Literacy 1

Literacy Framing Statement

Anne Schuerger

ED 698 Master’s Portfolio Summer 2023

University of Alaska Southeast

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Candidate demonstrates and applies understandings of the elements of literacy

critical for purposeful oral, print, and digital communication.

To demonstrate my understanding and application of the elements of literacy I

chose a project titled Observation and Guided Literacy. I completed this assignment for

my early childhood literacy course in the fall of 2020 while placed in a kindergarten

classroom. There were two parts to the Observation and Guided Literacy project. The

rst was to observe and analyze the quality of oral language and conversation in the

classroom as it supported emergent learners with their understanding of print. The

second was to work with one student and create a shared pen, or guided literacy, book

and re ect on the learning process of how emergent learners navigate the transition

from oral to printed language. This was the rst practicum course I had taken and it

now holds even more meaning to me as I just completed my rst year of teaching

kindergarten. I recall enjoying my experiences in the classroom that semester however

I never thought I would be teaching kindergarten today. I am grateful that I was able to

observe a veteran teacher who at the time was piloting the English language arts

curriculum I now teach.

Both parts of my Observation and Guided Literacy project re ect the

interconnectedness of oral and printed language through the literacy learning process.

What I particularly liked about the prompting for the observation portion of the project

was the emphasis on the quality of oral language. Two authorities on using quality

language in the classroom that I am inspired by are Marie Clay and Peter Johnson.

Clay (2014) stated that “We must spend time talking with children, not at them”

stressing the importance of guiding children through conversation (p. 10). One of the

main take aways I re ected on in my observation was the amount of open ended
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questions that were asked and how my host teacher sca olded students by

rephrasing, extending, and inviting others into the conversation. Participating in

collaborative conversations about topics and texts is the very rst speaking and

listening standard in kindergarten (DEED, n.d.). It is through these conversations that so

many of the remaining standards are accessed. Peter Johnson (2012) also stressed the

importance of students experiencing a dialogic classroom. He stated that “Learning is

fundamentally social” (p. 67) and “Teachers play a critical role in arranging the

discursive histories from which children speak. Talk is the central tool of their trade.

With it they mediate children’s activity and experience, and help them make sense of

learning, literacy, life, and themselves.” (p. 53-54). Oral language allows students to

develop comprehension skills even before they are decoding printed language. It

allows them to covey their ideas on and o paper before they have mastered print. It is

their bridge to printed text as “the very foundation of literacy learning lies in the

language the child has already constructed” (Clay, 2014, p. 2).

It is fun reading the interactions and re ections in my Observation and Guided

Literacy now that I know the curriculum from rst hand experience. Something that

resonates with me even more now having taught kindergarten is the power of the

“author’s chair” as discussed by Tompkins (2019). I wrote about this as I re ected on

the shared pen experience. The student I worked with had shown hesitation throughout

the entire process until putting together all of the pages we created and seeing then

that what we made t her schema of a book, making the realization that she was an

author. I quoted, and still agree with, Tompkins, “Publication is powerful” (p. 55). Being

able to share and realizing that their pictures and words can convey a story in their
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head opens their world, and as Clay (2014) wrote “To read what one has already written

or to write (reconstruct) something one can already read is to become aware of some

common ground in these two experiences.” (p. 44). Before even asking students to

write, one of the biggest ways to help them make this connection between oral and

written language is immersing them in a wide variety of print. Clay stated that “Children

demonstrate awareness as they attend to new aspects of their world, and their

comments from time to time on the printed language around them prove us with good

examples of what they are attending to.” (p. 39). One of my favorite lessons in our ELA

curriculum is when we read City Signs and take a walk around the school, asking

students to point out the signs and other print they see. Being able to recognize letters

and words they are learning while adding meaning to them ignites their desire to learn.

Exposing students to the variety in print and the importance it holds is key. As the

NAEYC (1998) wrote, “Classrooms lled with print, language and literacy play,

storybook reading, and writing allow children to experience the joy and power

associated with reading and writing while mastering basic concepts about print that

research has shown are strong predictors of achievement” (p. 5). My biggest goal for

my kindergarten students is to build a love for reading and writing no matter the level

they are at.

One thing that is lacking in my Observation and Guided Literacy discussion is

the inclusion of digital literacy. While not part of the project, it is a necessary

component of the literacy learning process today. In my kindergarten host classroom I

was introduced to one application that I use frequently in my classroom today. Epic!™

is a subscription-based reading and learning program that o ers digital books and
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videos for children. I often use this application as a center or as a reward for early

nishers and have students read individually on their tablets using headphones. What I

love about Epic!™ is that it reads to students while highlighting each word so that they

can follow along. This helps build their understanding of print and its relationship to the

oral language they are hearing. As the NAEYC (1998) wrote, “Children need regular and

active interactions with print” (p. 3) and that “Young children especially need to be

engaged in experiences that make academic meaning fun and build on prior learning”

(p. 2). Using Epic!™ in the classroom targets many digital literacy standards, one

speci cally is K‐2.KC.1, “With guidance from an educator, students use digital tools

and resources, contained within a classroom platform or otherwise provided by the

teacher, to nd information on topics of interest.” (Deed, 2019). Epic!™ allows students

autonomy over their reading, it empowers them by providing them with choice on what

they want to read without being limited by their emergent level skills. They are able to

exercise other key components of comprehension, building their background

knowledge and vocabulary, practicing visualizing and wondering, all while enjoying a

character or topic that interests them.

So much of kindergarten literacy is learning what makes a reader a reader and a

writer a writer. It is important to build the understanding that these are not singular

tasks but instead dependent on each other. Through oral, printed, and digital

communication student can achieve a well rounded and meaningful literacy education.

As Clay (2014) stated, and I strive to honor in my teaching, “Children do not develop a

literacy processing system by breaking their learning into parts. When teachers
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integrate talking, writing, and reading they enable young brains to expand their control

of language exibility throughout schooling” (p. 96).

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Resources

Clay, M. M. (2014). By di erent paths to common outcomes. Global Education

Systems.

DEED. (n.d.). Alaska english language arts standards kindergarten [PDF]. https://

education.alaska.gov/akstandards/ela/resources/elabygrade/ELAStandards-

Kindergarten.pdf

DEED. (2019). Alaska digital literacy standards [PDF]. https://education.alaska.gov/

akstandards/digitallit/alaska%20digital%20literacy%20standards.pdf

Donahue, K., Markosian, S. (Creators). (2013). Epic! [Application]. www.getepic.com

Johnston, P. H. (2012). Opening minds: Using language to change lives. Stenhouse

Publishers.

Milich, Z. (2005). City Signs. Kids Can Press.

NAEYC. (1998). Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for

young children. Young Children, 53(4), 30-46.

Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century. Pearson Education, Inc.
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