Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community:
Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence to Learning
| Contents
| Preface
| Introduction
| Module 1
| Module 2
| Module 3
| Module 4 | |
Preface
This technical guide is about emerging literacy--the gradual, ongoing process through which children naturally make sense of oral language (listening and speaking) and written language (reading and writing). This process is supported by caring families and attentive teachers who respond to children's communications and provide children with the time, space, and materials to make their own literacy discoveries.
Learning about language begins at birth when parents look lovingly into their babies' faces and welcome them to the world. It continues when adults respond to babies' coos, cries, gurgles, and babbles and later when they marvel at toddlers' first words. As children grow and develop, they ask to be read to, make requests, and start conversations. Soon, they are exploring literacy on their own--looking at books, scribbling on paper, making up stories, and holding conversations with each other.
The cartoon on the facing page shows some simple strategies families and Head Start staff can use to support children's emerging literacy. Two children, Mustafa and Kara, are learning about writing. Mustafa and Kara already know a lot about language. They can:
- Hold writing tools such as crayons and markers
- Control writing tools to make circles and zig-zag lines on paper
- Play with words such as zig-zag
- Enjoy talking to and laughing with other people
- He describes what they are doing.
- He introduces a new word--zig-zag.
- He lets them know that their scribbles are important.
- He sits down and scribbles with them.
- He joins in when Kara makes up a funny word.
- He shares information with Kara's grandmother so Kara can learn
about language at home and at Head Start.
This guide will help participants develop skills such as those used by the teacher in the cartoon. These skills encourage children's emerging literacy by responding to their interests and efforts rather than by providing direct instruction. Most children will make many discoveries about language on their own when families and Head Start staff do the following:
- Watch, listen, and respond to children's gestures and words
- Talk with children and encourage children to talk with their peers
- Read aloud to children regularly and talk with children about the
characters, plots, settings, and information in books
- Provide reading and writing materials that children can use by
themselves
- Show children through their actions that reading and writing are important, valuable skills that can be used every day to have fun and accomplish tasks
Young children begin learning about language through their relationships with their families. Whether the home language is English or another language, children's home language experiences set the stage for later literacy learning. For all children, their home language is associated with love and security; it is the link to their culture and family values. When families do the things described above, their children are more likely to be successful in school.
Head Start staff should never lose sight of the important language learning that takes place at home. Supporting families in creating literacy-rich home environments is one of the most important things Head Start can do to encourage children's emerging literacy.
Handouts
Copyright © 1999 Head Start Publications Management Center. All rights reserved.
Last Modified: