How to Teach Meaningful Literacy to Preschoolers

By the time children reach the age to go to preschool, parents are anxious for their children to learn many academic skills so they are ready for Kindergarten. We often see in preschools, teachers giving direct instruction about letters; maybe even teaching a letter of the week. We also see teachers strict on teaching how to write letters correctly. We try different strategies to help children get prepared to read, or even start reading in Pre-K, but do we know if children are grasping it?

Preschools have started to become popular for teaching children to read at five. Our nation has taken this approach from assuming the earlier children start reading, the better they will do academically. Parents are also eager for their children to start reading so they can prepared to take those state tests in school. Yet Jan Almon, co-founder of the Alliance for Childhood, found something contrary to that approach,

“For 40 years I have searched without success for studies that support the notion that reading at five is a helpful step for long-term success in school. A recent doctoral thesis confirmed the absence of such evidence. Sebastian Suggate, studying in New Zealand, did an extensive search for quantitative, controlled studies that showed long-term gains for children who learned to read at five compared to those who learned at six or seven. He found one methodologically weak study from 1974 but could find no others. Thus, a major shift in American education has taken place without any evidence to support it.”

Children learn the best through their interests and discoveries. For some children, basic literacy skills can be challenging to learn because they are simply not interested in it yet. Children would rather go out in play than being taught directly what the letters are, their sounds, and so forth. If children are not interested, the information will go right over their head. They may start becoming restless or stare off into space. Behavior problems may arise and it may be harder to follow basic routines.

If children are not grasping these literacy concepts all right, do not panic. Children naturally are curious learners and want to know about the world. They will naturally want to learn how to read when they are mature enough to understand the concepts and want to read for themselves. Yet, we do not want them left in the dark. We can encourage and promote literacy development through simple ways that can allow them to participate in learning and find it meaningful. That should be the goal: helping children see literacy used everyday in a meaningful way.

There are various activities and teaching strategies you could use to promote this development. Using oral language and rich vocabulary, teaching phonemic awareness and meaningful writing, pointing out environmental print, reading books, and teaching the alphabetic principle can help children gain a natural interest for literacy.

Oral Language and Rich Vocabulary

Having powerful interactions with children can greatly enhance their language capabilities, leading to a greater grasp on literacy skills. When children are able to pronounce the sounds of words as they speak, along with communicating their thoughts, they will be able to sound out words in books more effectively when they start reading. Using oral language links to cognitive development as well, which is much needed when learning to read. Professor Barry Sanders, well known for his book, A Is for Ox, said, “A person’s success in orality determines whether he or she will ‘take’ to literacy.”

Parents and teachers can help promote language development. Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp, authors of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, suggested that when we converse with children, we “give children their full attention, follow children’s conversational lead, and add responses and comments that enrich the conversation and draw the children out.” This could include discussing events, experiences, and people from the past and present.

Using rich vocabulary can help expand children’s knowledge and vocabulary. These knew words can help them in their reading, as well as they will have a greater understanding of the story told with new words. Choosing stories to read with rich vocabulary can add on another level of learning by discussing the stories and words used. Out of all the approaches to teaching literacy, using oral language and rich vocabulary is one of the most vital approaches to take, even if the others do not work at all.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness are the sounds of letters used in our English language. They are taking the alphabet letters and strictly learning their sounds without the symbols. Along with phonemic awareness, phonological awareness can be learned, which is taking the sounds into smaller chunks, such as rhymes, alliterations, rhythms, and other sound similarities. Children who learn the letter sounds before the symbols will help them grasp reading better when they combine the sounds. Learning letter sounds will not seem as foreign to children.

Some approaches that could be used to teach phonemic and phonological awareness is through rhyming games, songs and chants with rhymes, rhyming fingerplays, and clapping out syllables to children’s names. The reason I say rhyming so much is because it is one of the easiest concepts for children, starting age 3, can grasp. They are basic sounds that they can compare between words. We can read aloud books that have rhyming and alliteration elements in it, such as Dr. Seuss books or Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I have seen children deeply interested in these phonemic awareness activities and it is fun to see children get involved in them, especially when they catch on to the rhymes and alliterations.

Writing

Children who are involved in writing will be able to learn about how letters and sounds are used to read and spell. They will also have the experience of expressing themselves in written mode and think of themselves as writers.

Children’s earliest attempts of writing may just be in scribbles. Rather than teaching them the proper way of spelling out letters, point out the print around them and the words they make. Let them see us write in everyday situations and help them see the value in writing. Copple and Bredekamp also mention,

“In preschool, children’s proper written formation of letters should not be a priority; such an emphasis would be likely to make early writing less meaningful and more frustrating to young children. In the developmentally appropriate preschool, writing experiences are focused on the use of print for functional reasons.”

Encourage children to write letters to a friend and take orders at a pretend restaurant, or watch you create a grocery list or write down a story they may tell. In preschool, I keep a notebook to write down anecdotal notes and pre-assessment from the children. Children often catch me writing in my notebook and ask what I am writing. When I tell them I am writing about what they are doing, they become intrigued with it and often say, “Write down that I can climb this!” or “Write that I am on a pirate ship!” When children watch you write, or they write something in a meaningful fashion, they will see the value in everyday use of writing.

Environmental Print

Simply put, these are the words we see around us, whether it be in our house or in the community. We can identify words on street signs, menus, company names, words on refrigerators, or quotes on walls. Even in preschools, there should be labels where materials go, sign-in sheets, lists, and so forth. Pointing out these words to children can help them get familiar with what the words mean and their purpose. For example, reading the words on a menu can help us know which dish to order. Words on streets can help us know how to drive safely and where to go. Environmental print has a purpose for helping us understand and receive information. The print that children see should be used in a purposeful and functional way as well.

Read Books

Taking time to read a variety of books to children is right up there with oral language. Reading a variety of books — short stories, poems, fairy tales, and non-fiction — can help children see that books are used for several ways, from receiving information to hearing a good story. Rich interaction between you and the child should happen when reading books, by discussing the plot, characters, allowing children to finish sentences, and predicting what may happen next in the story. Running your finger over the words as you read will help children understand directionality and that you are reading the words and not the pictures.

Telling stories does not always have to happen from a book either. Telling stories through several props, such as puppets, felt and magnet stories, or props for children to dress up and act out a story. Simply reading and telling stories and books to children can greatly enhance their literary skills and get them ready and interested to read.

Alphabetic Principle

Teaching letters is one of the most common methods used in preschools and one of the most common goals from parents for their children. The only strategy that is lacking in teaching children these symbols is not helping children see its purpose. Help children understand that there is a relationship between letters and sounds and there is purpose for using symbols when writing and reading words.

Children can learn the alphabetic principle through viewing environmental print, an alphabet chart they can refer to, alphabet games and songs, reading alphabet books that illustrate letter sounds with pictures, and encouraging children to name what letter a word starts with or say another word that starts with the same letter. So long as the letters learned are not in a direct instruction strategy or theme, the children will be able to find the alphabet purposeful and meaningful.

Jumping right into teaching children how to read at five is like building a house without a foundation. This was an analogy that Amanda Morgan, an early childhood expert and writer for Not Just Cute, mentioned in a podcast. We often see the grand masterpiece of a house once it is finished. We admire its view but some do not tend to notice what the start of it was before it became the masterpiece. It was just a foundation. Those are the basic skills of being read to, learning sounds, and noticing the meaning behind using everyday literacy. Once a foundation is set up, then we can see the house built to become something great, in which we can see wonderful readers who are having success. Focus on building that foundation and see what kind of reader your child will become.

References:

Almon, Joan. (2016). Oral Language: The Foundation of Literacy. Community Playthings. http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2016/oral-language

Almon, Joan. (2013). Reading at Five: Why? Community Playthings. http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2013/reading-at-five-why

Copple, Carol., Bredekamp, Sue. (2009). Developmentally Appropriate Practice: In Early Childhood Programs Third Edition. National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Morgan, Amanda. (2017). Episode 13: The Preschool Reading Dilemma. Not Just Cute. https://notjustcute.com/podcast/episode13/