Literacy 

is defined as the ability to read and write. Like language, literacy develops
through the interactions a child experiences with others. In early childhood, for example, literacy
can develop through hearing stories read from books and showing children pictures with words.
It is important that adults do not attempt to force adult levels of reading onto children in their
early development, as this is considered developmentally-inappropriate and may actually work
against healthy development1. For example, a child who is pushed to learn to write too soon
may come to connect the activity of writing with failure and disappointment.

Reading and Literacy Development At School And Home

Emergent comprehension considers children’s early experiences as foundations upon

which to support later text comprehension. Dooley and Matthews (2009)

• Your child has been developing reading skills for the last 5-6 years.

Did you know?

• Children who are read to – do better in school – have more self-esteem and confidence – will
independently read a book that is read to them Evans (1999)

The Five Dimensions of Reading

“When children become good readers in the early grades, they are more likely to become
better learners throughout their school years and beyond.” National Reading Panel (2000)

• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension

Phonemic Awareness
• Recognize words that begin with the same sound
– Ball, big, boa
t• Isolate the first or last sound in a word
– /g/ for dig
• Blend the separate sounds in a word to say the word
– "/m/, /a/, /p/-- map."
• Segment a word into its separate sounds
– "up--/u/, /p/"

Phonemic Awareness School - Home Connection

At School: At Home:

• Provide opportunities for children to • Read daily to your child

practice with the sounds that make up • Visit the library
words • Play alphabet games
• Help children learn to recognize letter • Play rhyming games
names and shapes • Model reading
 • Read to students every day

Family involvement theory and children’s academic achievement (Galindo and Sheldon,
2012)

Phonics

• Recognize word patterns in order to decode words easily. For example,

– Silent e, (bake, kite)
– Diagraphs th, sh,ch (chin, bath)

Phonics School – Home Connection

At School: At Home:

•Teach how sounds and letters are • Go on a “word hunt” before reading a
related book
•Provide opportunities to practice the • Allow your child to practice reading to
letter-sound relationships they are you
learning • Model Reading
•Read daily to your child

Fluency

• The ability to read text accurately and quickly.

• Readers can now focus on the meaning of text.
• Sight Word Mastery

Fluency School – Home Connection

At School: At Home:

• Practice reading sight words in •Listen as your child reads aloud

learning centers •Review sight words
•Provide opportunities to reread •Choral read stories
stories to self and others •Practice reading familiar books with
expression
•Go on a “word hunt” before reading
a book

Vocabulary

• Words we must know to communicate effectively.

• Two Types of Vocabulary:
– Oral Vocabulary
– Reading Vocabulary

Vocabulary School – Home Connection

At School: At Home:
 •Provide opportunities to use new •Read predictive and wordless
words orally and during reading books to you child.
•Teach the meaning of the new •Talk often with your child
words. .

Comprehension

First we learn to read and then we read to learn. Jeanne Chall (1983)

• Process of understanding or making meaning when reading

• Students should:
– be aware of what they understand,
– identify what they do not understand, and
– use strategies to resolve problems in comprehension.

Comprehension School – Home Connection

At School: At Home

•Preview a book •Read predictive and wordless

•Make connections to story with self, books
other text •Practice reading familiar books for
•Answer Who? What? Where? expression
When? Why? •Before reading: Go on a “picture
•Demonstrate what readers look walk”
•After reading: ask questions
•Play “Stump Me.”

The Bottom Line….“Nothing is greater to a child, than a teacher and the parent coming
together for their sake.” Sokolinski (2012)

Stages of Development

Early Emergent Readers (Levels aa-C)

Aspiring readers are just beginning to grasp the basic concepts of book and print. They
are acquiring a command of the alphabet with the ability to recognize and name upper- and
lowercase letters. They are also developing many phonological awareness skills, such as
recognizing phonemes, syllables, and rhyme.
Early Emergent readers are beginning to learn sound/symbol relationships--starting with
consonants and short vowels--and are able to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words,
as well as a number of high-frequency words.

Books at this level have:

Strong picture support
Carefully controlled text
Repetitive patterns
Controlled, repeated vocabulary
Natural language
Large print
Wide letter spacing
Familiar concepts
Limited text on a page

Emergent Readers (Levels D-J)

Readers at this stage have developed an understanding of the alphabet, phonological

awareness, and early phonics. They have command of a significant number of high-frequency
words.
Emergent readers are developing a much better grasp of comprehension strategies and
word-attack skills. They can recognize different types of text, particularly fiction and nonfiction,
and recognize that reading has a variety of purposes.

Books at this stage have:

Increasingly more lines of print per page
More complex sentence structure
Less dependency on repetitive pattern and pictures
Familiar topics but greater depth

Early Fluent Readers (Levels K-P)

At this stage, reading is more automatic, with more energy devoted to comprehension
than word attack. Readers are approaching independence in comprehending text.
These readers are experiencing a greater variety of text and are able to recognize
different styles and genres. Independence often varies with the type of text being read.

Books at this stage have:

More pages
Longer sentences
More text per page
Richer vocabulary
Greater variation in sentence pattern
Less reliance on pictures
More formal and descriptive language

Fluent Readers (Levels Q-Z2)

Readers have successfully moved from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Their
reading is automatic and is done with expression and proper pauses. Their energy is devoted to
understanding, and they have good command and use of the various comprehension strategies.
These readers read a wide range of text types and do so independently. They will
continue to refine and develop their reading skills as they encounter more difficult reading
materials. But for the most part, they are capable of improving their reading skills and selection
of materials independently through increased practice.

Books at this stage have:

More text
Less familiar, more varied topics
Challenging vocabulary
More complex sentences
Varied writing styles
More description
 Further, reading readiness is viewed as a set of:
• Social
• Emotional
• Physical
• Cognitive competencies

Since the beginning of emergent reading is not determined at a particular age, it is

helpful to recognize the various stages of reading development that a child undergoes and to
monitor his/her progress through these stages. Children pass through stages at different levels
of maturity. Similarity, not all children pass through all stages of reading, all at the same time
and in the same order. Most significantly, each child is identified as an individual emergent
reader developing at his/her own pace and rate.

Stages of Reading Process

• A number of models on reading development have been designed and have guided
reading instruction in identifying the stages of reading where a particular child is in and where
children in a heterogeneous class belong.
• The basic and progressive stages of reading generally serve as a guide in determining the
reading skills of a particular child or of the whole class.
• However, it is important to note that, not all children pass through the same stages
simultaneously and possess all the same skills. Therefore, an individual reader maybe identified in
terms of his readiness, skills and own pace.
• Marie Clay (1991) and Fountas and Pinnell (2001) have noted five main stages of literacy
development that relate to both reading and writing.

Stage 1 – Emergent Readers

• The age of emergent readers generally ranges from 2-7 years old. They begin to familiarize
themselves with the concepts of print related to directionality, one-to-one correspondence
between the spoken and written word, and the value of picture clues to the meaning of a
story.
• They also develop an understanding that the printed word carries the meaning of a story.
• They begin to make text-to-world connections and may be able to extend on what is written
on the page.

Stage 2 – Early Readers

• Picking up from the concepts attained as an emergent reader, early readers now begin to
rely more heavily on the printed text than on the pictures in a book.
• Most often, they begin to developed word recognition strategies such as:
• Monitoring
• Searching
• Cross-checking
• Self-correction.
• This type of readers also begins to develop a data bank of sight words that allows them to
read with increased speed as they are read more often in phrases rather than single words.
• As a general rule, early readers are between the ages of 5-7. Because readers develop at
varying rates, a teacher may have a class containing both emergent and early readers as
well as readers in the next development stage, the transitional reader.

Stage 3- Transitional Readers Transitional readers make the leap into fluent reading as
they are generally able to read in meaningful phrases with comfortable pace and appropriate
voice intonation. Transitional readers are able to read more lengthy texts with the little
reliance on pictures for text meaning, these readers tend to range from5 to 7 years.
Stage 4- Self-Extending Readers, progress into reading independence in the fourth
developmental stage. They often read a variety of textual genres and use reading as a tool
for gaining new knowledge or building upon existing knowledge. This type of readers are
able to read more complex texts and begin to read for variety of purposes. Often these
readers range in age from 6 to 9 years of age.

Stage 5- Advanced Readers Advance readers are those readers who have attained a
level of mastery with reading. They are generally over the age of 9 and have become
proficient in reading and in comprehending various text sources. They enjoy reading and use
reading as means of gaining knowledge and in comprehending various text sources. They
can also read fluently and can interpret texts at both concrete and inferential level. Advanced
readers connect what they have read to themselves to other texts and to the world around
them. They have internalized a series of reading strategies that are used interchangeably as
they read different texts.

Factors that influence the development of an Emergent Reader

BEED3C6 – ENGL 312

General Instructions: Read, research and understand each topic. Then, answer the
following questions/tasks. Write your answers in YELOW PAPER. Again, capture your answer
sheets and send it to my messenger. Submission will be on August 27, 2021 (Friday). No more
late papers will be accepted.

A. Research Work:

1. Research the Five (5) General Types of Children’s Literature. Give each example.

a. Traditional Literature
b. Poetry
c. Fiction
d. Informational Books
e. Biography

2. Using the Venn diagram, differentiate the Special Types of Books.

a. Picture Books
b. Board Books
c. Pop-up Books

B. Explain the ff.

1. Differentiate emergent, beginning and primary readers.

2. Discuss the similarities and differences of literacy and comprehension.