1. DELAWARE EARLY LITERACY INITIATIVE Dr. Jim J
DELAWARE EARLY LITERACY INITIATIVE Dr. Jim J. Lesko Delaware Department of Education
Reading Cadre

2. Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy involves the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).

3. Emergent Literacy
Interventions in the preschool period need to focus on emergent literacy skills because children are not yet engaging in conventional forms of literacy.

4. Emergent Literacy – National Early Literacy Panel
How to define emergent literacy
Two conditions need to be satisfied for something to be considered an emergent literacy skill:
(a) Must come before conventional literacy skills.
(b) Must be related to (i.e., predictive of) conventional literacy skills.

5. Identifying Emergent Literacy Skills
Many candidate emergent literacy skills have been suggested, including
oral language
concepts about print
environmental print
alphabet knowledge
phonological processing skills
visual-perceptual skills
emergent (pretend) reading
emergent (pretend) writing

6. A number of variables have strong and consistent relations with later conventional literacy outcomes in a relatively large number of studies with a relatively large number of children (meaning they are sizable, reliable, and stable):

7. Strong Predictors: Alphabet Knowledge Concepts About Print
Phonological Awareness
Invented Spelling [Primary Oriented]
Oral Language
Writing Name
RAN (Rapid Automatic Naming/Lexical Access)

8. Other variables have a smaller effect or have been examined in fewer studies with fewer children:
Visual Motor Skills
Visual Perceptual Skills

9. Oral Language Interventions
All forms of interactive shared reading interventions produce positive effects on children’s oral language skills as measured by standardized tests and more natural language samples.
These interventions require children to respond and incorporate a scaffolding approach.

10. Oral Language Interventions
Effective agents of intervention can be teachers, parents, community volunteers, or teacher aides.
Vocabulary is a crucial element to impacting later reading
Effects are obtained with children selected for risk status and unselected children.

11. Phonological Awareness Interventions
There is a large amount of information on the effects of teaching phonological sensitivity to children and its impact on reading skills.
These data indicate that training on phonological skills is effective and has a significant impact on decoding skills.

12. Phonological Awareness Interventions
The majority of these data, however, come from studies of children in the first grade or older.
A search of the published evidence yielded approximately 55 studies of phonological sensitivity interventions with children who were in kindergarten or preschool.
Of these, only 6 studies included primarily children who were preschool age.

13. Phonological Awareness Interventions
Approximately 6 hours of exposure to this program, conducted by the experimenters, resulted in effects on reading skills that persisted for 6 years.
A trial of the same program, but implemented by preschool teachers, also yielded positive immediate results; however, the overall size of the effect was not as large as that obtained in the experimenter implemented program.

14. Print Knowledge Interventions
There are relatively few studies examining the effect of training children in print knowledge.
The majority of studies involving the teaching of letters have been done in the context of training phonological sensitivity with older children (i.e., Kindergarten or above).

15. Print Knowledge Interventions
Data from these studies provide evidence that training children in both phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge is more effective than training in phonological sensitivity alone

16. Common Miscues
Using materials and activities that are not comprehensible
Little connection to student’s lives
Materials are not interesting
Activities are often passive rather than active
Materials/activities more on lower-order skills
Standardize curriculum instead of individualize instruction

17. Implications for Early Childhood Education

18. Five Key Literacy Areas
Print Awareness
Phonemic Awareness
Alphabet
Vocabulary – Oral Language
Reading Aloud/Listening/Text Comprehension

19. Links with Effective Literacy Practices
Time for children to engage in reading
Small group instruction
Increase instructional time and engagement
High expectations for achievement
Use research-based practices
On-going professional development

20. Links with Effective Literacy Practices
Collaboration across programs and classrooms
Strong home-program connection
Using child development data to target instruction
Identify literacy as important curriculum component

21. Links with Effective Literacy Practices
Building children’s language and literacy skills in the preschool period.
Identifying skills early gives children the strongest foundation for learning to read.
Decisions about developing or selecting the most appropriate curricula (e.g., content, intensity, sequence) are critical

22. Links with Effective Literacy Practices
Professional development (e.g., read-aloud practices, PA activities) is critical for educators and volunteers.
Assessment of early literacy skills is important to instruction

23. Delaware Early Literacy Practices
Professional Development
State Improvement Grant – Early Literacy
Early Educators in Child Care/Education
Certified Educators in Schools
Parents
Care to Read
Early Learning Foundations

24. Delaware Early Literacy Practices
Resources
Reading Is Fundamental
Growing Together Portfolio
Delaware Read ALOUD
Read and Rise Initiative
Early Reading Grants

25. Delaware Early Literacy Practices
Dr. Jim Lesko
Delaware Department of Education
P.O. Box 1402
Dover, DE