaurs.

WRAP Up At the end of the day, students gather in the meeting area for a read-aloud and a review of the day. Wendy has selected an informational book about dinosaurs. This book will provide children with more facts and vocabulary that they can use in their writing and for the mural habitat they are creating. Before she reads it, she points out some of the features of this informational book. There is a table of contents that includes each chapter and glossary of new words. There are labels on figures, captions describing pictures, headings introducing new topics, and new vocabulary written in a bolder and bigger print than the rest of the words. Wendy knows this book will introduce children to a topic not yet discussed in class: the differences between dinosaurs that were plant eaters and those that were meat eaters. After reading, Wendy helps children list the characteristics of plant-eating and meat-eating dinosaurs on an interactive writing chart. There were new dinosaur terms to learn, such as armored plates, carnivore, and extinct.

A Typical Day in Wendy’s Classroom xxxvii

In another shared reading at the end of the next day, Wendy focused on finding facts in the informational text. When she read, she asked the children to listen for the facts about dinosaurs and the elements in the book that make it informational.

After reading, Wendy asked, “What elements made this book an informational story?”

Student 1: There aren’t characters that have a story to tell. Student 2: It is about real things. Student 3: You learn a lot of facts.

After the discussion, Wendy made a web that included the facts in the text. She drew a circle on a chart with the word dinosaurs written in the

center. Then she drew lines radiating out from the center circle. Next, she drew smaller circles connected to each line radiating out from the larger circle. As children recalled facts about dinosaurs, Wendy wrote the words in one of the smaller circles. After writing the web, Wendy and the children read it: Dinosaurs: Big, Scary, Vegetarians, Meat Eaters, Dangerous, Extinct.

Wendy talked about how informational texts are also called nonfiction because everything is real instead of make-believe. One student raised her

hand and said:

Student 1: I think the book is make-believe, because the pictures are drawings. If it was an informational book, there would be photographs that we take with cameras.

Student 2: But they can’t have real photographs because dinosaurs are dead, and they didn’t have photographs since they had no cameras when they were alive. We don’t have any more dinosaurs. What is that word, they are? Oh yeah, they are extinct.

The teacher gives each child a post-it to write the three most important things they learned. They put the post-its on a bulletin board and make a copy to bring home. This reinforces what was learned and lets parents know

what was learned as the children share the post it with their families.

Tuesday: Learning More about Dinosaurs Tuesday’s schedule is the same as Monday, but with new books and assignments. During the rest of the week, the children followed the same

routines with morning messages, Vocabulary Development, Reading Workshop with a shared storybook readings, whole-group skills lessons, and reading practice. There is small-group instruction, center work, writing workshop, and theme-related activities in social studies, science math, art, music, and play.

Summary

Wendy’s classroom allows children to have the opportunity to explore and experiment while also receiving explicit instruction. They are expected to complete work assigned to them during small-group instruction or during

xxxviii Introduction

whole-group lessons. However, they also have choices in the selection of activities a few times during the day. A lot of information is introduced during whole- and small-group lessons, and information is repeated and reviewed all week long. Children’s individual needs are met during small-group reading instruction, writing workshop, and center time. Reading and writing are integrated in content-area learning. Children in Wendy’s classroom read and write all day long in all of the content areas. Her classroom is arranged so the children have access to varied materials and books. Most importantly, Wendy’s children come into the classroom each day ready and excited to learn.

1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development Surveying the Past to the Present

Learning Outcomes

1.1 Discuss the historical roots of early childhood education.

1.2 Discuss the evolution of theory and practice in early childhood education across the twentieth century.

1.3 Differentiate among constructivism, explicit instruction, and the balanced comprehensive

approach to literacy instruction.

1.4 Describe the effects of evidence-based research, governmental policies, and legislation on early childhood literacy.

Vocabulary accommodation assimilation

balanced comprehensive approach (BCA)

behaviorist learning perspective child-centered curriculum

(progressive education) Common Core State Standards

constructivist perspective emergent literacy explicit instruction

integrated language arts policy

reading readiness research scaffolding schema

Photo credit:

Douglas Bushell

theory

whole-langua ge instruction

Photo credit photo credit. Photo credit.

2 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

In this video, Dr. Lesley Morrow discusses literacy development: http:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=c8A38PdipDc

Sylvia Ashton Warner wrote in her book

Spinster (1963) “What a dangerous activity reading is: teaching is. All this plastering of foreign stuff. Why plaster on at all when there’s so much inside already? So much locked in? If only I could draw it out and use it as working material. If I had a light enough touch, it would just come out under its own volcanic power.” What Sylvia Ashton Warner said is true. The issue is how do we unlock what is inside the right way? Following is a vignette in which a Mom helps a child who has a lot locked inside and helps her daughter with a light touch do draw it out. Four-year-old Natalie and her mother were in the mall and doing some errands. As they approached one store, Natalie said, “Look, Mommy, I can read those letters: T-A-R-G-E-T. Those letters spell Marshalls.” Natalie’s mother

smiled and said, “That was great, Natalie. You got every letter right. Now I’ll read the sign for you; it says Target. This is another store like Marshalls. You did some good thinking when you tried to read that word since the stores look alike. Do you see any letters in the word Marshalls that you have in your name?” Natalie looked and then said, “I have an A and so does Marshalls, and I have an L.” Not too long ago, we would have chuckled at Natalie’s remarks as cute but incorrect. Today, we realize that she is demonstrating a great deal of lit eracy knowledge that needs to be recognized. First, she knows what letters are, and she can identify the ones on the sign. Next, she knows that letters spell words. She knows that words are read and have meaning. Although she did not read the word correctly, she made an informed guess. Through utilizing background knowledge, Natalie was aware that this building was a department store. Even though she had never been to this one, she called it by a store name she was familiar with. She was using some of her literacy knowl edge with an adult she knew was interested and

would positively interact with her. Her mother offered encouraging reinforcement for what Natalie did know and support by modeling the correct response when she needed help. Her mother also continued the learning experience by asking Natalie if any of the letters in Marshalls were in her name.

•  •  •  • Babies begin to acquire information about literacy from the moment they are born. They continue to build their knowledge of oral language, reading, and writing as they grow. A great deal of attention must focus on literacy develop ment in early childhood. Research demonstrates that teachers, parents, and administrators must view young children as having literacy skills even though the literacy demonstrated by them is not conventional like adults. Early literacy behaviors have implications for instructional practice and later

reading success. Like a child’s first words and first steps, learning to read and write should be exciting and rewarding. This book draws on research and blends it with theory, policy, and practice that have proved successful in developing literacy. It presents a program for developing children’s literacy from birth to 9 years. This book takes into account the joint position statement of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children entitled Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children (1998) and the position statement by the IRA, Literacy Development in the Preschool Years (2006). It also con siders the National Reading Panel Report (2000), National Early Literacy Report (National Center for Family Literacy, 2004), Common Core State

Surveying the Past to the Present 3

Standards (2011), and other works that will be documented throughout the chapters. The rationale for the book includes the following beliefs:

1.Literacy learning begins in infancy. 2. Families need to provide a literacy-rich environment and literacy

experiences at home to help children acquire skills. Families need to be continuously involved in their children’s literacy learning.

3.Teachers must be aware that children come to school with unique and varying degrees of prior knowledge about reading and writing. 4. Children need to develop reading and writing skills through experiences at school that build on their existing knowledge. 5.Literacy learning requires a supportive environment that builds

positive feelings about self and literacy activities. 6.Literacy learning requires a school environment rich with

accessible materials and varied experiences. 7.Teachers must serve as models for literacy behavior by scaffolding

and demonstrating strategies to be learned. 8.During their literacy experiences, children should interact within a social

context to share information and learn from one another. 9.Early reading and writing experiences are motivating when they are

relevant and concrete; these activities should actively engage children. 10.Early reading and writing experiences need to provide systematic and explicit skill instruction.

11. A literacy development program should focus on experiences that integrate reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing within the language arts and in content areas such as music, art, social studies,

science, and play. 12.Diversity in cultural and language backgrounds must be

acknowledged and addressed in early literacy development. 13.Differences in literacy development will vary and are addressed

with small-group and one-to-one differentiated instruction.

14. Struggling readers must be provided for with early intervention programs in addition to the regular literacy instruction.

15. Assessment of achievement should be frequent and match instruction, and multiple formats for evaluating a student’s literacy development should be used. 16. Standards for early literacy grade-level benchmarks should be tied to instruction and assessment and used as a means for reaching goals for all children to read fluently by the end of third grade. 17.Instruction must be age appropriate for the development of children, with

high and achievable expectations. 18. Programs should be research based. For example, the National Reading

Panel Report (2000) provides us with research-based components in reading instruction to ensure success. These include phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, comprehension, and fluency. Writing is also a necessary component. The Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (National Center for Family Literacy, 2004) also includes preschool literacy skill achievement markers.

4 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

This book incorporates the work of philosophers, educators, psycholo gists, and researchers who have described how young children learn and what they need to be taught. The book emphasizes that literacy development occurs in prepared, literacy-rich environments where planned experiences facilitate development in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing in coordina tion with content-area subjects. Although some chapters concentrate on lan guage, reading, or writing, an important concern at all times is the integration of all these literacy dimensions. In early childhood, literacy instruction should occur all day long. It should be explicit, embedded, and spontaneous.

Literacy development must focus on both learning and teaching. Teachers must explicitly instruct children while also encouraging them to be actively involved in collaborative learning experiences, using materials with which they can explore and experiment. A major focus of the book is to motivate children to view reading as a relevant act and associate it with pleasure. Children must understand that reading is a source of information that is valuable for them to learn to succeed in life. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, Justice, and Health and research by Assel, Landry, Swank, and Gunnewig (2007), those who are functionally illiterate are likely to:

Drop out of high school Have behavior and social problems that result in being incarcerated

Be chronically ill Live in poverty Have children who will be illiterate

Alternatively, those who learn to read are likely to:

Graduate from high school and possibly college Have strong social skills Enjoy a healthier life Earn a living to support themselves and a family Have children who are literate

Ninety percent of the children who are below grade level in reading at the beginning of fourth grade, although they can improve, will never reach grade level. Therefore the early childhood teacher has a tremendous

responsibility.

The Historical Roots of Early Childhood Education Theory

Early childhood education is not a recent development. Since the 1700s, phi losophers, theorists, psychologists, and educators have addressed appropriate educational practice for learning in early childhood. They address the issue of whether learning to read is a matter of nature or nurture, both of which have implications for early literacy instruction in contemporary education.

Rousseau—1712–1778 Born in Geneva in 1712, Jean-Jacques Rousseau became a philosopher,

writer, and composer. In his work titled Émile (1762), Rousseau strongly The Historical Roots of Early Childhood Education Theory 5

According to Pestalozzi, Froebel, Dewey, as well as other philosophers and theorists, learning in early childhood occurs

when youngsters have the opportunity to

explore, experiment, and play at real-life experiences.

Photo credit: Jennifer Kamm

recommended that a child’s early education be natural. That is, children should only be asked to learn things for which they are developmentally ready. Rousseau advocated abandoning contrived instruction in favor of allowing children to grow and learn with the freedom to be themselves. He believed that education follows the child’s own development and readiness for learning. According to Rousseau, children learn through curiosity. He

believed that children have individual ways of learning and that formal instruction can interfere with development. Rousseau’s philosophy suggests that the role of the educator is to use strategies that mesh with the child’s readiness to learn and that require as little adult intervention as possible.

Pestalozzi—1746–1827 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (Rusk & Scotland, 1979) was influenced by

Rousseau’s natural learning ideas, but he added another dimension. He started his own school and developed principles for learning that combined natural elements with informal instruction. He found it unrealistic to expect children to learn completely on their own. Although Pestalozzi felt that children may be

6 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

able to teach themselves to read, he believed that it was necessary for teachers and parents to create the conditions in which the reading process grows. He suggested that children’s potential develops through sensory manipulative

experiences, so he designed lessons that involved manipulating objects he called “gifts.” Children learned about them through touch, smell, language, size, and shape.

Froebel—1782–1852 Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel was a German pedagogue and one of

Pestalozzi’s students. Froebel also believed in the natural unfolding of a child; he followed Pestalozzi’s ideas by providing plans for instructing young children (Rusk & Scotland, 1979). Froebel is known for emphasizing the importance of play in learning. He specified that the benefits of playing to learn require adult guidance and direction and a planned environment. Froebel saw the teacher as a designer of playful activities and experiences that facilitate learning. He was the first educator to design a systematic curriculum for young children

that included objects and materials. In handling and playing with these materials, children used psychomotor skills and learned about shape, color, size, measurement, and comparison. Many of Froebel’s strategies are used in early childhood classrooms today, such as circle time when the class sings songs and learns new ideas through discussion. He coined the term kindergarten, which means “children’s garden.” This illustrated his philosophy that, like seeds,

children grow if they are tended to and cared for by the gardener, or teacher.

The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Theories and Practices

Out of the philosophies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries evolved the theories and practices that defined early childhood education across the twenti eth century. Even though the theories underpinning early childhood education in the twentieth century are, in many ways, in conversation with the theories from earlier centuries, the approaches in the twentieth century are more numer ous and more varied.

Dewey—Progressive Education John Dewey’s (1966) philosophy of early childhood education led to the con cept of the child-centered curriculum, or progressive education as it was called. Dewey believed that curriculum should be built around the interests of children. He agreed with Froebel that children learn through play and in real-life settings. He maintained that social interactions encourage learning and that

themes of ELL interest to children, such as learning about dinosaurs, are the vehicles for learn ing information and skills. Dewey rejected the idea of teaching skills as ends unto themselves. He also believed that learning is maximized through integrat ing content areas.

Dewey significantly influenced programs in United States early childhood education. Classrooms reflecting Dewey’s ideas contained centers for differ

ent activities and content areas. Shelves in a “block corner” held various sizes and shapes of blocks, toy cars, trucks, and figures of people. An art

area had The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Theories and Practices 7

easels with paint, crayons, paste, scissors, construction paper, clay, and scraps of materials, such as fabric, Styrofoam, and pipe cleaners. The dramatic-play center looked like a kitchen, with a sink, oven, refrigerator, empty food boxes, table and chairs, telephone, mirror, dolls, and some clothing for dressing up. A science area revealed a water-play table, shells, interesting rocks, plants, a class animal, and magnets. The music area had a piano, rhythm instruments, and, at that time, a record player. There was a rug for children to sit on when they came to sing by the piano. One corner of the room had a shelf of chil dren’s literature and soft pillows to lie on when looking at books. The day began as children entered the classroom and played with quiet toys. Then the teacher called them to circle time to talk about the weather and the

calendar. The conversation soon focused on a topic in social studies or science— animals or community helpers, for instance—with perhaps a song in keeping with the theme. Circle time was commonly followed by a period

of free play in which children could use the materials in the different areas of the room. There was minimal guidance during free play. A snack,

sometimes followed by a rest period, was an integral part of the daily routine. The day might also include a special lesson in art, social studies, or

science appropriate to the theme being studied. Outdoor play allowed children to run, climb, play in sandboxes, and use riding toys. The teacher

read a story daily, and related it to a class theme. Reading and mathematics were not taught formally or as isolated skills.

Instead, the teacher might ask a child to count out enough cookies for all the children in the class, to name the date on the calendar, or to compare the sizes of different children. There were no workbooks or commercial reading materials. Teachers led some informal activities that could eventually lead to reading, but they did not explicitly teach children to read. The letters of the alphabet might be found strung across the wall, the days of the week pointed out on a calendar, children’s names written on their cubbies, and other items in the room labeled with words. The goal was to accustom children to school routines and make them comfortable in this environment. The focus was on social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of the children as a whole with minimal formal instruction in reading and writing.

Skinner—Behaviorism At roughly the same time that Dewey was advocating progressive educa tion, behaviorists were taking a different approach to learning. According to behaviorists, the outcome of learning is a permanent change in behavior that is caused by a response to an experience or stimulus (Slavin, 1997). Behavior ists suggest that we learn through imitation and association, and through con ditioning, or a series of steps that are repeated so that the response becomes automatic. B. F. Skinner (1954) found that human learning was not automatic and unintentional; people operate on their environment to produce learn ing. Skinner’s research demonstrated that positive reinforcement for a desired behavior increased the use of that behavior. Skills are acquired in a series of steps, small enough to avoid failure, with rewards at each level. A behaviorist learning perspective includes an organized program presented in a system atic and direct manner. Learning requires time on task, structure, routines, and practice. Behaviorist programs are skill based, with little time for social, emotional, or physical development; the main concern is the acquisition of

8 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

cognitive skills. The materials are rated according to difficulty and are often programmed sequential lessons. The programs provide objectives for learn ing and then a script for the teacher using direct instruction as demonstrated below (Engelmann & Bruner, 1969):

Teacher: sh, sh, sh: What sound is this? Wait for Response: sh, sh, sh. Good. Teacher: sh, sh, sh. Now you say sh. Wait for Response: Yes, sh, sh. Good.

Some reading programs that use behaviorist methods are DISTAR: Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading (Englemann & Bruner, 1969), Programmed Reading Series (Sullivan & Buchanan, 1963), and Success for All (Slavin, 1997).

Although behaviorism is often not viewed as child-friendly, there are ways to use the explicit instruction in an engaging manner. At the end of the chapter is a behavioristic child friendly lesson from the classroom that dem onstrates the use of explicit instruction done well.

Montessori—Senses and Systems Maria Montessori (1965) created a method of instruction that used the senses to promote learning. Her emphasis was not on the natural unfolding of the child, their interests, or play. Rather, she believed that children needed early, orderly, systematic training in order to master skills. Therefore, she created an environment supplied with materials for learning specific concepts to meet specific objectives. The use of the materials is modeled by the teacher, which the child imitates, providing the source for learning. Children educated themselves by using these manipulatives. The materials were self-correcting; therefore, the children could determine their errors and make corrections. All the materials in the classroom were stored in their own containers, on a particular shelf, and in order of difficulty. According to Montessori, the teacher is a guide who prepares an environment with

materials designed to teach specific skills. These materials are attractive, sturdy, and have influenced manipulatives we use for learning today. In this systematic area of learning, children work with practical life

materials first, which include activities such as buttoning clothes, pouring water, and scrubbing tables. There are precise steps to complete each task correctly. The second area of learning is called sensorial. Through the five

senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight, children learn about size, color, and shape by manipulating materials designed to teach these skills. The curriculum includes learning reading and math, which are taught using manipulative mate rials. In math, Montessori created bead clusters that teach counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Early reading instruction includes learning the sounds of letters with the help of cards that have raised textured letters. Children trace the cards as they make the sound. Sight words are taught using real objects and pictures. Montessori’s curriculum is based on behaviorist theory. Children’s curiosity and exploration are of less concern than working with a material to achieve a goal. Play is not as important as work, because it takes away from the opportunity to achieve. Montessori promotes independent learning for children, with daily schedules that are systematic and organized.

In this video, a Piagetian preschool curriculum, High Scope, is discussed: https:// www.youtube.com/

watch?v=dnGEu-HfC8w Photo credit: Jennifer Kamm

The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Theories and Practices 9

Piaget—Cognitive Development Jean Piaget’s (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969) theory of cognitive development describes the intellectual capabilities of children at their different stages of cognitive development. The stages are as follows:

1. Sensorimotor Period (0–2 years): Thoughts are determined by sensory explorations as a baby hears, sees, tastes, and feels. 2. Preoperational Period (2–7): A child’s language develops, and thinking is concrete. The child begins to organize his world. 3. Concrete Operational Period (7–11): The child begins his thought processes in the concrete and is able to eventually move into some abstract ideas. 4. Formal Operations Period (11–adult): This high level of thinking involves using language to deal with abstract thought.

Trying to involve children in abstract thinking experiences during the preoperational stages would be considered inappropriate. Piaget believed that a child acquires

knowledge by interacting with the world. Educators who have applied his theories involve children in natural problem-solving situations where they learn through assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation means that the child incorporates new information into existing schemes. That is, she interprets new information in terms of information she has from the past. For example, when Michael saw a cat for the first time, he said, “Look at the dog, Mommy.” Michael used what he knew about four-legged animals from his experience with dogs and applied it to the cat, an animal he had

never seen. Accommodation requires changing existing schemes to incorporate new information. A child accommodates when a new situation is unfamiliar. In this situation, the child has to create a new response. Michael, for example, knows what dogs do and look like, such as bark and have four legs. When he perceived a cat to be a dog, he had

Piaget stressed that learning occurs when children interact with peers and adults in a social setting as they act on the environment.

10 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

assimilated the new experience with reference to his present comprehension level. The complementary process of accommodation may be engaged when the child finds that the new object is not a dog, but rather a cat, and that the cat meows and doesn’t bark. His conceptual understanding of cat must be refined due to the incongruity; he accommodates his thoughts to fit the reality more accurately.

According to Piaget, children need to be active participants in their learn ing by changing and reorganizing their knowledge. Learning occurs when children interact in their environment with peers and adults. Educators who have incorporated Piaget’s theories in curricula have designed constructivist type programs: a setting with many real-life materials, including the oppor tunities to play, explore, experiment, and use language. A Piagetian preschool curriculum, called High Scope, encourages decision making, problem solving, self-discipline, goal setting, planning one’s own activities, and cooperating with teachers and peers. Piaget agreed that young children should use their curiosity and spontaneity to learn. His theories do not stress content-area cen ters such as math and science. The Piaget curriculum has centers that involve children in cognitive activities such as:

1.Language Development: Talking, listening to stories, and describing. 2. Classifying: Describing attributes of objects, to notice sameness and

differences, sort, match, and the like. 3. Seriating: Placing objects in a particular order, typically by size.

4. Representing in Different Modalities: Learning about something in many different ways; for example, to learn about an apple, eat an apple,

make applesauce, draw an apple, write and read the word apple, sing a song

about apples, and so on. 5. Spatial Relations: Children are asked to put things together, take things

apart, rearrange things, reshape things, see things from a different point of view, describe direction or distance, and so on.

Vygotsky—Schema Acquisition In this video, Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal de velopment is explained and reviewed http:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0BX2ynEqLL4 Lev S. Vygotsky’s (1978) general theory of intellectual development suggests that learning occurs as children acquire new concepts or schemas. A schema is a mental structure in which a person stores information she knows. People store information and call it to mind when they have to make predictions, generaliza tions, or inferences. According to Vygotsky, mental functions are acquired through social relationships. To extend or build a new concept, children must interact with others who provide feedback for their thoughts or help them to complete a task they could not do on their own. Parents and teachers need to talk with children and provide the language they need in order to help them understand new ideas and solve problems. The child needs the help of a more knowledgeable person to scaffold the new ideas. Adults scaffold by modeling for children how to complete a task and what it looks like. The scaffolding directs a child’s attention to what she needs to know. Children learn by internal izing the activities and language of others into their world.

Vygotsky speaks of the “zone of proximal development” when a child can do some parts of a task but not all. This is a sensitive time for learning. When the child internalizes the

Photo credit: Lesley Morrow The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Theories and Practices 11

This child needs a more knowledgeable person to model and help with new tasks.

task, she performs the new task alone. Now, the teacher or parent must step back and allow the child to take responsibility to perform and practice the new skill indepen dently. Vygotsky’s approach uses a social constructivist theory. This theory is recognized as an appro priate model for early literacy.

Reading Readiness A strong influence on reading instruction came from developmental psychologists such as Arnold Gesell (1925), who advocated maturation as the most important factor in learning to read. Preschool and kindergarten teachers were told to avoid reading instruction because such young children were not ready to read. At this stage, children played and explored, sang songs, listened to stories read by the teacher, and participated in circle times that were based on themes. Methods were child centered, with concern for social, emotional, and physical development. Morphett and Washburne (1931) supported the postponement of reading instruction until a child was developmentally “old enough.” Their study concluded that

children with a mental age of 6 years and 6 months made better progress on a test of reading achievement than younger children. Uncomfortable about waiting for children to mature, educators began to provide experiences they believed would help prepare children for reading. The popularity of testing during the 1930s and 1940s helped educators in this effort and affected the next several decades of early childhood reading instruction. The standardized tests included

sections of specific skills used to indicate whether a child had reached the maturity to be ready to learn to read. The term reading readiness became popular; instead of waiting for a child’s maturation to unfold, educators focused on nurturing that maturation through instruction in skills seen as prerequisites for reading. Readiness skills included (1) auditory discrimination, the ability to identify and differentiate familiar sounds, similar sounds, rhyming words, and the sounds of letters; (2) visual discrimination, including color recognition, shape, and letter identification; (3) visual motor skills, such as left-to-right eye progression, cutting on a line with scissors, and coloring within the lines of a picture; and (4) large motor skills, such as skipping, hopping, and walking on a line. The reading-readiness model implies that children prepare for literacy by acquiring these four skills. These skills are taught systematically on the assumption that all children are at a similar level of development when they come to preschool or kindergarten with little concern for experiences and information that children may already have. However, educators discovered that some children could read without the knowledge of many of the skills outlined, and some children mastered the skills but had difficulty learning to read.

12 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

The Research Era Between the 1960s and the 1980s, researchers investigating early childhood

literacy development brought about many changes in practice. Investigators looked at the cognitive development of the child using varied research methodologies

such as experimental studies with treatment and control groups, correlational research, interviews, observations, videotapes, and case studies. The

research was done in diverse cultural and socioeconomic settings. It took place in classrooms and homes, rather than in laboratories, as in the past. Research in the areas of oral language development, family literacy, and early reading and writing had a strong impact on educators understanding the processes involved in becoming literate, how children learn, and how to teach initial reading and writing.

Key Approaches to Early Childhood Literacy In early childhood literacy, two approaches shared the stage. The constructivist theory views learning as an active process by which children construct knowl edge by problem solving, guessing, and approximating. In contrast, explicit

instruction views learning as a teacher-directed activity with emphasis on teaching a task and the specific steps needed to master it, for example teaching reading through phonics. The balanced comprehensive approach attempts to blend these two key approaches for more effective outcomes.

The field of literacy tends to vacillate in its approach. For a period of time, educators embrace constructivist thinking and promote exploration and experimentation on the part of the child. Then, either gradually or abruptly, educators switch to championing direct, explicit instruction and rely more heavily on phonics and other direct methods. These swings often include periods of widespread adoption of emergent literacy, whole-language instruc tion, phonics, and balanced approaches.

Emergent Literacy To acquire literacy skills, children need models to emulate and to create their own forms of reading, writing, and speaking. This is called an emergent literacy per spective in preschool and kindergarten. The emergent literacy perspective exposes children to books early; it is a child-centered social constructivist approach with more emphasis on problem solving than on direct instruction of skills.

Emergent literacy, a phrase first used by Marie Clay (1966), assumes that the child acquires some knowledge about language, reading, and writing before coming to school. Literacy development begins early in life and is ongoing. There is a dynamic relationship among the communication skills (reading, writing, oral language, and listening) because each influences the other in the course of development. Development occurs in everyday contexts of the home, community, and school through meaningful and functional experiences that require the use of literacy in natural settings. The settings for the acquisition of literacy are often social, with adults and children interacting through collaboration and model

ing. To provide meaning and purpose, literacy activities occur and are embed ded within content areas such as art, music, play, social studies, and science. For example, in art, children are given directions to read for making play dough.

Photo credit: Lesley Morrow

Key Approaches to Early Childhood Literacy 13

Children need to be exposed to books and writing early in life. Early attempts at literacy should be encouraged and rewarded.

At every age, children possess certain literacy skills, but these skills are not as yet fully developed or conventional (Baumann, Hoffman, Duffy Hester, & Rowe, 2000; Morris & Slavin, 2003). Emergent literacy acknowledges a child’s

scribble marks on a page as rudimentary writing, even if not one letter is discernible. The child who knows the difference between such scribbles and drawings has some sense of the difference between writing and illustration. Similarly, when children narrate familiar storybooks while looking at the pictures and print and give the impression of reading, we acknowledge the activity as literacy behavior, but not conventional reading. Emergent literacy accepts children at the level they are functioning and provides a program for instruction based on individual needs.

Constructivism and Whole-Language Instruction Whole-language instruction is similar to the emergent literacy perspective, but it considers children who are not reading conventionally. Advocates of whole language support the constructivist perspective and natural approaches to learning. It is a philosophy about how children learn, from which educators derive strategies for teaching. In a whole-language approach, literacy learning is child centered because it is designed to be meaningful, relevant, and functional. Learning to read is based on a child’s life experiences at home or those created in school. For example, if a beehive is discovered at school and removed by an exterminator, children may be interested in discussing, reading, or writing about bees. Although learning about bees is not a part of the curriculum, the teacher allows children to pursue this teachable moment (Collins & Shaeffer, 1997; Fingon, 2005). Literacy activities are integrated into the learning of content-area subjects such as art, music, social studies, science, math, and play. The use of social stud ies and science themes connects content areas and literacy experiences. Skills are taught when they seem appropriate; for example, in the unit on farms, when the class hatches baby chicks in an incubator, journals may be kept on the progress of the chicks, and the digraph ch could be emphasized. In art, children draw farms, sing farm songs, visit a farm, and learn some scientific and social studies information about the farm. Topics are selected by the children and teacher, or spontaneously based on something of interest that occurs in school, in

some one’s home, or in the world. Equal emphasis is placed on teaching reading, writing, listening, and oral language, because all of these components help create a literate individual. In the past, this program has been referred to as an integrated language arts approach. Themes are studied through the use of varied genres of children’s literature which 14 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

Photo credit: Annie

Thematic units often use a science or social studies topic, and teachers integrate literacy activities into content-area lessons.

provides the main source of reading mate rial for instruction. Classrooms are rich with literacy materials throughout the room and housed in literacy centers. This design is often called a rich literacy environment.

In a classroom that uses holistic strategies, teachers place more emphasis on learning than on teaching. Learning is self-regulated and individualized, with self-selection and

Pickert Fuller/Pearson Education

choices of literacy activities. Rather than teach lessons in literacy, teachers provide experiences that engage children in literacy activities. Social interaction is encouraged with children along with opportunities for peer tutoring. Children learn through practice by engaging in long periods of independent reading and writing and sharing what is learned—by reading to others and presenting written pieces to an audience. A major objective of this approach is an emphasis on the joy of reading and the development of lifelong

readers. In classrooms that use holistic approaches, skills are taught when they are relevant and meaningful. In whole-language classrooms, themes (such as dinosaurs) are studied. The teacher may focus on some letters and sounds in the initial consonants found in the vocabulary of the current theme (such as names of dinosaurs). In early implementation of whole-language programs, some individuals thought that skills were not to be taught in any systematic way; children would acquire necessary skills by being immersed in experiences with reading children’s literature and writing. Certainly, skills are assimilated through this immersion approach, but specific skills, such as decoding strategies, usually require explicit instruction by the teacher. In a whole-language approach, assessment is continuous and takes many forms: Teachers collect daily performance samples of work; they observe and record children’s behavior in different situations; and they build a portfolio filled with information about each youngster. The evaluation process is for the teacher, parent, and child. Conferences are held to discuss progress. In whole language, teachers and children are the decision makers about instructional strategies and materials used. Commercial materials do not dic tate the instructional program, although they may be used. Literacy learning is embedded throughout the curriculum during the school day. Large blocks of time are needed for projects. Children often read independently; however, there was little accountability for what was read. Whole language, the inte grated language arts approach, and emergent literacy are similar in practice and use a social constructivist approach to learning.

Explicit Instruction and Phonics During the mid-1980s and early 1990s, whole-language instruction began to be criticized because test scores seemed to indicate that children were not acquiring literacy skills. Many educators misunderstood the philosophy and thought that whole language meant teaching children only in whole groups. Thus, teachers

Key Approaches to Early Childhood Literacy 15

stopped meeting with small groups of children for instruction to handle indi vidual needs. Many educators also made the incorrect presumption that

whole language meant you shouldn’t teach phonics at all, when actually phonics was to be taught through immersion into literature with spontaneous and contex tual teaching of skills instead of explicit instruction. As a result of the misinter pretations, many children received little or no instruction in phonics. Strikingly, many schools did not follow or monitor a scope or sequence of skill develop ment. Because of misinterpretation, inadequate professional development, and incorrect implementation, many children did not develop skills they needed to become fluent, independent readers.

The pendulum began to swing again to those who favored an approach to early literacy development with more explicit use of phonics; these individuals cited many studies to substantiate their claims. According to Juel (1989), as children begin to experiment with reading and writing, they need to focus on the sounds that make up words. As a precursor to learning how to use phonics (sound–symbol relationships), children need the ability to rhyme words, hear syllables or parts of words, know that words are made up of individual sounds, segment sounds out of the words, blend them together, and substitute sounds in words. These skills are called phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonological and phonemic awareness instruction in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade strengthens reading achievement (Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1993, 1995; Stanovich, 1986). With phonological and phonemic awareness, children can then learn principles of phonics, including (1) alphabetic knowledge (knowing that words are composed of letters) and (2) sound–symbol relationships (knowing that there is a relationship between printed letters and spoken sounds). Research results report that knowledge of sound–symbol relationships, or phonics, is necessary for learning to read and write (Anthony & Lonigan, 2004; Lonigan, 2006). Chapter 5 covers phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics in greater detail.

A behaviorist or direct-skills approach for literacy instruction proposes the use of a strong phonics programs in early literacy. The materials for instruction provide systematic, explicit instruction of skills with scripted guides for teachers.

Statistics surrounding achievement, coupled with current political beliefs and school leadership, determine the type of reading instruction that is adopted. Research has proven, however, that no single approach produces demonstra bly better results. First-grade studies (Bond & Dykstra, 1967a, 1967b) tried to answer the question: Which method is best for early literacy development? This classic research pooled the findings from 27 independent studies conducted from 1964 to 1967. Bond and Dykstra ultimately concluded that no one method was more effective than another such that it should be used exclusively. What has been found is that exemplary teachers are the key to successful literacy instruc tion (Pressley, Allington, Wharton-McDonald, Block, & Morrow, 2001).

Balanced Comprehensive Approach The International Reading Association’s position statement, entitled Using Multiple Methods of Beginning Reading Instruction (1999), suggests that no single method or single combination of methods can successfully teach all children to read. Teachers must know the social, emotional, physical, and

intellectual status of the children they teach. They must also be well versed ELL 16 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

in the various methods for reading instruction. Only then can educators

develop a comprehensive plan for teaching reading to meet individual needs. This perspective on literacy instruction, which emerged as a result of the

whole language versus phonics discussion, is a balanced comprehensive approach (BCA). The use of a BCA includes careful selection of the best

theories available and matches learning strategies based on these theories to the learning styles of individual children to help them learn to read. Both skill-based explicit instruction and holistic constructivist ideas, which include problem-solving strategies, might be used (Morrow & Tracey, 1997). Explicit teaching of skills is a start for constructivist problem-solving activities, and

Figure 1.1 Strategies and Structures in a Balanced Comprehensive Approach

The language arts

Reading, writing, listening, speaking, spelling, and viewing

Theme

Settings

Whole group

Small group

One on one

Teacher

directed

Centers

Social (with adults and peers)

Materials

Pencil and

paper

Literature

Instructional

texts

Manipulatives

Types of instruction

Spontaneous

Authentic

Explicit

Systematic

Construction of meaning

Problem

solving Open

ended

Experiences and assessment

Shared reading and writing

Guided reading and writing for

skill development

Oral and silent reading and writing

Independent reading and

writing

Collaborative reading and

writing

Content connection in reading and

writing

Performance of reading and writing

Source: Adapted from L. M. Morrow, D. S. Strickland, and D. G. Woo, Literacy Instruction in Half- and Whole-Day Kindergarten: Research to Practice (Fig. 2, p. 76). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Copyright © 1998 by the International Reading Association.

The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy 17

constructivist activities permit consolidation and elaboration of skills. One method does not preclude or exclude the other (Pressley, 1998). Figure 1.1 outlines a balanced comprehensive approach to literacy.

A BCA is not a random combination of strategies, nor is it a formula that uses whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one instruction in the same format continuously. A teacher must select strategies from different learning theories to provide appropriate balance. One child, for example, may be a visual learner who derives little benefit from instruction in phonics; another child, whose strength may be auditory learning, will learn best from a great deal of phonics instruction. The BCA approach focuses more heavily on what is important for individual children.

Balanced instruction is grounded in a rich model of literacy learning that encompasses the elegance and complexity of literacy processes. This model acknowledges the importance of both form (phonics, mechanics) and function (comprehension, purpose, meaning) of the literacy processes and also that learn ing happens best in a whole-part-whole context. This type of instruction is char acterized by meaningful literacy activities that provide children with both the skill and motivation to become proficient and lifelong literacy learners. Figures 1.2 and 1.3 illustrate a lesson that engages children in both explicit and con structivist activities.

The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy

Throughout the twentieth century until about the 1960s, federal educational policy was mostly voluntary and symbolic. Schools were governed locally; in other words, varied teaching models were accepted and no accountability procedures were dictated by the federal government. As time passed, documents that came from the federal government became more prescriptive. The federal government also engaged in more of its own research as a way to support policy decisions that involved more prescriptive programs. As a result, today there is more centralized authority and greater accountability. Evidence-based research and public policy have had significant effects on early literacy initiatives and practices.

National Reading Panel Report (2000) The National Reading Panel Report (2000) was a significant meta-analysis that revealed key elements to literacy success. The report presents findings about the most effective strategies for teaching children to read. The panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies to come up with its results. Panelists admit, however, that some areas that may be important to literacy instruction, such as

writing ELL development and motivation for reading, were not studied because of a lack of adequate numbers of high-quality investigations to analyze. In addition, only randomized experimental studies with treatment and control groups were selected for analysis. Other research designs, such as qualitative or case study and correlational, were not included because the designs did not meet with the

18 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

Figure 1.2 Constructivist and Explicit Behaviorist Lesson Plans for “The Three Bears” Directions: Photocopy, color, and laminate figures on firm paper. Cut and then paste felt on the back and tell the story to the children using the figures and a felt board. Have the children retell the story as they heard it. Next, ask the children to tell the story again but create a new ending.

Copyright © Pearson Education The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy 19

Figure 1.2 Constructivist and Explicit Behaviorist Lesson Plans for “The Three

Bears” (continued) Copyright © Pearson Education

20 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

Figure 1.3 Sequencing Strips for “The Three Bears” Directions: Cut out strips and arrange them in the correct order of events. Technology Link: Video record children in an explicit instruction lesson and in a constructivist setting. Note the differences in how they pay attention (or don’t) and how involved they are (or aren’t)

Once upon a time, Goldilocks was wandering through the woods.

She came across the three bears’ house and walked

inside. First she saw three bowls of porridge.

She tried the first bowl, but it was too cold.

She tried the second bowl, but it was too

hot. She tried the third bowl and it was just

right.

Next she saw three chairs.

She sat in the first chair, but it was too small.

She sat in the second chair, but it was too big. She

sat in the medium-size chair and it was just right.

The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy 21

Figure 1.3 Sequencing Strips for “The Three Bears” (continued)

Then Goldilocks went into the bedroom and saw three beds.

The first bed was way too big.

The second bed was way too small.

The third bed was just right, so she fell asleep.

Soon after, the three bears came home.

They noticed that someone had been sitting in their chairs.

They noticed that someone had been eating their porridge.

They noticed that someone had been sleeping in their beds.

Little Bear found Goldilocks in his bed and screamed! Goldilocks woke up, ran out the door, and never came back

again.

Copyright © Pearson Education 22 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

panel’s criteria. The results of the report indicate that learning the following ele ments is crucial to early literacy success.

Phonemic awareness Phonics Vocabulary Comprehension Fluency

Writing, independent reading, and motivation were not studied because there wasn’t enough scientifically based research to determine if these were predictors of literacy success. However, it is generally accepted among literacy researchers that these elements are necessary for successful

literacy development.

National Early Literacy Panel Report The National Early Literacy Panel Report (2008) studied existing scientifically based research to identify the skills and abilities of young children from birth through age 5 that predict later achievement in reading, such as the ability to decode and comprehend. After identifying the variables, the panel determined environments, settings, programs, and interventions that contribute to

or ELL inhibit the skills that are linked to later outcomes in reading. The variables the panel identified include:

Alphabet knowledge (AK): knowledge of the names and sounds associated with printed letters Phonological awareness (PA): the ability to detect, manipulate, or analyze the auditory aspects of spoken language (including the ability to distin guish or segment words, syllables, or phonemes), independent meaning Rapid automatic naming (RAN) of letters or digits: the ability to rapidly name a sequence of random letters or digits RAN of objects or colors: the ability to rapidly name a sequence of repeat ing random sets of pictures or objects (e.g., car, tree, house) or colors Writing or writing one’s name: the ability to write letters in isolation on request or to write one’s own name Phonological memory: the ability to remember spoken information for a short period of time Concepts about print: knowledge of print conventions (e.g., left-right, front-back) and concepts (book cover, author, text) Print knowledge: a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts about print, and early decoding. Reading readiness: a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts about print, vocabulary, memory, phonological awareness, and the ability to match or discriminate visually presented symbols and sounds such as loud, soft, high, and low Oral language: the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar

The Effects of Evidence-Based Research and Public Policy on Early Literacy 23

One important conclusion from the report is that involving children in appropriate activities will help them develop in these listed areas. Schools whose students do not score well on measures testing for these variables will be identified as needing help.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Federal research into early childhood literacy influenced policy decisions. In January 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed by the Bush administration. This nonpartisan program was one of the first policies to demonstrate a dramatic involvement of the federal government prescribing what happens in literacy instruction. The goal of NCLB is for every child in the United States to become a fluent reader by grade 3. The legislation was designed to close the achievement gap in literacy development between socioeconomic classes and prevent literacy problems before they occur. To help accomplish this goal, the federal

government awarded Reading First grants to low-achieving school districts for use with children in kindergarten through grade 3. To qualify for these grants, states had to identify the reading assessments and programs in use and demonstrate that the programs were reliable, valid, and scientifically or evidence based. Reading programs considered in these categories were supported by research data that demonstrated their quality. Programs had to include the following characteristics:

Randomly selected subjects in the studies Experimental designs with treatment and control groups Objective data that could be identified and interpreted similarly by any evaluator Valid data that adequately represented the tasks that children need to per form to be successful readers Reliable data collected on a different day or by a different person Systematic data collected according to a rigorous design of either quanti tative or qualitative research

Refereed data approved for publication by a panel of independent reviewers

The use of financial incentives for districts to achieve the policy goals contin ued under the Obama administration, which in 2010 launched the Race to the Top grant program for underachieving schools.

As with the Reading First grants, Race to the Top grants include specified components to enhance educational outcomes. In Race to the Top, for exam ple, grant recipients will be accountable for student scores on standardized tests and will be obligated to implement merit pay for teachers whose children score well. Many believe Race to the Top will intensify test-preparation activi ties because a teacher’s future livelihood will depend on his students scoring high marks on a designated standardized test. The educational community is concerned that using one test as the measure for success could have a negative effect on the curriculum. Moreover, using a single, designated test puts pres sure on children and teachers and is not the true manner in which to judge success.

24 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy Development

Common Core State Standards Standards have become a staple of American schools and curriculum since they first entered the reform scene in the early 1990s. Schools, teachers, and students find their academic lives shaped by whatever standards become a priority where

CCSS they live. Since the early 1990s, there has been an effort to develop national stan dards that create a clear statement of what students should know and be able to do at various developmental levels. Standards, therefore, attempt to outline the typical progression of student performance, assessments, and curricular schemes. Standards are established for content, and tests are used to measure the degree to which students have learned that content. Studies, however, have shown vari ability across states in the content and quality of

standards, assessments used to measure student achievement, and the criteria used to gauge success on standards (Bandeira de Mello, 2011; Polikoff, Porter, & Smithson, 2011). The Common Core State Standards Initiative (2010) is an attempt to reduce that variability. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent the latest, and most ambitious, version of what standards can do for schools, teachers, and students. Different from policies like NCLB, the development of the CCSS was not driven by a federal agency but by the states. Initiated under the auspices of the National

Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the CCSS attempt to ensure that at the end of K–12, students are pre pared to enter either college or the workforce and take their place as knowledge able, contributing members of the American economy and society. As a state-led initiative, the CCSS are intentionally designed to improve upon the current stan dards of individual states by creating clear, consistent, and rigorous standards to which all American students will be held, irrespective of where they reside. The CCSS were established by looking closely at standards and cur riculum in consistently high-achieving United States sites. The designers also carefully examined the standards in use in other countries whose students regularly score highest against international standards. Considering the stan dards of the highest achieving foreign countries ensures that the CCSS require a comparable level of achievement so that all American students are pre pared to succeed in a global economy and society. The CCSS have also been designed to reflect the knowledge and skills required to participate as workers and citizens in a global and increasingly

digital world. The title of the standards—Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects—highlights the need for developing literacy and language profi ciencies in the context of disciplinary knowledge. That is, knowledge must extend into content area courses rather than exclusively English language arts courses. For grades K–5, the CCSS suggest an integrated view of the com ponents within the English language arts of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The standards for grades 6–12 are organized by discipline—first the ELA and then subject areas, to distinguish which standards are the responsi bility of the English language arts curriculum and teachers, and which are to be addressed by subject-area teachers. Within ELA, when teaching history or science and technology, the expectation is that reading, writing, speaking, and listening will be highly coordinated and integrated. The intention of the CCSS is to provide guidance on the core content of any curriculum, with the explicit expectation that districts, schools, and teachers

An Idea from the Classroom 25

will add specification and differentiation to their implementation of the core goals. To be clear, the CCSS are neither a curriculum nor a method. They do not define the full range of support for English language learners and students with special needs, for example. What the CCSS do provide is a core set of expecta tions with enough flexibility for districts, schools, and teachers to design their own implementation. In that way, the CCSS acknowledge that there is no single best way to meet the standards—what’s important is achieving them. Ultimately, therefore, the content of the standards will be assessed. Chapter 2 will cover the CCSS in greater detail, including what they cover and how they will be assessed.

An Idea from the Classroom

Learning the Initial Consonant P (Explicit Instruction)

Explicit Modeling for Children

Teacher: Today we are going to learn about the sound of P. Who has a name that starts with a P?

Peter: My name does.

Teacher: You are right. Let’s everyone say Peter.

Class: Peter.

Teacher: Now put your hand up to your mouth and say Puh, Puh, Puh.

Class: Puh, Puh, Puh.

Teacher: How did it feel? ELL

Nancy: I felt air, and it was warm.

Teacher: Good. I’m going to tell you a story that has a lot of P words in it. I will use felt figures to tell the story. Listen and remember your favorite two P words so you can tell your neighbor about them after the story. You might hear pig, party, pizza, panda, plums, or purple. The story is called The Pig’s Party. (See the charac ters in Figure 1.4. Photocopy, color, laminate, and put felt on the back for use on a felt board or magnets for use on a white board. The characters and items in the story are numbered here and in Figure 1.4.)

Pink Pig was having a party. He wanted it to be a perfect party. He had invited Patty Pig (1), his favorite pig person, Panda Bear (2), and Proud Peacock (4). He had petu nias on the table and there were pizza for dinner and popsicles for dessert. Panda

Bear came to the party first, and Pink Pig asked, “How can I look special for Patty Pig?” Panda Bear said, “Borrow my panda bear suit, and you will look perfect.” So

Pink Pig put on Panda Bear’s suit, and he thought he looked perfect (3). Then Proud Peacock came to the party. Pink Pig asked him, “How can I look perfect for the

(continued) 26 Chapter 1 Foundations of Early Literacy

Development Figure 1.4 The Pig’s Party

1

5

6

Copyright © Pearson Education

2 3

4

8

7

party?” Proud Peacock said, “Take my purple plumes and put them on, and you will look perfect.” So he did (4, 5, and 6). Everyone agreed he looked perfect. Patty Pig (7) knocked on the door. Pink Pig opened it. She screamed when she saw Pink Pig; she thought she saw a monster with his purple plumes and panda bear suit, and she ran away. Pink Pig gave back the suit to Panda Bear and the plumes to Proud Peacock and took a petunia to run to find Patty Pig (1 and 8). He found her hiding behind the porch. When she saw Pink Pig she said, “Thank goodness it is you Pink Pig,” and they had a perfect party.

An Idea from the Classroom 27

Guided Practice

Teacher: Tell your partner the two words you liked the most that started with a P in the story.

Josh to Jen: I liked plumes and Patty.

Jen to Josh: I liked petunia and pizza.

Teacher: How many of you had the same two words? (Only a few children raise their hands.) How many of you had one word the same? (A few

more raise their hands.) How many had two different words? (Most of the class raise their hands.)

Independent Practice

Teacher: I will put the pig story and the felt characters in the literacy center in this plas tic baggie and you can tell the story or read the story and write down the P words you remember and like the most. There is paper for you to write your words on.

An Idea from the Classroom

Out to Eat: Kindergarten Restaurateurs (Constructivist Theory)

At the end of a unit on nutrition, students in my kindergarten class have the opportu nity to create their own restaurant menu. Regardless of the menu they create, students are encouraged to include healthy foods. Students draw on their knowledge of different foods and their personal experiences at various restaurants. As a result, our classroom is filled with menus for Italian restaurants, Mexican restaurants, diners, breakfast bistros, and more. Our kindergartners write and illustrate their own menus, using invented and conventional language.

During our morning meeting each day, several students have the opportunity to share their menus with the class and use persuasive language to try to convince their classmates to visit their restaurant. Then, each week, one or two students set up their “restaurant” for classmates to visit during dramatic play or centers. I assist

students by ELL making copies of their menus for their classmate patrons and helping them locate or create the foods they will need using the kitchen area of our classroom. Not only are many speaking and listening standards addressed as students take on the role of restau rant owner, chef, or guest, but students utilize what they’ve learned in our nutrition unit when deciding what to order!

Amy Monaco, Kindergarten Teacher 28 Chapter 1 ��Foundations of early Literacy

Development Summary

1-1 Discuss the historical roots of early childhood education.

Theories of early childhood began in the 1700s with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and continued into the 1800s through the work of Johann heinrich Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel. Rousseau advo cated abandoning contrived instruction in

favor of allowing children to grow and learn with the freedom to be themselves. he believed that edu cation follows the child’s own development and readiness for learning. Pestalozzi combined Rous - seau’s natural learning philosophy with elements of informal instruction, including sensory work with manipulatives. Froebel continued the

work of Pestalozzi with an added emphasis on the role of play in learning.

1-2 Discuss the evolution of theory and practice in early childhood education across the twentieth century.

Seven main theories define the evolution and practice of early childhood education in the twentieth century. Progressive edu cation, advocated by John Dewey, argued that curriculum should be built around the interests of the child and that learning is maximized through integrating content areas into instruction. The behaviorist learning perspective was built on the research of B.F. Skinner and advocated an organized program discrimination, visual discrimination, visual motor skills, and large motor skills.

1-3 Differentiate among constructivism, explicit instruction, and the balanced comprehensive approach to literacy instruction.

Three key approaches in early childhood literacy are constructivist theory, explicit instruction, and the balanced comprehensive approach, which blends the two. emergent literacy and whole-language instruction are built around the constructivist approach. emergent literacy rec - ognized that behaviors children participated in prior to reading authentically were actual read ing activities that needed to be recognized and acknowledged. Whole language advocated the use of real children’s literature and emphasized the joy of reading, the use of narrative text, and understanding about what was read. an explicit (direct-skills) approach for literacy instruction includes a strong phonics program that incor - porates a systematic, explicit instruction of skills with scripted guides for teachers. The balanced comprehensive approach includes careful selec - tion of the best theories available and matches learning strategies based on these theories to the learning styles of individual children to help them learn to read. Both skill-based explicit instruction and holistic constructivist ideas might be used.

1-4 Describe the effects of evidence-based research presented in a structured, routine, systematic, and direct manner. Maria Montessori also embraced a systematic approach but one cou pled with specific concepts, objectives, and sensorial experiences. Cognitive development theories advanced by Jean Piaget argued that the content of instruction should be appro priate for the child’s developmental stage and that children acquire knowledge through interacting with the world. Les Vygotsky argued that learning occurs as children acquire new concepts or schemas, so parents and teachers need to scaffold new ideas for children. Reading readiness involves nurturing children through instruction that helps them develop skills needed for reading: auditory

and governmental policies and legislation on early childhood literacy.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, u.S. federal educational policy was mostly vol - untary and symbolic. as policies became more prescriptive, the federal government engaged in its own research to support those policy decisions. The National Reading Panel Report (2000) was a significant meta-analysis that revealed key elements to literacy success: pho nemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, com prehension, and fluency. The National early Literacy Panel Report (2008) studied existing scientifically based research to identify the skills and abilities of young children from birth

through age 5 that predict later achievement in reading, such as the ability to decode and com prehend. This research created the context for the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all U.S. children to become fluent readers by grade 3. Grants were awarded to districts to accomplish this goal. The Bush administration created Reading First grants, and the Obama

Activities and Questions 29

administration created Race to the Top grants. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted in 2011 as a way to reduce the vari ability of standards from state to state and to raise the level of expectation to bring it in alignment with the most

competitive nations in the world. CCSS cover English language arts as well as other

disciplines.

Chapter Quiz Check your knowledge of concepts in this chapter by taking this

Chapter Quiz. Activities and Questions

1. The emergent literacy and whole-language phi losophies are constructivist approaches to literacy instruction. How do constructivists believe that children learn?

2. Select one of the following skills: phonologic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, or fluency. Create a lesson for an early childhood classroom that combines the doctrines of Piaget and Vygotsky. Create three additional experiences using the same skill with the doctrines of Montes sori, Dewey, and Skinner. In other words, teach the same lesson five different ways based on five differ ent approaches.

3. Observe an early childhood classroom

(preschool through third grade). Decide which theoretical

influences have determined the type of practices carried out. Document your findings with specific anecdotes illustrating the theory.

4. Figures 1.3 and 1.4 offer a basic look at teaching using constructivist and explicit approaches to instruction. Which type of teaching do you like best and why?

5. How do you feel about government policies such as Race to the Top influencing your classroom prac tice? Explain.

6. What is the purpose of having national standards?

Assessment in Early Literacy 2 A

Guide for Designing Instruction

Learning Outcomes

2.1 Explain the role of assessment in early literacy development.

2.2 Define authentic assessment and describe several techniques for conducting it.

2.3 Identify and describe in-depth measures of assessment.

2.4 Discuss the pros and cons of standardized testing.

2.5 Compare the main types of literacy standards and how they reflect the shift in the literacy curriculum.

2.6 Describe the progress toward implementing the Common Core State Standards and assessment tools designed to measure outcomes against them.

Vocabulary anecdotal observation forms authentic assessment

Common Core State Standards high-stakes assessment informal reading inventories portfolio assessment running records

Photo credit:

Jules

Selmes/Pear

son

Education

standard s standardi zed tests

Assessing Early Literacy Development 31

The following is a quote from the book First Grade Takes a Test. “On the test there was a picture of Sally and Tom. Sally was giving Tom

something. It looked like a baloney sandwich. Underneath it said:

Sally is taller than Tom. _________ Tom is taller than Sally. _________”*

Jim wondered what being tall had to do with getting a baloney sandwich. And was it really a baloney sandwich? It might be tomato. Jim took a long time on that on.” (Cohen, 1980, pp. 9–10) In the book it explains how the teacher passes out tests and how one child was very nervous since she only knew a little English but in Spanish she was fluent and read very well. She filled in boxes with an X as she was supposed to but really didn’t understand the questions to make a good

decision for the answer. The author went on and talked about another child whose name was George. He read a question about rabbits and what they

eat. The answer choices were sandwiches, lettuce, and meat. He knew that rabbits needed to eat carrots to keep their teeth from growing too long. He had a rabbit once, and they told him that at the pet store. He didn’t know

what box to check, so he drew a carrot in the test booklet and put an X next to it. In both incidents, children answered questions incorrectly on the

standardized test but for different reasons. George, relating his own experience to the question at hand, actually had a more sophisticated answer than those provided. His answer was marked incorrect because his background experience with rabbits was different from that of the person who wrote the test. In addition, George was not familiar with how to take the test, by filling in the box beside the best answer provided. Rosa could not comprehend the test in English. Although she was reading at grade level in Spanish, she was jeopardized because of her language background. In both incidents, children answered incorrectly, but not because they did not know the answer.

Assessing Early Literacy Development This chapter deals with critical issues facing early childhood educators: achieving standards by assessing the needs of children. Assessment must be sensitive to children’s different backgrounds, abilities, and needs in order for teachers to select appropriate instructional strategies.

This chapter covers macro-level issues relating to the topic of assessment in detail, including basic assessment instruments. The practical applications for assessment of children’s performance will be discussed in the chapters that deal with the various skills and instructional strategies. Underpinning all discussions of assessment is the purpose of assessment in early childhood—to generate data that can be used to create more effective instruction. That is, assessment is about information-gathering

Early literacy educators take into consideration children’s interests, learning styles, and different achievement levels. Therefore, they think about instruction as being guided by assessment. Administering a single standardized paper-and-pencil test is insufficient for assessing everything teachers need to know about each child. Nor can one measure be the only source for evaluating a child’s progress. Teachers need to test children and assess

*Miriam Cohen. First Grade Takes a Test, pp 9–10. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission of Star Bright Books, Inc.

32 Chapter 2 Assessment in Early Literacy

their performance in many areas and under many conditions. Assessment should help the teacher, child, and parent determine a child’s strengths and weaknesses and plan appropriate instructional strategies; it should also match educational goals and practices. To meet the needs of all children, there must be multiple measures to see how a child performs in different settings.

The International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) issued a joint position statement on learning to read and write (1998) that recommends using culturally and developmentally appropriate assessment measures. Additionally, the assessments should align with the instructional objectives, while always keeping in mind best practices for the total development of the child. Quality assessment should be drawn from real-life reading and writing tasks and should continuously follow a range of literacy activities.

Authentic Assessment: Measures and

Strategies Authentic assessment is defined as assessment

activities that represent and In this video, Linda Darling-Hammond discusses Performance Assessment: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WpTT_ewX mKI reflect the actual learning and instructional activities of the classroom and out of-school world. Several objectives emerge from an authentic assessment perspective (Johnston & Costello, 2005; Purcell-Gates, Duke, & Martineau, 2007; Risko & Walker-Dalhouse,

2011).

Objectives for Assessment Assessment should be based on a variety of measures. Assessment should be observations of children engaged in authentic class room reading and writing tasks, daily performance samples,

standardized tests, and standards-based tests. Assessment should focus on children’s learning based on the goals of the curriculum and standards. Assessment should be continuous over a substantial period. Assessment should take into account the diversity of students’ cultural, language, and special needs. Assessment should be collaborative and include the participation of chil dren, parents, and teachers. Assessment should be a guide to designing instruction.

To accomplish these goals, assessment should be frequent with varied measures. The main goal is to observe and record actual behavior

that provides the broadest possible picture of a particular child (McKenna & Dougherty-Stahl, 2009; Fountas & Pinnell, 2012). Every chapter in this book that deals with a specific area of literacy development contains a section with suggestions for collecting material related to assessment for particular skills. Authentic assessment measures that will help paint a comprehensive picture of a child are provided in this chapter and others throughout the book. Educators should integrate a variety of authentic assessment methods into their instruction. Some of the more common and more useful types include anecdotal observation forms, daily performance samples, audio recordings,

Figure 2.1

Sample Observation Teacher’s Name: Child’s Name:

Authentic Assessment: Measures and Strategies 33

Form Date: Time: Location of Observation: Purpose for

Observing:

Significant Events during Observation:

Reflective Analysis of Significant Event (this reflection should include what you have learned):

List at least three ways you can use or apply what you observed to your future teaching:

Source: From Morrison, Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education, 5th edition. © 2008.

videos, pencil-and-paper forms, student evaluations, surveys and interviews, conferences, and checklists.

Anecdotal Observation Forms Authentic observation forms are prepared

forms or teacher-made forms used for observing and recording children’s behavior. Observation forms usually have broad categories with large spaces for notes about children’s activities. Goals for observing should be planned and forms designed to meet those goals. Teachers can write down interesting, humorous, and general comments about the child’s behavior in the classroom. Observations should focus on one particular aspect of the child’s performance, such as oral reading, silent reading, behavior while listening to stories, or writing. Within the descriptions of behavior, dialogue is often recorded, for example: Although Janet read orally without errors, her reading was without expression. She read, “The big bad wolf ran away” and every word was said in the same tone. I asked her to listen to me read the sentence and then echo read it or read it as I did after me and she did. She said, “I like doing that. Can we try it again?” Figure 2.1 presents a sample form that can be used for several different types of observations—for example, oral reading behavior, writing, and more.

Daily Performance Samples These are samples of the child’s work in all content areas that are done on a daily basis. Daily performance samples provide data points about how the child is learning and mastering the content and so allow the teacher to track

34 Chapter 2��assessment in early Literacy

Figure 2.2 a Daily Perfor mance Sample of Nicole’s Writing at the end of her

Kindergarten Year

Copyright © Pearson education

learning trends for each student individually as well as the class as a whole. Various types of samples from different content domains should be collected

periodically (see Figure 2.2).

audio and Video Recordings Both audio and visual assessments represent digital literacies that provide

authentic audiences and purposes. Students enjoy the act of performing and having their efforts recorded; thus, these digital literacies simultaneously

accomplish the goals of authentic assessment and student participation in intrinsically motivating practices.

Audio Recordings. Audio recordings are an assessment that can determine language development, comprehension through a recorded retelling of a story,

progress in the fluency of oral reading, and so on. By recording discussion ses - sions related to responses to literature, the teacher can better understand how

youngsters function in a group. Audio recordings can also be used as a type of self-assessment. Children can listen to their own recordings to evaluate both

their story retellings and fluency. Chapter 6 on comprehension provides a tran - scription of a child’s recorded retelling and an accompanying assessment tool.

Authentic Assessment: Measures and Strategies 35

Videos. Videos allow teachers to view and review their students in action. Videos are an excellent and rich form of assessment because the teacher can hear the child as well as see the child’s facial expressions and body movements. Teachers can also use videos to assess their own teaching performance. Because of the wealth of information contained in assessment videos, teachers need to have a specific purpose in mind when choosing video as an assessment tool, and collected recordings should be evaluated with a checklist or observa tion form.

Teacher-made Pencil-and-Paper Tests As the name suggests, teachers design these tests to match instruction. Because it’s customized, this type of assessment can closely follow the progress of the students and what they are actually learning.

Student Evaluation Forms Children should regularly evaluate themselves by collecting samples of their work and discussing them with their teacher, parents, and other children. In addition, children should use student evaluation (self-evaluation) forms to evaluate their own performance. Completing self-evaluation forms allows children to reflect on their learning experience and helps them become intentional learners and start to develop metacognitive skills. Self-evaluations should be an integral part of authentic assessment.

Surveys and Interviews Teachers can prepare surveys to assess children’s attitudes about how they think they are learning or what they like or dislike in school. Surveys can be in the form of questionnaires or interviews with written or oral answers. Chapter 8 provides a motivation survey in the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire that asks for open-ended responses. (Note the sample surveys about literacy in Figures 2.3 and 2.4.)

Conferences Conferences allow the teacher to meet with a child one-to-one to assess skills such as reading aloud, discuss a child’s progress, talk about steps to improve, provide individual instruction, and prescribe activities. Children should take an active role in evaluating their progress, and parents should be involved in conferencing with teachers about their child’s progress—both with and without the child present.

Checklists Checklists and inventories include lists of developmental behaviors or skills for children to accomplish. The checklist should be based on objectives a teacher may have for instruction and designed to determine whether goals set forth have been accomplished. Figure 2.11 at the end of the chapter organizes the

36 Chapter 2 Assessment in Early Literacy

Figure 2.3 Reading Interview for Children

Name: Date: Ask questions that are age appropriate for the child you are interviewing.

1. What is a book?

2. What do people do with books?

3. What can books be about?

4. What is your favorite book? Why?

5. What is your least favorite book? Why?

6. What is fun about reading?

7. What is hard about reading?

8. Do you like to read outside of class?

9. What kinds of things do you read outside of class?

Copyright © Pearson Education Authentic Assessment: Measures and Strategies 37

Figure 2.4 Writing Interview for Children

Name: Date: Ask questions that are age appropriate for the child you are

interviewing. 1. What is writing?

2. What do people write about?

3. What is the most fun to write about?

4. What is the least fun to write about?

5. What is your favorite thing about writing?

6. What is hard about writing?

7. If you wrote a book, what would you write about?

8. Do you like to write outside of class?

9. What kinds of things do you write about outside of class?

Copyright © Pearson Education 38 Chapter 2 Assessment in Early Literacy

Conferences or one-on-one meetings

provide a chance for students and teachers to hold interactive

assessments, which heightens communication and understanding.

developmental characteristics of children and can be used as a checklist to determine how children are developing socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively based on their

age. In several chapters in the book, checklists for skills are

presented. Photo credit: Jennifer Kamm

In-depth Measures of Assessment The assessment tools discussed to this point have offered ways to take a

snapshot of a student’s performance at a particular moment. As informative as they are, however, teachers also need to incorporate more in-depth tools into their assessment programs, for example, running records, informal reading inventories (IRIs), and portfolio assessments.

Running Records In this video, a teacher discusses how to analyze a run ning record: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=LUr1og9lPWM Marie Clay (1993a) created running records for observing and recording children’s oral reading and for planning instruction. In this analysis, what a child can do and the types of errors the child makes when reading are recorded. Running records can be useful in determining the appropriate material to use for instructional purposes and for independent reading, and they can also help the teacher identify a student’s frustration level. The data collected from a running record, specifically the numbers and types of errors students make, should inform the level of material the teacher uses for instruction and the types of instructional strategies used to deliver it.

Having the instruction reflect the information gathered from running records is crucial. One drawback of running records, however, is that they devote more time indicating types of errors students make in oral reading than evaluating their ability to comprehend text. Using running records is straightforward. In taking a running record, the child is asked to read a short passage of 100 to 200 words from a book the child has not read before. Younger children have shorter passages, and older children have longer ones. Select a book you believe is at the independent level for a child, that is, a book that she or he can read easily. If the child gets each word correct, then select a book that is a bit more difficult. The teacher and

In-depth Measures of Assessment 39

Figure 2.5 Running Record Coding System

Reading Behavior Notation Explanation Accurate reading Notation: A check is noted for each word pronounced correctly.

Self-Correction attempt sc The child corrects an error himself. This is not word in text

counted as a miscue. Notation: “SC” is the notation used for

self-corrections.

Omission A word or words are left out during the reading. Word in text Notation: A dash mark is written over a line above

the word(s) from the text that has been omitted.

Insertion Word inserted The child adds a word that is not in the text. Notation: The word inserted by the reader is

placed above a line and a dash placed below it.

Student Appeal and Assistance

Repetition A The child is “stuck” on a word he cannot call and Word from text asks (verbal or nonverbal) the teacher for help. Notation: “A”

is written above a line for “assisted”

and the problem word from the text is written below the line.

Sometimes children will repeat words or phrases.

These repetitions are not scored as an error, but R

are recorded. Notation: Write an “R” after the word repeated

and draw a line back to the point where the reader returned.

Substitution Substituted word The child says a word that is different from the Word from text word in the text. Notation: The student’s

substitution word is written above a line under which the correct word from text is written.

From Teaching Children to Read by D. Ray Reutzel and Robert B. Cooter. Copyright © 2013.

the student each have a copy of the passage. As the child reads, the teacher makes the running record by marking the passage using the prescribed coding system to indicate whether words are read correctly and what types of errors are made. The types of errors recorded are insertion of a word, omission of a word, repeating a word, substituting one word for another, reversal, refusal to pronounce a word, and an appeal for help. Self-corrections are recorded but are not considered errors (see Figure 2.5). For the running record to be a valid representation of the student’s ability, the teacher must know the difficulty level of the materials being used and match students to the appropriate level. Leveled books for difficulty are discussed later, but are commonly used materials.

40 Chapter 2 Assessment in Early Literacy

Figure 2.6 Running Record Form

In this video, a teacher discusses how to analyze a run ning record. There are 18 other videos that are a part of a series on Running Records on this YouTube channel: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QHrHS6wGOko Name: Date:

Book: Book level: Words: Error rate:

Accuracy rate: Errors:

Self-correction rate:

Cues used E—errors SC—self-correction

E SC Text M S V M S V

M—meaning, S—structure, V—visual, E—error, SC—self-correction

Reading level Independent: 95% to 100% accuracy Instructional: 90% to 95% accuracy Difficult (or Frustration): 89% or less accuracy

Reading proficiency: fluent word by word

choppy Retelling Setting: characters time place

Theme: problem or goal

Events: number included

Resolution: solved problem achieved goal ending

Source: Adapted from M. Clay, Running Records for Classroom Teachers. Reprinted by permission of Pearson New Zealand.

After collecting the raw data by marking up the passage, the teacher needs to analyze the data by organizing it on a running record form such as the one in Figure 2.6. The form allows the teacher to systematically review the errors the students made and classify them as meaning (M), structure (S), or visual (V) errors.

1.Meaning error (Does it make sense?). When you look at an error, figure out if the child is using meaning cues in identifying the word. If

the child is using information from the text, picture clues, or context clues and reads, “The boy took the leaf from the tree” instead of “The boy pulled the leaf from the tree,” he has made an error but the meaning is intact.

This video shows another example of how to create a run ning record.

CCSS In-depth Measures of Assessment 41

This error should be marked with an M. The child knows how to use the context to get the word but needs to look more closely at the print. 2. Visual errors (use of phonics). When a child makes a visual error, she knows how to use phonics to decode but doesn’t pay attention to the meaning of the text. This child reads, “I

stepped the milk,” instead of “I spilled the milk.” This error is marked with a V. In this situation, ask the child if what she read makes sense and emphasize that it is important to think about the meaning of the sentence when reading, as well as look carefully at the words. 3. Structure error (Is the syntax correct?). The child makes a structure or syntax error when he intuitively understands the syntax in sentences. For example, if a child reads, “I went to the zoo,” instead of “I ran to the zoo,” the English grammar or syntax is correct because a verb goes in that spot, but the word chosen is not correct. Therefore, you mark this error with an S and know the child understands the sentence structure but needs to look more closely at the print.

After categorizing the child’s errors, the teacher

can calculate an accuracy rate: Total words –

Errors × 100 = % Accuracy Total words

In other words,

1. Record the number of words in the testing passage (e.g., 70 words). 2. Count the number of errors made by the child and subtract that from the total number of passage words (e.g., 5 errors subtracted from 70 equals 65). 3.Divide that number (65) by the total words in the passage (70). 4.Multiply that by 100; the result equals the percent of accuracy for the passage read (about 93 percent in this example).

If a child reads 95 to 100 percent of the words correctly (generally 0 to 3 errors in the passage), the material is at his or her independent level; if 90 to 95 percent of the words are correct (roughly 4 to 10 errors in the passage), the material is at the instructional level; less than 90 percent of the words read correctly (more than 11 errors) is the child’s frustration level. If a child is at the frustration level with the first book he or she tries, for kindergarten, stop testing. If an older child is at frustration level for the first passage, go down as many levels as necessary until you arrive at the appropriate instructional material. Keep in mind that although leveled books are good for small group reading instruction, they are not meant to replace literature. Leveled books are only for instruction. The CCSS are

recommending that, from time to time, teachers use books above a child’s grade level to help the child strive to reach higher goals. When using books that are more difficult for a child than his or her current instructional level, the teacher needs to model, provide a lot of support, and give the child time for guided practice. The running record form also contains a place to indicate if the child’s reading was fluent, word by word, or choppy. Teachers can ask children to retell stories read to determine comprehension of text (Kuhn, 2007; Stahl & Heubach, 2005; Bellinger & DiPerna, 2011).