Name Writing: A Window into the Emergent Literacy Skills of Young Children

This article discusses the potential significance of name writing skills in addressing many important questions about the development of early literacy skills. Young children are inherently interested in producing their own names in print. Furthermore, young children appear to construct their understandings of name writing skills in a predictable, sequential pattern. Questions raised include whether the development of name writing skills mirrors the development of other important cognitive skills, the potential of name writing skills to offer insight as to how young children learn important literacy concepts, the use of name writing as a developmental indicator for children that may be at risk for reading difficulties, and the potential for structured activities using name writing to facilitate the development of emergent literacy skills.     

Contributions of the Home Literacy Environment and Underlying Language Skills to Preschool Invented Writing

This study aimed to enhance our knowledge of the constituent variables affecting invented writing skills in 5-year-olds by investigating the concurrent relationships among home literacy, underlying language skills, and invented writing. The study comprised 111 Norwegian-speaking children (mean age: 5.7 years; 58 girls) and their parents. The children’s language skills were tested individually. The results showed that, on average, children achieved low scores on tests of word writing; however, the within-group variations in the children’s invented writing performances were large. The statistical modeling showed that parental education was significantly related to the home literacy environment, which was, in turn, directly related to both vocabulary and phonological awareness and indirectly related to invented writing skills. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Developmentally Appropriate Emergent Literacy Activities for Young Children: Adapting the Early Literacy and Learning Model

Whether it be leaping, resisting, or being gently shoved, the field of early childhood education continues moving into the age of accountability. Young children are expected to exhibit many requisite skills prior to kindergarten. Thus, the advancement of pre-reading and writing skills development become one of the many areas of focus for early childhood teachers. This study focused on the advancement of young children’s emergent literacy and letter recognition skills through developmentally appropriate instruction and need based adapted activities using the Early Literacy and Learning Model (ELLM) curriculum. The results suggest that mindfully adapting activities to children’s needs advances children’s emergent literacy development.     

The Scaffolding of Emergent Literacy Skills in the Home Environment: A Case Study

The ways in which parent-child interactions can encourage the development of emergent literacy skills in young children remains to be fully explored. The present report describes how one parent scaffolded her young child’s emergent writing and letter knowledge in the home. Environmental print provided many rich and meaningful examples for the parent to show that print conveys meaning and is constructed with letters that have names and make sounds. The parent used idiomorphs, a multisensory approach incorporating the tracing of letters and whole body movements, and common household objects to guide the child’s learning of letter names, sounds, and shapes. Emergent writing skills were scaffolded by using directional language and by the child copying environmental print. The strategies and examples that are described may give guidance to parents and teachers on how to provide engaging opportunities for literacy learning in the home environment or in an early educational context.     

Use of Writing with Symbols 2000 Software to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development

This paper outlines the use of the Writing with Symbols 2000 software to facilitate emergent literacy development. The program’s use of pictures incorporated with text has great potential to help young children with and without disabilities acquire fundamental literacy concepts about print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary development, and comprehension. The flexibility and features of the software allow early childhood professionals to create a variety of early literacy tools for the classroom, including worksheets, storybooks, and interactive activities.     

Enhancing Phonological Awareness and Letter Knowledge in Preschool Children with Down Syndrome

This study investigated the effectiveness of a phonological awareness intervention for 4‐year‐old children with Down syndrome. Seven children with Down syndrome who attended an early intervention centre participated in the intervention. Their performance on measures of phonological awareness (initial phoneme identity), letter name and sound knowledge, and print concepts pre‐intervention and post‐intervention, was compared with that of a randomly selected group of age‐matched peers with typical development. The intervention involved print referencing techniques whereby the children’s parents were instructed to bring the children’s attention to targeted letters and sounds within words and to draw their attention to the initial phonemes in words during daily shared book reading activities. The intervention was presented for a 6‐week period. The results indicated a significant treatment effect on phonological awareness and letter knowledge for the children with Down syndrome. Additionally, above‐chance performance on the initial phoneme identity task was contingent on letter knowledge of the particular phoneme. Individual profiles of the children with Down syndrome pre‐intervention and post‐intervention are presented, and implications for the management of preschool children approaching the age of integration into mainstream primary schools are discussed.     

Alphabet knowledge in preschool: A Rasch model analysis

In this study, we used Rasch model analyses to examine (1) the unidimensionality of the alphabet knowledge construct and (2) the relative difficulty of different alphabet knowledge tasks (uppercase letter recognition, names, and sounds, and lowercase letter names) within a sample of preschoolers (n = 335). Rasch analysis showed that the four components of alphabet knowledge did work together as a unidimensional construct, indicating all alphabet tasks administered were measuring the same underlying skill. With regard to difficulty of tasks, letter recognition was easier than letter naming, which in turn was easier than letter sounds, and uppercase letter names were easier than lowercase letter names. Most notably, most of the alphabet tasks overlapped, and the Rasch models for the single tasks were no more reliable than the combined measure. This suggests that these alphabetic tasks do not measure distinct skills but are instead indicators of a single ability. Consequently, we support the conceptualization of alphabet knowledge as a unitary construct, and suggest that those assessing and teaching alphabet knowledge in preschool use tests and methods that combine the various alphabetic tasks rather than separating them. These combined assessments will be more likely to capture the range of abilities within a preschool sample and avoid the floor and ceiling effects that have so often complicated early literacy research.     

Name-writing proficiency, not length of name, is associated with preschool children's emergent literacy skills

The goals of this study were twofold: first, to examine whether preschool children's name-writing proficiency differentiated them on other emergent reading and writing tasks, and second, to examine the effect of name length on preschool children's emergent literacy skills including alphabet knowledge and spelling. In study 1, a range of emergent literacy tasks was administered to 296 preschool children aged 4-5 years. The more advanced name writers outperformed the less advanced name writers on all emergent literacy measures. Furthermore, children with longer names did not show superior performance compared to children with shorter names. In study 2, four measures of alphabet knowledge and spelling were administered to 104 preschool children. Once again, the more advanced name writers outperformed the less advanced name writers on the alphabet knowledge and spelling measures. Results indicated that having longer names did not translate into an advantage on the alphabet knowledge and spelling tasks. Name writing proficiency, not length of name appears to be associated with preschool children's developing emergent literacy skills. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling.     

Emergent Environmental Literacy in the Nonnarrative Compositions of Kindergarten Children

This article shows how links between science and literacy offer kindergarten children the opportunity to create and express their individual understandings about environmental change through emergent environmental literacy. This article reports on one of the science experiences in a kindergarten classroom in which the children explored the phenomenon of environmental change. The kindergarten science program can help children learn how scientists look at the world; young children can express these concepts through nonnarrative compositions. The article concludes with suggestions for teaching practice in the kindergarten science program.     

Explaining the Predictive Accuracy of Teacher Judgments of Their Students' Reading Achievement: The Role of Gender,Classroom Behavior,and Emergent Literacy Skills in a Longitudinal Sample of Children Exposed to Poverty

The factors that explain why teachers are ableto accurately predict their students' futurereading ability were examined in a longitudinalstudy from first- to third-grade in childrenexposed to poverty (N = 170). Teacher ratingswere similarly based on both their students'emergent literacy skills and classroombehavior. Meanwhile, the influences ofclassroom behavior on later variability inreading skills were much less than, and almostcompletely redundant with, prior emergentliteracy. Virtually all of the shared variancebetween teacher ratings and later readingskills was explained by prior levels ofemergent literacy. Implications of the resultsand future research were discussed.     

Routines That Build Emergent Literacy Skills in Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

Many children lack adequate exposure to environments that promote emergent literacy. This limits brain stimulation and can have a life-long negative impact on one's knowledge and skills. Salient points relate to the healthy development of literacy, including practical information and applications. Emphasis is placed on strategies for motivating infants, toddlers, and preschoolers as they slowly and steadily build the competences that serve as the groundwork for reading, writing, speaking, viewing, and listening.     

Knowledge of the alphabet and explicit awareness of phonemes in pre-readers: The nature of the relationship

This study was carried out to examine the extent to which preschool children are aware of the phonemic structure of the spoken word and to investigate how they acquire that knowledge. The four year old non-readers carried out a battery of takss designed to assess product name reading ability, knowledge of the alphabet, rhyme skills and explicit phonemic awareness ability. There was evidence that they generally acquired knowledge of the alphabet before they showed explicit phonemic awareness ability. Fixed order regression analyses showed that ability to read and write the alphabet generally accounted for unique variance in phoneme awareness and product name reading ability over and above that accounted for by rhyme skills but that rhyme ability accounted for no unique variance beyond that accounted for by alphabet knowledge. Further analyses showed that alphabet knowledge also contributed unique variance to product name reading ability over and above that accounted for by phonemic awareness ability but that the reverse was not the case. It was hypothesised that many preschool non-readers may start to gain an insight into the phonemic structure of the spoken word by becoming aware of the connection between the sounds of letters in environmental print and the sounds of the spoken word.     

Technology-Mediated Writing Instruction in the Early Literacy Program: Perils,Procedures, and Possibilities

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine one kindergarten teacher's use of digital and multimodal technologies to mediate early writing instruction and explore the students' appropriation of that instruction to support their independent writing. Data sources included observations of writing instruction, as well as students' participation during independent writing time, student writing samples, and interviews with case study participants. Data were analyzed inductively using a semantic relationship analysis (Hatch, 2002). Results of the study revealed that the teacher used a range of technologies to demonstrate what it means to compose narrative texts and how young children could go about it. Students were attentive and motivated to participate in writing instruction and related activities, given their fascination with the technology and multimodal texts their teacher created. Students appropriated important concepts and strategies from their teacher's technology-mediated instruction, which they used to compose narrative texts during independent writing time.     

试论《红字》写作手法的多重性

文章从象征、对比反衬和心理分析三个反面探讨了霍桑《红字》写作手法的多重性，及其产生的美妙效果；通过分析使读者领略了霍桑独到的写作风格，进一步理解了《红字》的深刻内涵和主题。     

Using Clicker 5 to Enhance Emergent Literacy in Young Learners

Best practices in emergent literacy instruction for young children acknowledge and facilitate the smooth progression between children’s early engagement with print materials and subsequent fuller literacy mastery. In so doing, model programs target five key emergent literacy skills. The rapid rise in the breadth and depth of educational technology, including computer software, is offering early childhood education professionals new and powerful tools in teaching early literacy. This paper offers a brief review of best practices in emergent literacy, notes the growth of technology in this instruction, and examines the potential contributions of one specific software program, Clicker 5, in helping diverse emergent literacy learners acquire and practice initial reading and writing skills.     

Writing in Math: A Disciplinary Literacy Approach

Mathematics teachers often resist generic literacy strategies because they do not seem relevant to math learning. Discipline-specific literacy practices that emerge directly from the math content and processes under study are more likely to be embraced by math teachers. Furthermore, national and state-level mathematics standards as well as Common Core standards provide frameworks for situating literacy practices squarely within the disciplines. A disciplinary literacy approach to writing in math requires teachers to develop innovative strategies and practices that link writing to particular mathematical processes and tasks. An example is shared of a math writing approach developed by a middle school teacher used to prompt her students' critical thinking and problem solving processes during the study of algebra. She designed a template that when completed can serve as a reflective tool for her students and provide the teacher useful feedback on their learning. The example of teaching with the template as a guide for working through steps to solve a story problem demonstrates what disciplinary writing can look like in a typical middle school classroom.     

The building blocks of writing: Learning to write letters and spell words

This study examined the development of beginning writing skills in kindergarten and the relationship between early writing skills and early reading skills. Sixty children were assessed on beginning writing skills (including letter writing, individual sound spelling, and real and nonsense word spelling) and beginning reading skills (including letter name and letter sound knowledge, global early reading ability, phonological awareness, and word reading). Children’s beginning writing abilities are described, and they exhibited a range of proficiency in their ability to write letters, spell sounds, and spell real and nonsense words. Global early reading proficiency, phonological awareness, and/or letter sound fluency predicted letter writing, sound spelling, and spelling of real and nonsense words. Appreciation is expressed to the participating students and teachers at Dwight D. Eisenhower School and to Margaret Boudreau and Joan Foley for assistance in scoring students’ responses.     

裴度《寄李翱书》系年考

裴度《寄李翱书》一文的写作时间一直有两种看法,一种认为作于其早年,另一种以为作于晚年。从李翱的作品及生平以及裴度的生平事迹等方面看,裴度《寄李翱书》的写作时间,应在贞元末年。明确此文的写作时间,对于正确理解裴度对古文运动的态度有很大帮助。     

Examining the Relationship Between Emergent Literacy Skills and Invented Spelling in Prekindergarten Spanish-Speaking Dual Language Learners

The purpose of the present study was to examine associations among English and Spanish emergent literacy skills of prekindergarten (pre-K) Spanish-speaking dual language learners in relation to their English invented spelling. Study participants included 141 Spanish-speaking 4-year-old children enrolled in state-funded pre-K programs in a large urban city located in the Southeast. All children were receiving English-only instruction. Children’s Spanish and English receptive vocabulary and code-related skills were assessed in the fall and spring of their pre-K year, but their invented spelling was assessed only in the spring. Research Findings: Analyses revealed significant correlations among children’s English and Spanish receptive vocabulary as well as English and Spanish early code-related skills in the fall and spring of the school year. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed direct contributions of children’s English vocabulary and growth in Spanish code-related skills across the year to children’s English invented spelling in the spring of the school year. This analysis also revealed that associations between children’s English code-related skills and invented spelling appear to work through Spanish code-related skills. Practice or Policy: In order to promote young dual language learners’ English invented spelling skills, early childhood educators should seek to support children’s English vocabulary and English and Spanish code-related emergent literacy skills.     

Name writing and letter knowledge in preschoolers: Incongruities in skills and the usefulness of name writing as a developmental indicator

In this study, 114 preschoolers (M age = 53 months) completed a battery of literacy assessments to explore the interplay between name writing and letter knowledge in early literacy learners. Name writing was significantly related to children's letter knowledge, and the relationships were moderate to high. However, many children exhibited an incongruity in name writing and name-specific letter-recognition skills (i.e., they could write their names but not recognize the letters in their names, or recognize the letters in their names but not write them). When these two groups were contrasted statistically, the children with superior name-specific letter recognition (but poorer name writing scores) had significantly higher letter knowledge scores than the children with superior name writing scores (but poor name-specific letter-recognition scores). Writing one's name, in itself, did not appear to correspond to a literacy advantage. Thus, with regard to the recommendation that name writing be used as a literacy assessment tool in preschool, the results from this study suggest that name writing should be used as a measure of mechanical skill only and should not be used as a means to assess children's conceptual knowledge (of letter names, letter sounds, or the alphabetic principle).