Module 1 Early Literacy

A. Emergent Literacy Theory

I. Definition- children begin developing literacy skills long before they

enter school- includes oral language skills and ability to distinguish

signs, logos, billboards, food product labels, etc. based on their interaction and experiences with the world

- from these early experiences, they construct “theories” of how reading and writing works

Concepts About Print

II. Concepts About Print (CAP)• Understandings about how print works; • Printed words carry a message (termed as print awareness),

or that messages could be written • Concept of directionality: Words are read from left to right,

top to bottom• Environmental Print: children begin “reading” by

recognizing billboards, signs, logos, food labels, fastfood restaurants’ names, etc.

• Concepts about Words and Concepts about the Alphabet

Fostering CAP

III. Classroom Activities that Foster CAP• Students’ names are displayed• Labels of common objects found in the classroom• Pointing to words on the classroom calendar• Reading aloud books, letters, newspaper, etc. • Pointing out words on charts• Interactive writing

Fostering Emergent Literacy

IV. Classroom activities that develop Emergent Reading and Writing Skills• Stock centers with tools of writing and reading• Having a reading center where students could “read” books

by looking at pictures and words• Having a dramatic play center that stimulates reading and

writing (e.g. being in a restaurant where students pretend to read the menu, and other students pretend to take orders from the guests

• Read alouds

Stages of Literacy Development

A. EmergentB. BeginningC. Fluent

B. Schema Theory

I. Definition of Schema Theory• Reader’s prior knowledge, including experiences and attitudes,

determines the way in which new information is understood (McCormack & Pasquarelli, 2010)

• A person’s schema is an organized knowledge of the world such that in order to understand something, a person has to activate or construct a schema in order to have a framework to understand that concept (Anderson, 1985)

• Suggests that information is organized in the brain within a system of schemata (plural for schema) functioning like a filing cabinet

• Schemata are linked with each other, and the ways they are linked vary from one individual to another