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.     

Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy

The use of touch screen tablets by young children is increasing in the home and in early childhood settings. The simple tactile interface and finger-based operating features of tablets may facilitate preschoolers’ use of tablet application software and support their educational development in domains such as literacy. This article reviews current findings on using touch screen tablets in supporting early literacy development within a theoretical framework. The evidence suggests that tablets have the potential to enhance children’s emergent literacy skills (e.g., alphabet knowledge, print concepts, and emergent writing). However, the optimal use of tablets for early literacy learning may be dependent upon the type of scaffolding used by parent or teacher and the availability and quality of literacy tablet applications. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

读写萌发教育理念

人们对幼儿幼儿早期读写的认识经历了以阅读准备为主导的传统认识和以读写萌发为主导新认识两个阶段,目前读写萌发理论在世界范围内是早期读写教育的主导型研究范式。本文介绍了读写萌发的相关概念。把读写萌发理论介绍到我国可以增强我们对于幼儿读写发展的理解,也可以改进我国幼儿读写教育方面的实践,同时汉语背景下读写萌发的研究也有利于丰富读写萌发理论自身。     

A Conceptual Framework for Emergent Digital Literacy

As we progress in the 21st century, children learn to become proficient readers and writers of both digital and non-digital texts. Knowledge, skills, and understandings of literacy emerge through sociocultural interactions with non-digital tools (e.g., paper-printed books) and digital tools (e.g., touch screen tablets). However, debate is ongoing over the role that digital experiences play in emergent literacy development. Researchers have voiced the need to conceptualise a common framework for literacy development that considers the emergence of digital literacy skills alongside conventional literacy skills and how these skills might interact during development. This is particularly important in light of the increasing use of digital texts used by young children, such as E-books and digital games. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework that might guide research and practice by examining the relationships between emergent literacy skills, emergent digital literacy skills, and proficiency in reading and writing.     

儿童读写萌发的研究进展

近些年来,儿童读写萌发得到了世界的广泛关注,相关研究发展迅猛.读写萌发对儿童的阅读能力和口语发展等具有重要影响,本文阐述了读写萌发的定义与涵义、以及对儿童发展的影响,分析了儿童读写萌发的筛查与评估方法,最后对儿童读写萌发的教育与干预策略进行了综述,并对中国儿童读写萌发的研究与实践提供了建议.     

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.     

Increased Implementation of Emergent Literacy Screening in Pre-Kindergarten

The recent emphasis on universal prekindergarten programs, coupled with ongoing concern about children’s’ early literacy development in the first years of school, carry significant implications for how preschool educators program for literacy and assess literacy growth. We discuss the evolving role of literacy development in expanded preschool, examine key features of literacy assessments with particular attention to the content that might be assessed in preschool, and provide as an example one preschool literacy assessment tool that is in widespread use in the United States. We discuss the policy and practice implications of the growing emphasis on literacy assessment in preschoolers.     

Information Technology and the Emergent Organization

The potential impact of information technology on the workplace is greater than simply changing how work is performed by individuals. Our assumptions regarding information systems in traditional organizations are out of date and being challenged by the capabilities provided by new information technologies. The organization of the future will require a much higher degree of system integration in order to respond to the increasing demands for flexibility and rapid change in the global marketplace. This will require a complete re-thinking of current organizational assumptions and a whole system re-design effort at the organizational level. Performance technologists, in order to play a vital role in building this new organizational future, will need to apply their collective knowledge on the whole system rather than on isolated elements, and to understand the interaction between the technology and the organization.     

Using Wordless Picture Books to Support Emergent Literacy

Wordless books—picture books that rely entirely on illustrations to tell a story—are an excellent resource for educators of young children. This article provides a research-based rationale for using wordless books, offers a developmental sequence for introducing children to stories told through pictures, suggests a general strategy and wide array of early literacy activities based on books without texts, and recommends ways of communicating with parents/families about the value of wordless books. Outstanding wordless books and examples of children's responses to this growing genre of children's literature are also included.     

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.     

Relations Among Maternal Literacy Beliefs, Home Literacy Practices, and the Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

Self-reported maternal literacy beliefs and home literacy practices were compared for families of children with typicially developing language skills (TL, n = 52) and specific language impairment (SLI, n = 56). Additionally, the present work examined whether maternal beliefs and practices predicted children's print-related knowledge. Mothers filled out 2 questionnaires asking about their literacy beliefs and practices while children's print-related knowledge was assessed directly. Results indicated that mothers of children with SLI held somewhat less positive beliefs about literacy and reported engaging in fewer literacy practices compared to mothers of children with TL. For the entire sample, maternal literacy practices and beliefs predicted children's print-related knowledge, although much of this association was accounted for by maternal education. Subgroup analyses focused specifically on children with SLI showed there to be no relation between maternal literacy beliefs and practices and children's print-related knowledge. The present findings suggest that the home literacy experiences of children with SLI, and the way that these experiences impact print-related knowledge, may differ in important ways from typical peers.     

The Emergent Language and Literacy Experiences of Three Deaf Preschoolers

This is a multiple case study of literacy acquisition in three deaf preschoolers aged 3 and 4 years. Data are drawn from a year long study of each child in a program for deaf and hard of hearing students. The primary focus of the project was to document the ways in which these students interacted with and around storybooks. Of special interest was the relationship between language development and the children's emergent literacy experiences.     

Pre-K Music and the Emergent Reader: Promoting Literacy in a Music-Enhanced Environment

Emergent literacy may be nurtured in an early childhood environment that integrates literacy experiences with meaningful music activities in which young children develop skills necessary for success in both areas simultaneously. Early childhood educators can develop the knowledge and skills needed to bring music into the classroom as an engaging and stimulating element of literacy education.     

Examining an Extended Home Literacy Model: The Mediating Roles of Emergent Literacy Skills and Reading Fluency

We examined the developmental relationships between home literacy environment (parent teaching, shared book reading) and emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, rapid naming speed) in kindergarten, reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, and reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3 in a sample of Canadian children learning to read English (N = 214). Results from a latent variable model showed that parent teaching predicted letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and shared book reading predicted vocabulary and rapid naming speed after controlling for family socioeconomic status. Moreover, both parent teaching and shared book reading contributed indirectly to reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, which then mediated the effects of home literacy environment on reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3. The results suggest that the effects of home literacy environment on later reading development are distributed via more pathways than previously thought.     

Self-Regulation and Task Engagement as Predictors of Emergent Language and Literacy Skills

Research Findings: A growing emphasis in the literature on children’s self-regulation signals the need for increased understanding of the ways in which young children become active players in the acquisition of knowledge. In particular, self-regulation may be linked to subsequent academic achievement through greater engagement with the learning tasks and activities made available in the preschool classroom. This study tested preschoolers’ (N = 603) observed task engagement in the classroom as mediating the relations between directly assessed self-regulation and changes in their language and literacy outcomes during the preschool year. Findings indicate that self-regulation is directly related to observed task engagement as well as changes in a host of language and literacy skills. Engagement with tasks and activities in the classroom also partially mediates the association between self-regulation and changes in expressive vocabulary. Mediation through task engagement was not found for receptive language or early literacy skills. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that the development and evaluation of clearly articulated preschool curricula designed to promote academic achievement by fostering self-regulation is an important direction for future research.     

Between Technology and Literacy

Art education exists between technology and literacy, that is, between the methods social groups use to equip themselves with material objects, to shape and control their environment, and the mastery of specific technologies used to communicate ideas and values. Technology and literacy also function as metaphors, implied comparisons between the visual arts and realms of contemporary education generally seen as possessing higher status in Western cultures. My intent in this historical essay is to examine both terms in historical contexts grounded in North American art education in order to reveal elements of political and social control in these metaphors. While art‐making is a means to technical literacy, responding to visual images has been used as a means to maintain social groups and continue particular cultural traditions. Art education itself can be considered one of many technologies useful in managing a complex society, at the same time as it is perceived as a means of human liberation.