Chapter 8: Early Literacy

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Scenario
Helping Children Advance as Language Learners

Ms. Berger is a highly qualified early childhood teacher who believes that literacy is an ongoing,
dynamic process and that children are often at different places in their literacy acquisition.
Rather than waiting for children to show that they are ready for literacy instruction, she uses
what she knows about her students to plan developmentally appropriate instruction. She
wholeheartedly believes that assessment drives instruction, but she recognizes that she must
use a variety of assessment measures, each designed to evaluate different aspects of early
literacy. She can then interpret the results to plan lessons and to determine which children might
need additional instructional time so that they can learn essential literacy skills.

As is often the case, Ms. Berger’s students come from a variety of backgrounds. Some come
from high-poverty areas, whereas others come from middle-class neighborhoods. When she
looks at the results of the many different assessment measures she uses, she recognizes that
some children perform poorly when compared with their peers. That is, some are lagging in oral
vocabulary, print concepts, letter identification, and phonological awareness. She knows that
she will be able to offer some children additional instruction in each of these areas, whereas
others will be better served by teachers who are specially trained in early intervention. She fully
understands that children who don’t do well on the assessments need more rather than less
help. Their progress must be accelerated in order for them to function at the same level as their
peers.

Ms. Berger recognizes that there are noneducational factors such as parental support,
socioeconomic status, and nutrition that affect school performance. She also knows that there
are several educational factors such as teacher experience, curriculum rigor, and time on task
that affect how children fare in school. Although all factors are important, she focuses on what
she can control–the educational factors–and strives to teach children to the best of her ability.

Recent government mandates have Ms. Berger quite concerned. Even though she is an
advocate of accountability, she also understands that the results of early literacy tests are not
supposed to be used to label and sort children into various groups. Nor should these results be
used to judge overall success of schools. Yet this is what she sees happening. She is
concerned that too much time is being spent on labeling children and not enough time is being
spent on helping them advance as language learners.

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Building an Understanding of Early

Literacy
Many terms are used to describe what is currently called early literacy. One of the most
common is emergent literacy, defined by Harris and Hodges as “the development of the
association of print with meaning that begins early in a child’s life and continues until the child
reaches the stage of conventional reading and writing.”1 This definition suggests that children’s
involvement with language begins long before they come to school and that it continues to
emerge over time. For example, what appears to be a young child’s scribbling is really more
than scribbling; it is the child’s attempt at using written language. In the past, behaviors such as
these were often thought of in terms of reading readiness—that is, children were showing that
they were ready for reading instruction.

Although some may argue that emergent literacy and reading readiness are basically
synonymous, they are not at all. Emergent literacy connotes an ongoing process that is
developmental in nature. Reading readiness seems to connote a “waiting period.” In literacy
development, the notion of waiting violates the spirit and essence of literacy as a developmental
process.

Some make the distinction between emergent literacy and beginning reading by noting that
once children show a certain amount of understanding about how print functions, they are no
longer emergent but actually beginning to read in the formal sense. Therefore, they are
beginning readers. But exactly how much do children have to know to move from being
emergent to beginner? At what age does this shift happen?

Although kindergarten is usually considered to be the bridge between emergent literacy and
beginning reading, using kindergarten as a yardstick can be problematic for a couple of
reasons. First, not all children attend kindergarten, because it is not required in several states.
Therefore, lack of exposure to a language-rich environment could mean that the children will not
exhibit several emergent literacy behaviors until first grade.

Second, there are still differences of opinion about the purpose and curriculum of kindergarten.
Those who believe that children will grow or mature into reading provide children with many
opportunities to learn all areas of literacy (speaking, listening, reading, viewing, and writing), yet
do very little explicit teaching. Others believe that children are continually developing and that
they need some help as they develop. Consequently, like their counterparts, they provide
children with a language-rich environment, but they also believe in offering children explicit
instruction based on what they have discovered as a result of using several different
assessment techniques and interpreting what they reveal.

We base our view on the latter opinion, for which the International Literacy Association is using
the broader term early literacy. We believe that children are always showing us what they know
and what they need to learn. Children change over time in the way they think about literacy and
the strategies they employ as they attempt to comprehend and/or produce text. Like Teale, we
believe that children are always trying to make sense of their world and that there is a logic
behind what they do that drives their attempts to solve the literacy mystery. Once we understand
this logic, we are in a better position to plan instruction that will foster children’s development
toward conventional language use.2

One of the best ways to take a look at children’s attempts at using language in meaningful ways
is to create a language-rich environment and observe what the children do. Such an
environment needs to employ authentic language experiences and much support. We apply the
thinking of educators such as Brian Cambourne when working to design an ideal environment.
(See Figure 8.1.)

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Areas of Early Literacy

In Chapter 1, we provided sample benchmarks that show some specific behaviors that we
would expect to see from children. Whereas a number of the behaviors overlap and continue
through different stages, many manifest themselves early on. In a broader sense, there are
specific areas of emergent literacy that are viewed as the foundation for future reading and
writing success. In Table 8.1, we provide an overview of these components.

Assessing Early Literacy

Pre-Reading Assessment
Before the label emergent literacy surfaced and replaced reading readiness, most school
systems administered whole-group reading readiness tests to their students, usually at the end
of kindergarten, to determine whether the children were “ready for reading.” These tests were
usually the first types of standardized tests that the children encountered in their lives at school.

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Group-administered standardized tests are still being used. Most major standardized
achievement assessment batteries still have some types of pre-reading tests that are usually
administered to children at some point in preschool or kindergarten. Some school district
personnel use these tests to predict reading success, as well as to determine those children
who will be “at risk” in school. One example is the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, 4th edition
(MacGinitie et al., 2000). These tests are group-administered standardized reading tests. There
is a pre-reading test (PR), which contains four subtests: literacy concepts, oral-language
concepts, letters and letter/sound correspondences, and listening comprehension. According to
the authors, the purpose of the test is to determine “a student’s background for reading
instruction.”3 The authors also note that the test is designed to help teachers learn “what each
student already knows about important background concepts on which beginning reading skills
are built and which concepts students may need additional help with as they begin to receive
reading instruction.”4 A close examination of the testing manual provides the authors’ rationale
for the subtests and other important information. A separate volume entitled Linking Testing to
Teaching: A Classroom Resource for Reading Assessment and Instruction provides teachers
with some ideas about interpreting test scores as well as teaching suggestions related to each
subtest.

Unfortunately, there are some dangers attached to pre-reading tests if they are misused. One
danger is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a child does poorly on such a test, the teacher may feel that
the child cannot benefit from reading instruction; the child is not expected to be able to learn to
read, and as a result, the teacher defers instruction in reading. Eventually, the teacher’s feelings
concerning the child’s inability to read become part of the child’s own self-concept. (See “The
Diagnostic Mindset of Good Teachers” in Chapter 6.)

Uses of Group-Administered Standardized

Pre-Reading Assessments
Researchers’ reported findings have suggested that the predictive validity of pre-reading tests is
not very high, that they could not predict with accuracy how well young children would learn to
read, and that teachers’ ratings were just as accurate in predicting reading success.5 On the
other hand, there is a great amount of evidence available to support the relationship between
young children’s letter naming and their later reading achievement, as well as school
achievements.6This is also true of phonological awareness. Investigators’ findings have shown
that the alphabet subtest of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests “has consistently been the best
predictor of scholastic achievement.”7

According to Hillerich, “a great saving in testing time could well stem from using only the letters
and numbers subtests or, perhaps, by not testing readiness at all. In either case, the sacrifice in
information would be minimal.”8 Such statements continue, and educators still decry the
misuses of pre-reading tests.9 Despite many expressions of concern, test makers continue to
produce such tests, and many teachers are required to use them.

Pre-reading tests, like other assessment measures, have their problems. Here are three that
come to mind:

1.​ As any teacher who has ever tried to get a group of 20 kindergarten students all focused
on the same item on the same page knows, actually administering the test can be
extremely time-consuming. When test developers estimate how long it will take to
administer the test, they do not take classroom management into account.

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2.​ More often than not, there are too many prompts from the teacher. Therefore, a child’s
performance score may be inflated. Take, for example, a subtest that is designed to
determine whether students can identify words. There is a sentence with one word
missing, and four choices are given below the sentences. The examiner’s manual directs
 the test administrator to read the sentence and the words under the sentence. Students
are then supposed to choose the word to complete the sentence so that the sentence
will make sense. The problem? Although the test is designed to shed light on how well
students can identify words, it does not do this at all because the teacher does all of the
reading. All the students have to do is recognize a word, which is much easier than
identifying it. The only conclusion that can be drawn about students who successfully
complete a subtest such as this is that they appear to be able to recognize some words.
But can they read them independently, as their performance on this test is supposed to
indicate? We cannot say.
3.​ Yet another problem is the lack of congruence between emergent literacy and one single
way to assess it. Because children are constantly emerging and changing, it can be
extremely difficult to obtain valid and reliable scores indicative of their development and
learning from a one-time, group-administered standardized test.

Suggestions for Choosing and Using

Required Pre-Reading Tests
Here are some suggestions on how to choose and use pre-reading tests if they are required in
your school system:

1.​ Use a test that can provide you with information on a child’s present level of literacy
development.
2.​ Check the subtests to determine how directly the tasks required are related to reading.
For example, some tests require children to match pictures and geometric figures rather
than letters. Those children who do well in matching pictures and geometric figures may
not do well in matching letters. Check to see if the subtests are similar to the activities
presented in the beginning reading program.
3.​ Check the administration time of the test. Make sure that it is suited to the attention span
of your students.
4.​ Make sure children comprehend the terminology used on the test and understand the
directions.
5.​ Use the results of the test and your interpretation of them to gain information about each
child’s present level of development so that you can provide the best possible program
for her.
6.​ Use the pre-reading test as one measure; also use classroom assessments and your
judgment to make decisions concerning the child’s literacy development. (See Chapter
1.)
Current Ways to Assess Early Literacy
One of the recommended policies set forth by the authors of the joint position statement of the
International Literacy Association (ILA) and the National Association for the Education of Young
Children (NAEYC) calls for “appropriate assessment strategies that promote children’s learning
and development.”

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Does this mean that there is no place for standardized tests in assessing and teaching early
literacy? Not necessarily. Standardization doesn’t automatically make a test evil. Many times it is
the content of these standardized tests, in conjunction with a teaching philosophy and a district
or state policy, that causes problems. For example, one test that appears to be sweeping the
nation is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and its updated version,
DIBELS Next.10 This battery of tests was created by researchers at the University of Oregon.
(For more information, visit the website at Chapter 1.) First, when we are assessing fluency,
students need time to rehearse; a “cold” read tells teachers little about how fluently a child
reads. Second, what does it help a teacher to know how quickly a child can say letters of the
alphabet? What teachers want to know is which letters the child knows and which still need to
be learned. Third, good readers adjust their rate of reading to their purpose for reading. But will
students learn to adjust their reading rate, slowing down when needed and speeding up when
appropriate, if they are constantly timed on all subtests? Not likely. Instead, tests such as these
can potentially distort what reading means to a child, leaving children with misconceptions that
speed is one of the most important aspects of reading. In reality, the one-minute time standard
on DIBELS is a standardized way of keeping the test simple and quick to administer. Yet
interpreting the results as “fluency” creates a misconception of what fluency is about. The
misconceptions surrounding protocols and labeling on this test can prevent children from
becoming willing and able readers.
We all want to be efficient with our use of time. But speed is not what matters, especially for
early reading. Instead, what matters in a diagnostic approach is asking and answering the
assessment questions we first posed in Chapter 1 and continue to pose throughout this text:
What do I want to know? Why do I want to know it? How can I best learn this information? When
making decisions about selecting assessment strategies, staying focused on the purpose of the
assessment and how the results will be used to inform instruction is essential. With standardized
measures, teachers need to find and understand the statements of purpose usually provided by
test authors in training materials.

And let’s remember that most often, teachers are told rather than asked about using
standardized measures. Fortunately, there are several standardized measures that can be used
to meaningfully and appropriately assess different aspects of early literacy. For example, the
Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation12 is a useful standardized tool to help ascertain
how well children can segment phonemes in spoken words. Concepts About Print13 is another
useful tool that is designed to tap students’ understanding of books and terminology related to
them. Rathvon14 lists additional standardized measures.

The majority of these measures are individually administered and can be given several times so
that the teacher can note progress over time. When contrasted with group-administered tests,
these individual assessment measures can also yield much more information, because the
examiner can watch what the child does on given tasks. For example, after reading a passage,
a child might stop and talk about something that happened to him that is similar to what
happened in the story. This type of response indicates that the child is making some self-to-text
connections, that he is comprehending.

To standardize or not to standardize is not the question. Instead, the pertinent question is “What
are the children showing they know and what do they need to know to advance as language
users?” Addressing these strengths and needs at the onset is about ensuring that children get a
fair start, rather than needing to catch up later on. Just as regular maintenance can prevent
costly car repairs, so, too, early intervention saves resources, human as well as monetary.

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Because there are different components of early literacy, we need to use a variety of measures
to assess them. However, variety can be a bit overwhelming if we aren’t sure what it is we’re
looking for. This leads us once again to ask three important questions: What do I want to know?
Why do I want to know? How can I best discover it? Table 8.2 provides some help in answering
these questions. The answers to these three questions lead to a fourth: How can I use what I
discover to design data-driven, purposeful instructions?
Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching
Concepts

Concept Development, Language, and

Reading
Concept development is closely related to language development. Much language use depends
on knowing the relational meanings of words rather than just labeling concrete experiences. A
person can experience “green” in a concrete way and use the word green to describe what she
sees, but “color” is a conceptual word—a category header under which specific concrete
experiences can be organized. When a green light changes to yellow and then red, a child
thinking concretely would simply name the changes. A child with a broader concept might say,
“It changes color.” When children develop concepts and learn the vocabulary words that go with
these concepts, they are emerging toward the kind of abstract thinking that underpins reading
and writing. Children who are more advanced in concept development tend to be more
advanced in their use of abstract language, and vice versa. Children with deeper concept
knowledge tend to be better readers.

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What Is a Concept?
A concept is a group of stimuli with common characteristics. These stimuli may be objects,
events, or persons. Concepts are usually designated by their names, such as book, war, man,
woman, animal, or teacher. All these concepts refer to classes (or categories) of stimuli. Some
stimuli do not refer to concepts; Ms. Jones, the lawyer, Hemingway’s The Killers, World War II,
and the Empire State Building are examples. These are specific (and not classes of) people,
stimuli, or happenings.

Concepts are needed to reduce the complexity of the world. When children learn that their
shaggy pets are called dogs, for a while they may label all other similar four-footed animals as
“dogs.” Very young children often overgeneralize categories. When children grow in experience,
they discern differences and similarities and begin to form more typical categories, concepts, or
schemata.

A main step in acquiring concepts involves oral vocabulary, because concept meanings are
associated with specific words: Vocabulary is a key toolkit for sharing and trying out concept
development in the social world. Another step is gathering data—that is, specific information
about the concept to be learned. In doing this, students use their strategies for processing
information–they select data that are relevant, ignore irrelevant data, and categorize items that
belong together. Concepts are formed when data are organized into categories.

How Do Concepts Develop?

Concept development is closely related to cognitive (thinking) development. Jean Piaget, a
renowned Swiss psychologist, has written on children’s cognitive development in terms of their
ability to organize (which requires conceptualization), classify, and adapt to their environments.

According to Piaget, the mind is capable of intellectual exercise because of its ability to
categorize incoming stimuli adequately. Schemata (structured designs) are the cognitive
arrangements by which this categorization takes place. As children develop and take in more
and more information, it becomes necessary for them to have some way to categorize all the
new information. At the same time, their ability to categorize by means of schemata grows, too.
That is, children should be able to differentiate, to become less dependent on sensory stimuli,
and to gain more and more complex schemata. Children should be able to categorize a cat as
distinct from a mouse or a rabbit. They also should be able to group cat, dog, and cow together
as animals. Piaget calls the processes that bring about these changes in children’s thinking
assimilation and accommodation.

​Assimilation does not change a concept, but allows it to grow. It is a continuous process that
helps the individual to integrate new, incoming stimuli into existing schemata or concepts. For
example, when a child sees an unusual piece of kitchenware like a gravy boat, does she add
this new item to the existing category for dishes? Comparing new experiences to existing
categories helps us make sense of new things in the world.

If the child encounters stimuli that cannot be made to fit into the existing schema, then the
alternative is either to construct a new category or to change the existing one. Accommodation
occurs when a new schema or concept is developed, or when an existing schema is changed.

Although both assimilation and accommodation are important processes that the child must
attain in order to develop adequate cognition, a balance between the two processes is
necessary. If children over-assimilate, they will have categories that are too general to be useful;
similarly, if they over-accommodate, they will have too many categories. Piaget calls the balance
between the two equilibrium. A person having equilibrium would be able to see similarities
between stimuli and thus properly assimilate them, and would also be able to determine when
new schemata are needed for adequate accommodation of a surplus of categories.

As children develop cognitively, they proceed from more global (generalized) schemata to more
particular ones. For the child, there are usually no right or wrong placements, but only better or
more effective ones. That is what good education is all about.

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How Does Concept Development Relate to

Language and Reading?
Unless children attain the necessary concepts, they will be limited in reading as well as in all
other aspects of the language arts (listening, speaking, writing, and viewing).

Knowledge of what concepts are and how children attain them is essential in a diagnostic
approach. Teachers using this approach must recognize early when readers are developing
concepts, and then help them along.

The quality of language development depends on the interrelationships of psychological and

social factors in a child’s life. The factors that influence language development also influence
concept development. As a result, children who are more advanced in language development
are also usually more advanced in concept development, and these children tend to be better
readers.

How Can Oral-Language Concepts Be

Assessed?
Concepts are necessary to help students acquire increasing amounts of knowledge. For
example, as students proceed through the grades in school, their learning becomes more
abstract and is expressed in words, using verbal stimuli as labels for concepts. Many teachers
take for granted that those spoken concept labels are understood by their students, but this is
not always so. Young children’s literal interpretation of oral and written discourse and their
limited knowledge of the world around them affect their comprehension and ability to form
correct concepts. If not enough information is given, concepts are often learned either
incompletely or incorrectly.

When children enter school, the teacher must assess their concept development level, and then
help them to add the attributes that are necessary and relevant for the development of particular
concepts. At the same time, the teacher must help students to delete all those concepts that are
faulty or irrelevant.

One way to assess language concepts is to use an informal inventory test of concepts, such as
the one shown in Figure 8.2. It can be given orally to individual students.

Another method to determine whether children have a concept such as opposites is to ask each
child to give some opposites for words such as these:

A third way to determine whether the children understand language concepts is to play games.
For example, to see if children understand the concepts of left and right, play the game “Simon
Says” with the children and use directions with the words left and right.

A fourth way to observe whether children understand specific language concepts is to use these
concepts as part of classroom routines. For example, the concepts of first and last can be
assessed by asking children to name who is first or who is last in line.

A fifth, more formalized way of assessing oral-language concepts is to use a standardized,

norm-referenced test such as the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, 3rd edition (2000), which is
published in both English and Spanish. The test is designed to help teachers determine which of
the 50 most frequently occurring concepts children know and which they need to learn.17

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Assessing Print Concepts

There are several print concepts that children need to know in order to read. Children’s
understanding of these concepts is important to their early reading success. These concepts
include: Print carries a message, left-to-right progression, return line sweep, and linguistic terms
such as word, letter, beginning, and ending.

One way to assess for these print concepts is to use the Print Concepts Test shown in Figure
8.3. It is a modification of the original Concepts About Print test developed by Marie Clay.18 The
main difference between this version and Clay’s is that this one is not standardized. It also
permits the examiner to use just about any children’s literature selection.

Print Concepts Administration Procedures

1.​ Choose a book that is relatively short. The Hungry Monster by Phyllis Root (Candlewick,
1997) an example of an appropriate text.19
2.​ Make a copy of the Print Concepts form for each child (Figure 8.3).
3.​ Read through the form to become familiar with what you will be asking and to make sure
that the book you will be using has the appropriate examples as noted on the form.
4.​ Individually administer the Print Concepts assessment using the prompts shown on the
Print Concepts form.

Scoring Procedures

1.​ Look at the responses the child provides.

2.​ Record your observations on the Summary of Print Concepts form shown in Figure 8.4.
3.​ Use the results to plan instruction.

As noted in Chapter 3, compiling the results of individual assessment measures on a class

matrix can be helpful in seeing the class at a glance. The Concepts About Print: Class Profile
form shown in Figure 8.5 can be used for this purpose. The form is also helpful in that it shows
which items are related to directionality, terminology, and punctuation.

Those who need to use a norm-referenced standardized test will want to use Clay’s Concepts
About Print test. Standard prompts are used, and the literature selections used to assess the
print concepts are specified.

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Teaching Oral-Language and Print

Concepts
A rich oral-language program is a necessary first step to prevent reading failure because it helps
prepare children for reading. The closer the children’s language is to the written symbols
encountered in reading, the greater their chance of success. Hearing English in the context of
something meaningful with which they can identify helps children gain “facility in listening,
attention span, narrative sense, recall of stretches of verbalization and the recognition of new
words as they appear in other contexts.
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Teachers using a reading diagnosis and improvement program understand that one main
reason for assessing students is to determine what students know and what they need to learn.
Teachers can then use the results to plan appropriate instruction. There are several ways to
teach language and print concepts.

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Read Aloud to Children Numerous researchers investigating the power of the read-aloud have
arrived at the same findings: Reading aloud increases children’s listening vocabularies.21 Other
researchers have discovered that children who speak nonstandard English make significant
gains toward standard English when they are involved in a rich oral program, one that stresses
reading stories aloud and actively involving children in related activities.

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In terms of language and print concepts, there is much a teacher can do:

●​ Before reading, the teacher can emphasize “front” by saying something like “The title of
our book is on the front cover.”
●​ The teacher can also point to the words while reading, which helps children to see that
print carries the message and that there is a match between what is said and the print on
the page (i.e., speech-to-print match).
●​ Upon completion of the story, the teacher can emphasize language concepts such as
“first” and “last” by using the terms as he asks the children to tell the class what
happened first and last.
●​ Concepts (such as “pair”) can be emphasized, such as by telling students to pair up.
Each pair can then be invited to chime in during a rereading of the story at their
designated time.
As you can see, there are many ways language concepts can be reinforced through
read-alouds. Children’s literature titles often focus on language concepts. A Pair of
Protoceratops by Bernard Most (Harcourt, 1998), Parts by Shelley Rotner (Walker, 2001), Over,
Under, Through by Tana Hoban (Macmillan, 1973), and What’s Opposite? by Stephen
Swinburne (Boyds Mills, 2000) are a few of the many available titles.

Reading a story to children can be a rewarding, interactive learning experience if it is done

properly. Here are some suggestions to ensure your success when reading aloud to children.

Preparing for the Story

1.​ Choose a short storybook that is at the attention, interest, and concept development
levels of the children and that has large pictures that can be easily seen.
2.​ Have the children sit comfortably and in a position that allows them to see the pictures
easily.
3.​ Make sure to limit distractions in the room.
4.​ State the title and show the book to the children. Ask them if they can figure out what the
story will be about from the title.
5.​ Tell them to listen carefully for certain things. (Of course, this will be based on the story
being read.)

Reading the Story

1.​ Read the story aloud to the children.

2.​ Stop at key points and ask students to discuss what is happening, or have them say
aloud the repeated refrain, if the story contains one.
3.​ Ask more questions for them to think about while they are listening to the story.
4.​ If children interject comments during the story, you should acknowledge these by saying
“Good thinking” if it shows they are thinking, and then continue reading.

After the Story

When the story is finished, have the children answer some of the unanswered questions and do
some of the following based on their attention and interest levels:

1.​ Tell what the story is about.

2.​ Retell the story in sequence.
3.​ Discuss whether the story is based on fantasy or reality.
4.​ Act out the story.
5.​ Make up another ending for the story.
Engage Children in Language Play Learning language can and should be fun. Fun allows for
a positive association with learning language. Games such as “Simon Says” are perfect for
developing further understanding of specific language concepts. And playing the “Hokey Pokey”
is a perfect way to help children to better understand specific language concepts. A rich
oral-language classroom should involve singing songs, reciting poems and verse, oral
storytelling, and dramatizations (including reader’s theater, student-authored plays, and puppet
shows). All oral-language play can be accompanied by print in some form to help children make
the connection between their playfulness and printed text.

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Do Some Focused, Explicit Teaching You might decide that in addition to focused story
reading, you want to design some lessons that teach specific language concepts. Looking at the
class matrix described earlier can help you to see who needs some extra instruction in certain
areas so you can teach them the needed concepts.

Use Language in a Variety of Ways Several years ago, Halliday identified seven distinct
functions that children often use for language. However, some children appear to be limited
language users. Knowing about these functions can help teachers to create classroom
situations in which children need to use all seven functions, which will help them become
flexible language users.22 In Table 8.3, we show these functions and provide sample classroom
activities.

Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching

Phonological Awareness

What Is Phonological Awareness?

Although the terms phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are sometimes used
interchangeably, this is incorrect. Phonological awareness refers to awareness of three aspects
of spoken language: words, syllables within words, and sounds or phonemes within syllables
and words. Phonemic awareness is one aspect of the larger category of phonological
awareness: the awareness that words are made up of individual sounds in sequence. One way
to remember the difference between the terms is to visualize a brick house. Awareness of all
pieces and parts such as windows, doors, walls, and bricks are like phonological awareness. By
contrast a focus on the smallest building blocks—bricks, boards, panes of glass–is like
phonological awareness. Both terms, however, refer to spoken language. A child who is
phonologically and phonemically aware is not necessarily able to connect the sound units with
written symbols.

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Phonological awareness develops in stages. Learners first become aware that their spoken
language is composed of single words in sequence. They then progress to the stage in which
they become aware that words are constructed of syllables. The last stage is the one in which
learners become aware that words and syllables are made up of individual sounds (i.e.,
phonemes). Children who end up being proficient readers usually have developed a strong
sense of phonology, all the way down to phonemic awareness, whereas children who end up
struggling with reading and writing often have needs in this area during early literacy.23 Table
8.4 shows the different stages of phonological awareness and sample tasks associated with
each.

Phonemic Awareness Tasks There are many tasks associated with phonemic awareness;
some are more difficult than others. When children can perform all of these tasks, they are
considered to have phonemic awareness. Identifying and producing rhyme appear to be the
least difficult of these tasks. Another phonemic awareness task is phoneme matching, which
calls for the learner to identify words that have a given sound or to generate a word that has a
given sound. When children are expected to listen to a sentence and then state the sound that
they hear at the beginning of a word, or to state some words that begin like a given word, they
are performing phoneme matching.

In a phoneme blending task, students are expected to put sounds together to form a given word.
For example, the teacher might say, “I’m thinking of a word that names something we have at
lunch. It’s /m/ ilk. What’s the word?” Children must blend the first sound with the rest of the
sounds to state the word milk.

In a phoneme segmentation task, children are given a word and asked to tell how many sounds
they hear in it. They are also often expected to produce the actual sounds. For example, the
teacher might say, “Tell me the sounds you hear in the word mom.” Learners might be asked to
drop a counter into a cup to represent each sound they hear in a word.
P. 154

How Can Phonological Awareness Be

Assessed?
Phonological awareness in general and phonemic awareness in particular appear to be
important for reading success. Recently, the National Reading Panel performed a meta-analysis
of several studies and concluded that phonemic awareness is an important reading skill and that
some children needed explicit instruction.24 Likewise, the Board of Directors of the International
Literacy Association (called the International Reading Association at the time) published a
position statement on phonemic awareness and the teaching of reading.25 By posing several
questions and answers in the statement, the group explained the intricacies of phonemic
awareness.

There are both informal and formal ways of assessing the different levels of phonological
awareness. The one shown in Figure 8.6 has been adapted from the one that MO created for
Summer Success Reading.

Administering the Phonological Awareness Test

1.​ Make copies of the scoring form, one for each student.
2.​ Using the wording shown on the scoring form, administer the test to individual students.

Scoring the Phonological Awareness Test

1.​ Write the number correct for each part of the overall test in the Summary section.
2.​ Write any other observational notes as necessary.

A second way to assess phonological awareness is to use a norm-referenced measure such as

the Test of Phonological Awareness, Second edition, or TOPA-2,27 which is a
group-administered test.
Teaching Phonological Awareness
For many children, phonological awareness is more caught than taught. Children who come to
kindergarten or first grade with this awareness have been raised in a rich language environment
where they were exposed to read-alouds, songs, nursery rhymes, poems, and other forms of
language play. The reverse is true for those children who are lacking in phonological awareness.
More than likely, they have not been afforded a rich language environment that facilitates an
understanding of spoken language.

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Here are six specific suggestions drawn from the work of researchers who have shed light on
how best to help children acquire phonological awareness.28 Keep in mind that while much
unintentional instruction occurs throughout a school day, planned deliberate instruction in
phonemic awareness is most effective when it is kept within short time frames. The National
Reading Panel suggests effectiveness maxes out at about 200 minutes per school year, or
about 7 minutes per day.

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1.​ Embed phonological awareness into everyday reading and writing experiences. Doing
so helps children understand how this awareness of sounds relates to reading and
writing. Table 8.5 provides a list of typical reading and writing experiences, a sample
activity for each, and an explanation of how the experience promotes phonological
awareness.
2.​ Provide children with time to write using invented spelling. Although it is true that
phonological awareness is focused on sounds of language rather than on its printed
form, there is a wealth of research that points to the value of having children write to
develop phonological awareness. As children write, they learn to represent spoken
language with written symbols and to hone their skills at segmenting phonemes.
3.​ Read aloud books that use specific language features. These kinds of texts draw the
learners’ attention to given language features such as rhyme, alliteration, phoneme
substitution, and phoneme segmentation. As a result of being exposed to books such as
these, children learn to make distinctions among sounds and may develop phonological
awareness in general and phonemic awareness in particular in meaningful contexts.
 Fortunately, several such titles are written every year. Clickety Clack (Spence & Spence,
1999) is a rhyming story about what happens when many different kinds and numbers of
animals decide they want to ride a train. Much initial consonant substitution is used to
create the rhymes, making this an excellent book not only for exposing children to rhyme
but also for providing some meaningful practice with phoneme substitution. Pignic
(Miranda, 1996) is an example of alliterative text in which each member of the pig family
brings to the pignic something that begins with the same sound that begins their name.
Children can join in the fun by going on their own imaginary picnic and bringing along
some item that begins with the same sound as their name. Things That Are Most in the
World (Barrett, 2001) is a repetitive text that tells about some of the silliest, heaviest, and
smelliest things in the world! Once they have finished reading the book, children can
learn more about phoneme deletion by playing the take-away game. Using words from
the text, children might be asked to “Take -est away from wiggliest. What’s the new
word?” Earthsong (Rogers, 1998) is a poetry text that includes a rhythmic, rhyming
pattern in the dialogues between parents and their offspring. It is an excellent book to
help children further understand rhyme. Songs can also be used to further children’s
understanding of phonological awareness. Song picture books have been created to
illustrate specific songs. For example, Hush Little Baby (Frazee, 1999) is true to the
original song, but uses updated illustrations. Once children have sung the song, each
word can be framed on a second reading to help children understand word boundaries.

Finally, texts that use language in humorous ways, such as those written by Dr. Seuss, help
children to see that we often play with the sounds in our language. Along with this learning
comes a heightened sense of phonological awareness. For example, in Altoona Baboona
(Bynum, 1999), the author inserts a sound at the end of several words, making this a perfect
book to help children further understand sound deletion and sound addition. Children can be
directed to take the last sound off the word and say the remaining word (i.e., phoneme deletion),
or to add a sound to the end of their names (i.e., phoneme addition). Additional books that invite
language play are listed in Table 8.6.

4. Involve children in fun oral-language activities. Some children may need more explicit
instruction to develop all levels of phonological awareness. These children need to be engaged
with the three points listed above as well as with activities that will stimulate their curiosity about
and understanding of their spoken language. If children need to understand the concept that
words represent a sound unit, they can be provided with some sort of counter. Once a story has
been read, students can be directed to pick up a counter for each word they hear. If children
need to better understand that words are constructed of syllables, they can be invited to clap out
the parts as words are read aloud. If students need additional practice with recognizing that
words are made up of individual sounds (i.e., phonemes), they can be asked what sounds they
hear in given words from the story.
P. 159

5. Assess to see where children need the most help. This can be accomplished through
observing children as they participate in literacy-related activities such as writing. Observations
during writing could reveal those children whose writing shows spaces between words or words
that have representative symbols for sounds. These would indicate that the child has developed
a sense of all levels of phonological awareness. And the results of assessments such as those
shown and mentioned above can be used to detect which children might need some additional
help.

6. Get families involved! One way to accomplish this is to provide a book and a brief explanation
of how to complete an accompanying activity. For example, if the book that is being sent home
contains much alliteration, the letter can explain how to point out to the child that all of the words
on a given page begin with a certain sound. The child can then be asked to listen for the sound
and to state it after a page has been read. The parent can then be instructed to have the child
think of other words that begin with the same sound. The letter must focus on exactly what the
parent needs to do when working on the book with the child.

Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching

Letter Identification

What Is Letter Identification?

Letter identification is just that–identifying the letters of the alphabet. Although common sense
would tell us that being able to identify and name the letters of the alphabet is important for
reading and writing tasks, there is also ample evidence that being able to name letters is a
predictor of end-of-year achievement for kindergarten students.29
Letter identification also helps students learn letter–sound associations (i.e., alphabetic
principle). This should come as no surprise, because it would be pretty difficult to make any kind
of association if one part of the equation were unknown! And, as Rathvon notes, “Only when
children have developed the insight that written word forms are related to the sounds rather than
the meaning of language can they learn the specific correspondences between letters and
phonemes.”30

Many games teachers are likely to play with words depend on children’s being able to identify
letters from their names. Therefore, children will have much more fun and be more likely to
participate well in such games when they can identify letters early on.

P. 160

How Can Letter Identification Be

Assessed?
Any kindergarten or first-grade teacher will tell you that a good way to assess letter identification
ability is to individually ask children to name the letters in random order. Both uppercase and
lowercase letters are assessed because knowing one form of the letter doesn’t necessarily
mean that a child knows the other form.

The protocol in Figure 8.7 and Figure 8.8 shows one informal way of assessing letter
identification.

P. 161

Administering the Letter Identification Test

1.​ Place the letter identification page in front of the child. Say something like “Here are
some letters. Take a look at each one and tell me what it is. You may say ‘pass’ if you
cannot remember the name of the letter.”
2.​ Use index cards to cover everything but the lines being read. If necessary, point to each
letter shown in Figure 8.8 with your finger (or have the child point).
3.​ As the child responds, use your copy of the assessment to note correct responses and
incorrect responses. When responses are incorrect, record the actual response, or “DK”
(doesn’t know) if the child doesn’t know the specific letter. If the child self-corrects, write
 OK. Remember that self-corrections can be made at any time and should not be counted
as errors.

Scoring the Letter Identification Test

1.​ Count the number of correct responses for the uppercase letters and lowercase letters.
2.​ Note the scores in the box on the scoring form in Figure 8.8.

Marie Clay’s Observation Survey (Heinemann, 1985) provides a formal, norm-referenced,

standardized way of assessing letter identification. The assessment is similar to the one
described above, and it is individually administered. However, norms are provided, as are some
additional assessment procedures.

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Teaching Letter Identification

Many children come to school already knowing the letters of the alphabet, so the suggestions
given here simply enhance their understanding. We catch others right in the middle of the
process. However, there are some children who are just beginning to learn to identify letters.
This is not to say that these children haven’t already noticed letters. Few can escape
environmental print, and most understand at an intuitive level that certain marks are used to
record their names and other meanings. They simply cannot put a label to the sign. Here are a
few suggestions for helping children to identify letters:

1.​ Use their names! Meaningful association is necessary for any of us to learn anything,
and this is also true of children learning letters. That is why many kindergarten and
first-grade teachers use children’s names and family names when thinking about which
letters to teach first (see Figure 8.9). In other words, the fact that children can identify
their names is no guarantee that they know every letter in the name. Because names are
meaningful, teachers often begin by having children learn these letters.
2.​ Use alphabet books. One sure way to help children see the connection between letters
and reading is to share alphabet books with them. Different letters can be pointed out
along the way. There are numerous alphabet books that would appeal to just about any
interest. ABC Disney, by Robert Sabuda (Hyperion, 1998) is a pop-up book that features
different characters from Disney movies. Others include The Accidental Zucchini, by
Mary Grover (Harcourt, 1997); Flora McDonnell’s A B C, by Flora McDonnell
(Candlewick, 1997); and ABC Kids, by Laura Ellen Williams (Philomel, 2000).
3.​ Create an alphabet book. Staple enough pages together for each letter of the alphabet.
You might print one letter on each page in alphabetical order, or you may decide to have
the children write the letters in the order they learn them. In either case, the letter can be
written at the top of the page and children can find pictures associated with the letter.
 These pictures can be labeled and children can trace over the letter shown at the top of
the page.

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4.​ Be newspaper detectives. Tear pages of the local newspaper into four parts and give
each child a part. Have them search out letters that match the ones they are learning.
They can use a yellow marker to highlight the letters.
5.​ Use objects. Have children bring in toys or other objects whose names begin with letters
they are learning. These could be put in a big tub and could be used for sorting into
different pockets, each labeled with a different letter. Likewise, labels from cans and
other food products can be brought into the classroom and students can identify the
letters shown on the various labels.

Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching

Story Sense

What Is Story Sense?

Story sense is the understanding that there is a structure used to tell stories and that stories are
written to be understood. In other words, not only does it involve understanding a simple story
line, it also includes comprehension.

How Can Story Sense Be Assessed?

An excellent way to assess story sense and story comprehension in early reading is to use
wordless picture books such as Good Dog, Carl, by Alexandra Day (Green Tiger, 1985). Asking
students to narrate as the book pages turn, teachers can note whether the students are able to
maintain the sense of problems and resolutions that structure a story from page to page.
Checklists and rubrics can be used to keep track of data on readers’ story sense.

Teaching Story Sense and Story

Comprehension
Telling oral stories is among the best ways to help young readers develop a sense of story.
Reading aloud to them from storybooks also provides key experiences in story structure and
purposes for sharing stories. Likewise, giving readers time to share their thoughts about a story
after the verbal storytelling or a read-aloud can be a good way to check their comprehension.

P. 164

What we’re really doing in these instances is building a foundation of listening comprehension.
Students who tell and listen to stories are engaging with texts without decoding words, and
receiving valuable input from the world around them.

In teaching writing, teachers may become familiar with the most rudimentary skills of narrative,
asking students to write a beginning, middle, and end to a story. But in reading, stories are
usually structured with a more complicated middle than what young children would write.

Yet, the middle part of the story is every bit as important as the beginning and ending. Teachers
need to teach students how to attend and comprehend the middle section.

For example, the story of Goldilocks does not end when she eats the baby bear’s porridge–the
middle of this basic fairy tale is far more complicated than its beginning and ending. Based on
research into how story elements are put together, we know that many stories cycle back and
forth between what people want, what problems they encounter, what they do about them, and
what happens next.31 Teachers have translated this “story grammar” for students by teaching
them to recognize and discuss four elements: a. Somebody tried to (starting event), b. But
(problem), c. So (attempted solution), and d. Then (consequence). Stories might combine these
elements in many ways, and cycle through several rounds of the elements before ending.

To help children understand the middle elements of a story, managing a focused discussion is
essential. Using the Directed Listening–Thinking Activity shown in Table 8.7 is an excellent way
to teach students how to listen and to work on story sense and comprehension simultaneously.
This activity structure can be applied to stories and informational presentations, because it is
designed to facilitate discussion.

The Directed Listening–Thinking Approach The directed listening–thinking approach requires

teachers to ask questions before, during, and after a talk. The steps in this approach are as
follows:

1.​ Step 1: Preparation for talk, lecture, audiotape, or film. The teacher relates to students’
past experiences, gives an overview of the presentation (or story), and presents special
vocabulary and questions students should try to answer while listening. These questions
 can be framed around the story elements so students can identify events, problems,
solutions, and consequences.
2.​ Step 2: Students listen to the presentation (or story). During the presentation, the
teacher stops, asks students to answer some of the previously given questions, and
interjects some more thought-provoking questions to guide students.
3.​ Step 3: After the presentation (or story). Children answer unanswered questions and are
presented with some more challenging questions. In addition, the teacher asks the
children to identify the central idea of the talk, as well as to give a short summary.
4.​ Step 4: After the discussion. The teacher asks students to devise some good questions.

P. 165

Putting It All Together: Who is in Most

Need of Early Intervention?

What is Early Intervention?

Early intervention is just what the term suggests: helping children to become successful as early
as possible. Once their strengths and needs are identified, children receive specialized
instruction that focuses on their strengths and addresses their needs. Accelerating foundational
knowledge through rich early literacy experiences sets students up for success in attaining
proficient reading. Teachers using a diagnostic approach will often provide this instruction
themselves, but they may also call on others to help them.

Extra reading help sometimes comes in the form of an early intervention program such as
Reading Recovery.32 The purpose of this program is to identify those children who are
experiencing difficulty in their first year of reading instruction. In this short-term curriculum,
children who are the lowest-achieving readers in a given first-grade class receive daily
individualized, 30-minute lessons from a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher in addition
to the regular classroom reading instruction. Every individualized lesson is tailored to engage
children in authentic reading and writing activities that will help them catch up with their peers.

Who is in Most Need of Early Intervention?

But how do we determine which children could benefit from additional instruction and
assessment? The most obvious way is to make a class composite of each of the subtests
shown in this chapter. The class composite will show how children performed, and can signal
which children need the most help with a given aspect of early literacy.

A second way is to follow a process similar to the one used by Reading Recovery teachers.
Children complete each test of Clay’s Diagnostic Survey: letter identification, word test,
concepts about print, writing vocabulary, dictation, and text reading. The examiner then adds the
scores together to get an overall score. However, combining scores in this way is useful only for
identifying a student with needs. To design appropriate instruction, the teacher will need to take
a look at the child’s performance on each subtest. Doing so will help to reveal where the child
needs some additional instruction.

As it relates to the measures we show in this chapter, teachers can use the form shown in
Figure 8.10 to note scores for each test. As with the Diagnostic Survey noted above, the scores
can be added together and the students with the lowest overall scores can then receive
individualized additional reading instruction designed to address their reading needs.

A third way to identify those children who need the most help is to use a rating tool such as the
Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL),33 which was created to guide
observations of children’s literacy skills in all areas of the language arts (speaking, listening,
reading, and writing). This instrument provides a way for teachers to record what they see. The
authors note that the TROLL also does something that a direct assessment cannot–it enables
the teacher to observe children’s interests in a variety of oral-language and written-language
activities.

P. 167

Another advantage of the TROLL is that teachers can use the results to inform instruction (e.g.,
to identify children who are showing evidence of oral-language delay, those who may need
further testing to explore learning needs, and those who are functioning above average and
need additional stimulating activities). For further explanation about TROLL and its
development, see the article by Dickinson, McCabe, and Sprague. The authors include the
entire instrument, along with an explanation about what the scores mean.

Revisiting the Opening Scenario

Now that you have read the chapter, describe the various assessments that Ms. Berger uses to
figure out how best to advance her students in oral language and early literacy. How can she
simultaneously demonstrate accountability to those concerned with meeting government
mandates?

Authors’ Summary
Before reading our summary statements for each outcome, we suggest you read each outcome
and summarize it in your own words.

Once finished, cross-check your response with our brief summary to determine how well you
recalled the major points.

1.​ 8.1 Discuss the differences among the terms emergent literacy, reading readiness,
and early literacy. List and describe the essential components of early literacy.
●​ The term emergent literacy suggests that children’s involvement with print
begins before school and continues to evolve over time. Behaviors such as
scribbling are seen as children’s emerging attempts to show their
understanding of writing. The term reading readiness suggests that there is a
waiting period before children are ready to learn about literacy. Emergent
literacy connotes an ongoing developmental process, whereas reading
readiness connotes a fixed single point in time.
●​ Early literacy is the term endorsed by the International Literacy Association,
and suggests that children are continually developing in their understanding
of literacy and that they need some help from teachers to continue to evolve.
These teachers provide children with a language-rich environment and also
offer children explicit instruction based on what they see children showing
that they know and that they need to know. They often frame their teaching
using Cambourne’s conditions of learning.
●​ Early literacy encompasses six areas: oral-language concepts, print
concepts, phonological awareness, letter identification, alphabetic principle,
and story sense.

8.2 Provide an example of one assessment tool and explain what it is designed to reveal.

●​ The Concepts About Print assessment tool is useful for helping to reveal students’
understanding of books and the terminology related to them. Terminology includes
word; letter; front, middle, and back of the book; top and bottom; and sentence.

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8.3 Explain concepts, one way to assess them, and ways to teach them.
 ●​ A concept is a group of stimuli that have common characteristics. They are usually
designated by their names, such as book, man, woman, or animal. Concepts are
ways to help us reduce the complexity of our world. They help us categorize into
meaningful chunks. As might be inferred, they develop over time as we continue to
acquire new information.
●​ Concepts can be oral or written. One way to assess oral-language concepts is to
use an informal inventory of concepts provided in this chapter. Using a Print
Concepts Test is one way to assess print concepts.
●​ There are many ways to teach both oral and written concepts. Reading aloud to
children following specific guidelines before, during, and after the read-aloud is one
sure way to teach many different concepts. Engaging children in language play,
planning lessons focused on explicitly teaching concepts, and using language in a
variety of ways are all methods of helping children to develop concepts.

8.4 Define phonological awareness, one way to assess it, and ways to teach it.

●​ Phonological awareness refers to awareness of the three aspects of spoken

language: words, syllables within words, and sounds (phonemes) within syllables
and words.
●​ Using an informal Phonological Awareness Test designed to assess all three of
these aspects is one way to assess phonological awareness. Children’s
performance on it can help teachers design purposeful instruction.
●​ Using writing, reading aloud books that use specific language features such as
rhyme, and including oral-language activities–such as substituting sounds in words
and singing songs that emphasize specific spoken-word features–are some ways to
teach children phonological awareness.

8.5 Define letter identification, one way to assess it, and one way to teach it.

●​ Letter identification is the ability to identify letters of the alphabet. One way to
assess it is to administer a letter identification test in which the child looks at each
letter and states what it is. The teacher records what the child says. Assessing
multiple fonts and both uppercase and lowercase letters is critical because knowing
one form of a letter is no guarantee that other forms are known. A sample test is
shown in this chapter.
●​ Ideas for teaching letter identification include using students’ names, using alphabet
books such as ABC Disney, creating alphabet books with children, using the
newspaper, and using objects such as toys and classroom supplies that begin with a
given letter.

8.6 Explain story sense, one way to assess it, and one way to teach it.

●​ Story sense is the understanding that narrative structures are used to organize
meaning; it is a form of comprehension.
 ●​ One way to assess story sense is to use a wordless picture book, asking students to
tell the story and noting whether they are able to tell it with any kind of logical order
connecting one page to the next.
●​ The Directed Listening/Thinking Approach is one way to teach students about story
structure. It calls on teachers to ask questions before, during, and after reading or
talking, and includes four main steps: preparation before the reading, having
students listen and stopping along the way to ask them predetermined questions,
asking questions that remain unanswered after the experience, and having children
devise some questions that reflect the discussion once the discussion has
concluded.

8.7 Discuss early intervention, provide an example of an early intervention program, and
explain three different ways to determine who is most in need of early intervention.

●​ Early intervention is helping children to become literate as early as possible and

watching for signs that typically lead young children to become frustrated as
readers. Teachers are constantly looking for what children know and need to know,
and intervening by developing lessons that will help children develop strengths that
are necessary and positive literacy behaviors. Often these lessons are designed
and taught by classroom teachers. At other times, children take part in early
intervention programs, such as Reading Recovery. Programs such as these are
designed to accelerate children’s growth and are provided in addition to the
instruction that the children are already receiving.
●​ Identifying children who are most in need of additional help with acquiring literacy
happens in one of three ways. The first entails making a class composite that shows
how well children performed on a given task relative to one another. A second is to
provide children with a variety of tests, one for each area of early literacy explained
in this chapter; those who score consistently low across this variety of measures are
at a different starting point. A third way is to use a published early-literacy rating
tool.