Literacy Skills Overview

Skills required for effective reading and writing in a specific language include such things as awareness of the sounds of language, awareness of print, and the relationship between letters and sounds.

Develop skills in listening for the purpose of comprehension

• Listen to and follows spoken direction
• Respond to questions
• Listen to recordings & show understanding through body language or by interacting appropriately
• Distinguish fact from fiction in a read aloud text
• Make predictions from pictures and titles
• Use pictures or symbols to identify concepts
• Become familiar with the structure of stories

Develop an understanding of new vocabulary introduced in conversations, activities, or books

• Increase vocabulary through everyday communication
• Use new vocabulary words correctly
• Connect new vocabulary with prior experiences

Develop and expand expressive language skills (speaking)

• Use language for a variety of purposes
• Engage in conversations with adults and children
• Use complete sentences of increasing length
• Use language to pretend or create

Children will begin to develop age-appropriate writing skills

• Use left-to-right patterns
• Use scribbles, shapes, pictures & letters, or writing forms
• Understand that print is used to communicate
• Experiment with a variety of tools, materials, & surfaces
• Dictate words, phrases, and sentences to an adult recording on paper

The Building Blocks of Reading and Writing

Research tells us that to become skilled and confident readers over time, young children need lots of opportunities to:

• Build spoken language by talking and listen
• Learn about print and books
• Learn about the sounds of spoken language (this is called phonological awareness)
• Learn about the letters of the alphabet
• Listen to books read aloud

Discriminate the sounds of language (phonological awareness)

• Differentiate sounds that are the same and different
• Repeat rhymes, poems, and finger plays
• Recognize the same beginning sounds in different words
• Show the ability to hear & discriminate separate syllables in words
• Create & invent words by substituting sounds

Develop age-appropriate strategies that will assist in reading

• Demonstrate an interest in books or stories
• Discuss books or stories read aloud
• Exhibit book-handling skills
• Associate symbols with objects, concepts, and functions
• Recognize that print represents spoken words
• Dramatize, tell, and retell poems and stories
• Identify some individual letters of the alphabet
• Share books & engages in pretend-reading with others
• Recognize that sentences are composed of separate words
• Connect information & events in books to real-life
• Participate in oral reading activities
• Recognize that sentences are composed of separate words
• Use pictures or symbols to identify concepts

Helpful Terms to Know

• alphabetic knowledge - Knowing the names of the letters of the alphabet.
• big books - Oversized books that allow for the sharing of print and illustrations with children.
• blending - Putting together individual sounds to make spoken words
• developmental spelling - The use of letter-sound relationship information to attempt to write words. Also known as invented spelling.
• emergent literacy - The view that literacy learning begins at birth and is encouraged through participation with adults in meaningful reading and writing activities.
• environmental print - Print that is a part of everyday life, such as signs, billboards, labels, and business logos.
• experimental writing - Efforts by young children to experiment with writing by creating pretend and real letters and by organizing scribbles and marks on paper.
• literacy - Includes all the activities involved in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and appreciating both spoken language and written language.
• phonemes - The smallest parts of spoken language that combine to form words. For example, the word hit is made up of three phonemes (/h/ /i/ /t/) and differs by one phoneme from the words pit, hip and hot.
• phonemic awareness - The ability to notice and work with the individual sounds in spoken language.
• phonological awareness - The understanding that spoken language is made up of individual and separate sounds. In addition to phonemes, phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, sentences, and syllables.
• pretend reading - Children's attempts to "read" a book before they have learned to read. Usually children pretend read a familiar book that they have practically memorized.
• print awareness - Knowing about print and books and how they are used.
• segmentation - Taking spoken words apart sound by sound
• spoken language - The language used in talking and listening; in contrast to written language, which is the language used in writing and reading.
• syllable - A word part that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent, news-pa-per, pre-ty).
• vocabulary - The words we must know in order to communicate effectively. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.

Ways to support instruction at home

• Play games like "Simon Says". Give one-step commands and then progress to two or three-step commands. "Simon says turn around, clap your hands, and touch your toes."
• Read a favorite story together, and ask your child to give a signal each time he hears a particular word. For example, "Clap your hands when you hear me say the word bear."
• Go outside and identify sounds you hear.
• Teach your child some hand clapping chants or jump rope rhymes you remember from childhood.
• Talk to your child while engaged in activities like cooking or chores. Explain what you are doing & the tools you are using.
• Discuss the day's events
• Give your child lots of opportunities to engage in conversation with adults.
• Let them order in a restaurant or answer the telephone using phrases you have rehearsed ahead of time.
• Create silly stories together while riding in the car or waiting at a restaurant.
• Practice reading environmental print - street signs, store names, favorite foods.
• Cut our logos from the paper or store ads. Paste them on paper, or put them in an album to make a book for your child to read.
• Discuss books with your child after reading them together. Ask "How" & "Why" questions to extend learning.
• Use newspapers & magazines for letter find activities. Have children find and circle the letters in their names.
• Invite you child to write when you write.
• Let your child write on old calendars, order forms, check registers, or grocery lists.
• Provide a "grown-up" pen or pencil.
• More activities to help your child develop his/ her phonological awareness
• Sing nursery rhymes and children's songs.
• Point out words and letters in your environment. Ask your child to name letters and sounds.

READ to your child!

• Make reading a pleasure. Read to your child in a comfortable place. Have him or her sit on your lap or next to you so that he or she can see and point to the print and the pictures. Show him or her that reading is fun and rewarding.
• Show enthusiasm as you read with your child. Read the story with expression. Make it more interesting by talking as the characters would talk, making sound effects, and making expressions with your face and hands. When children enjoy being read to, they will grow to love books and be eager to learn to read them.
• Read to your child often. Set aside special time for reading each day; maybe after lunch and at bedtime. The more you can read to him or her, the better - as long as he or she is willing to listen. Reading times can be brief, about 5 to 10 minutes.