Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy€¦ · form or by any means, electronic,...

Helping Young Children Learn Language and LiteracyBirth Through Kindergarten

Carol VukelichUniversity of Delaware

Billie EnzArizona State University

Kathleen A. RoskosJohn Carroll University

James ChristieArizona State University

Fifth Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: Vukelich, Carol, author. Title: Helping young children learn language and literacy : birth through kindergarten / Carol Vukelich, University of Delaware, James F. Christie, Arizona State University, Billie Jean Enz, Arizona State University, Kathleen A. Roskos, John Carroll University.Description: Fifth Edition. | Boston : Pearson, [2018]Identifiers: LCCN 2018043288| ISBN 9780134866598 | ISBN 0134866592Subjects: LCSH: Language arts (Preschool) | Children--Language.Classification: LCC LB1140.5.L3 V85 2018 | DDC 372.6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043288

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-486659-8 ISBN 10: 0-13-486659-2

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iii

Contents

About the Authors vii

Preface viii

1 Foundations of Language and Literacy 1

Language and Literacy: Definitions and Interrelationships 1

Pause and Think About . . . 4

The Common Core State Standards 4

Link to Practice 5

Early Literacy Instructional Approaches: A Brief History 5The Natural Approach 5


The Explicit Instruction Approach 7Blending the Two Approaches 8

Link to Practice 11

An Early Literacy Instructional Program 11Explicitly Teach Children the Key Research-Supported Skills 11Provide Children With a Print-Rich Classroom Environment 11Read to Children Daily 12Demonstrate and Model Literacy 13Provide Opportunities for Children to Work and Play Together in Literacy-Enriched Environments 14


Encourage Children to Experiment With Reading and Writing 15Provide Opportunities for Children to Use Language and Literacy for Real Purposes and Audiences 15Use Multiple Forms of Assessment to Find Out What Children Know and Can Do 16Respect and Make Accommodations for Children’s Developmental, Cultural, and Linguistic Diversity 16Build Partnerships With Families 17

Link to Practice 18

Summary 18

2 Families’ Role in Children’s Literacy Learning 19


Home Literacy Experiences 22Access to Print and Books 22Adult Demonstrations of Literacy Behavior 23Supportive Adults 23Independent Engagements with Literacy 24Storybook Reading 25Read-Alouds 25

TIME 26

TYPES OF BOOKS 26

QUALITY OF READING ENGAGEMENT 28

Beyond Books 28Special Note Regarding Electronic Media and Infants and Toddlers 29

Link to Practice 30

Observing How Literacy Develops: Case Study 30Tiffany 30

Diverse Family Contexts: A Complex Story of Intertwining Family Factors 34

Family Structure 34Parent Age 35Parent Education Levels 35Language Diversity 36Race/Ethnicity 36Socioeconomic Status 37

Link to Practice 38

Working with Diverse Families: It Begins with Communication 38

Home Visits 39Phone Calls or FaceTime 39Parent–Teacher Conferences 40Parent Workshops 41

Link to Practice 43

Written Communications 43WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS 43

NEWS UPDATES 43

TEXT MESSAGES 43

Link to Practice 44

Summary 44

3 Educational Environments Beyond the Family 45

Why Classroom Environments are Important 46


Designing Classroom Environments for Infants and Toddlers 47From Infant through Toddler 48Toddlers 50

Link to Practice 50

Designing Print-Rich Pre-K and K Classroom Environments 51

Library Centers 53

Link to Practice 55

Writing Centers 55Writing Materials in Other Centers 57

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iv Contents

Link to Practice 58

Environmental Print 58Functional Print 59

Link to Practice 61

Literacy-Enriched Play Centers 61

Home-Based Child-Care Settings 65

Link to Practice 65

Link to Practice 66

Organizing the Classroom’s Daily Schedule: Using Time Wisely 66


Infant Schedules 67Toddler Schedules 67Preschool and Kindergarten Schedules 70


Link to Practice 74

Summary 74

4 Language: The Foundation for Literacy Learning 75

Observing and Describing the Normal Development of Children’s Language 76

Prior to Birth 77Birth to 1 Month 782 to 3 Months 78

Link to Practice 78

3 to 6 Months 796 to 9 Months 799 to 12 Months 8012 to 18 Months 8118 to 36 Months 82

Link to Practice 85

3 to 4 Years 85


4 to 5 Years 88


Link to Practice 92

Determining Factors that Contribute to Variations in Rate of Language Acquisition 93

Gender Differences 93Socioeconomic Level 93Cultural Influences 94Medical Concerns 94Congenital Language Disorders 94

DISFLUENCY 95

PRONUNCIATION 95


Summary 98

5 Developing Oral Language Comprehension 99

Oral Language Comprehension: What is it? 99


Contexts that Develop Oral Language Comprehension 101Language Experiences 101Substantive Conversations 102Storytelling and Story Reading 104

Link to Practice 106

The Oral Language–Early Literacy Connection 107


Syntax and Language Conventions 107Vocabulary 108Listening Comprehension 110


Providing Supportive Learning Environments 111


Interactive Talk 112Role-Play 113Dialogic Reading 113Sociodramatic Play 114Wordplay 114Digital Play 115


Summary 117

6 Sharing Good Books with Young Children 118

The Importance of Storybook Reading 119


Selecting Books to Share with Young Children 122


Interactive Storybook Reading 124

Shared Big-Book Reading 127


Creative Dramatics 130Puppets 131Art Projects 132Writing 133


Summary 134

7 Teaching Early Reading 136

Foundations of Early Reading Instruction 136Language 137Vocabulary 137Phonological Awareness 138

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Alphabet Letter Knowledge 138


Print Conventions 139Name Writing 139Summing Up the Domains 139

Early Reading Teaching Methods 140Basal Reader Method 141Direct Instruction Method 142Play-Based Method 143


Discovery Method 145


Word-Level Teaching Techniques 147Alphabet Activities 147

SONGS 147

LETTER CHARTS 148

PRINT-REFERENCING 148


ALPHABET WORD WALLS 149

GAMES 149


Phonological/Phoneme Awareness Activities 149WORD/SYLLABLE SEGMENTING 149

ONSET–RIME 150

SOUND MATCHING 150

PHONEME BLENDING/SEGMENTING 150

PHONEME MANIPULATION 151

Phonics 151LETTER–SOUND MATCHING 152

WORD WALLS 152

GAMES 152

Meaning-Level Teaching Techniques 152Language Experience Approach 153Storybook Reading 153Say–Tell–Do–Play 154Tier 2 Technique 155Retellings 155


Habits 155


Implementing A Comprehensive Language And Literacy Program 156

Summary 158

8 Teaching Early Writing 160


Why Early Writing Matters 161



Children’s Writing Development 162Emergent Writing 162


What Research Says About Children’s Development As Writers 166

Supporting Children’s Development As Writers 168Shared Writing 168

SHARED CHART 169

INTERACTIVE WRITING 171

INDIVIDUAL WRITING 173

CLASSROOM NEWSPAPER 174



The Writing Workshop 175Focus Lessons 175


Writing Time 177Group Share Time 177



Publishing Children’s Writing 179

Handwriting 181Explicit Handwriting Instruction 182


Summary 183

9 Assessing the Foundations of Early Literacy Learning 184

The Role of Early Learning Standards 185


An Assessment System 186Caveats of Early Literacy Assessment 187

Principles, Types, and Features of Early Literacy Assessment 188

Principles 188Types of Assessment 189Features of Assessment 189

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT 189

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 190


An Assessment Model 193


Early Literacy Assessment Approaches and Tools 194Screening Assessment 194Classroom and Informal Diagnostic Assessment 196


Addressing Storage Problems 203Bridging Classroom and More Formal Diagnostic Assessment 204

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Effective Uses of Assessment Information 207To Inform Instruction 207To Share Assessment Results with Parents and Families 208

PROGRESS REVIEW CONFERENCES 208

CHILD–PARENT–TEACHER CONFERENCES 208

Assessing Dual Language Learners 211

Summary 212

Appendix At-Home Activities 214

References 229

Children’s Literature 241

Name Index 242

Subject Index 248

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CAROL VUKELICH is the Dean of the College of Education and Human Devel-opment and the L. Sandra and Bruce L. Hammonds Chaired Professor in Teacher Education at the University of Delaware. Prior to becoming Dean, she served as the College’s Deputy Dean and Director of the Delaware Center for Teacher Education. She has co-directed several grants, published three books, authored numerous book chapters and articles, consulted on curriculum, and made numerous presentations fo-cused on children’s early literacy learning. Dr. Vukelich has served as President of the Association for Childhood Education International and as the Secretary of the Execu-tive Board and Board of Directors member of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.

BILLIE ENZ is an Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Education at Arizona State University, where she taught and served as an administrator for 25 years. She has coauthored several texts on mentorship and new teacher development and was the founding director of the Beginning Educator Support Team (BEST) grant which pro-vided induction support for new teachers statewide. Her research interests include language and literacy development and family literacy. Dr. Enz has coauthored Teaching Language and Literacy, 5th ed. (Pearson, 2014) and Assessing Preschool Lit-eracy Development (International Reading Association, 2009) and numerous articles and book chapters. She also served as the founding executive director for Educare Arizona.

KATHLEEN A. ROSKOS is a Professor Emeritus at John Carroll University, where she continues to teach courses in literacy assessment/intervention and the language arts. She has developed and coordinated numerous educational grants, including a DOD grant for military veterans entering teaching, Early Reading First grants and a Straight A Innovation grant. Dr. Roskos coordinated one of the first public preschools in Ohio (Bridges and Links). She was instrumental in the development of statewide on-line professional development in literacy for P-12 teachers. Dr. Roskos studies early literacy development, digital book design, and teacher professional education. She has published several books, book chapters, and research articles on these topics.

JAMES CHRISTIE was a Professor Emeritus in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University, where he taught courses in play and early language and literacy development. Dr. Christie coauthored Play, Develop-ment, and Early Education (Allyn & Bacon, 2005), Teaching Language and Literacy: Pre-school Through the Elementary Grades, 5th ed. (Pearson, 2014), and Building a Foundation for Preschool Literacy, 2nd ed. (International Reading Association, 2009). He codirected three Early Reading First projects: the Arizona Centers of Excellence in Early Education in San Luis, AZ; the Mohave Desert Coalition in Bullhead City, AZ; and Pump Up the Vol-ume in Preschool in Gallup, NM.

About the Authors

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PrefaceWe are dedicating this edition of Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy to our dear colleague James F. Christie. Jim passed away at his favorite mountain retreat in northern Arizona. Some of the words in this Fifth Edition are his. We cherish them, and we acknowledge his contribution by continuing his authorship of this edition. We miss him.

Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy, Fifth Edition, is about teaching the language arts—about facilitating children’s reading, writing, speaking, and listen-ing development from birth through kindergarten. The language arts are essential to everyday life and central to all learning; through reading, listening, writing, and talk-ing, children come to understand the world. To be a successful teacher of language and literacy, you need to understand how children’s language and literacy develop and how to help children become fluent, flexible, effective users of oral and written language. Children are at the center of all good language and literacy teaching. This principle underlies the four themes that run throughout this book: a perspective on teaching and learning that blends natural and explicit instruction, respect for diver-sity, instruction-based assessment, and family involvement in literacy learning.

This book presents an integrative view of how children learn language and liter-acy from an early age through the first year of school. It describes the emergence and development of speaking and listening skills that are the foundations of reading and writing that young children need for school success. It is written in a friendly, engag-ing style that shows how children learn to use language effectively and to engage in literacy experiences that develop their knowledge of the purposes and uses of print. We believe that children construct their own knowledge about oral and written lan-guage by engaging in integrated, meaningful, and functional activities with other peo-ple. Children do not first “study” speaking, then listening, then reading, then writing. They learn by engaging in activities in which language and literacy are embedded. We also believe, however, that literacy skills can be increased via direct, systematic instruction. This instruction can often take the form of games and other engaging ac-tivities, and it also contains the elements of direct instruction: explanations, teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent practice.

New to This EditionThere are numerous new features to this edition that reflect recent developments in the field of language arts education.

• We continue to believe that it is important to frame the ideas presented in this book within the broader national context of what is happening in language and literacy in the United States. In the 3rd edition, we introduced the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, Grades K-12. By the 4th edition, many states had developed birth to age 5 standards, though few states called what they wanted their young citizens to know and be able to do standards. We introduce the Common Core State Standards and states' birth to age 5 standards in Chapter 1. The remaining chapters, when appropriate, each feature the standards that fit with that chapter’s content. Our goal is for students to see the connections between learning expectations and instruction.

• We have greatly expanded our coverage of strategies for promoting language and literacy in infants and toddlers, both at home and in day care settings. In this edi-tion, given the number of young children in home care and education settings, we have expanded the discussions of children’s learning environments to include

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Preface ix

learning in home settings. A special focus in these discussions is the creation of inexpensive early literacy learning environments.

• At the request of reviewers, we also have extended the content from discussions of the teaching of early reading and writing to the teaching of beginning reading and writing.

• Since the publication of the 4th edition of this book, much has been written about how to best support children’s language and literacy development. Of course, we have revised the ideas presented in this book, so that the information shared is reflective of what is known about language and literacy development today. Many references were eliminated because they provided outdated information, and many new references were added. More than 30 percent of the references have been changed in this new edition.

• We provide descriptions of the increasing role of technology in language and litera-cy teaching and learning. Students learn about the digital approaches and resources that support language and literacy experiences and development.

• We also are grateful to the veteran teachers who describe how they provide their students with effective language arts instruction. This has been a feature of each of our previous editions. This edition includes several illustrations of how the teaching strategies we describe can be applied to specific situations and how real teachers deal with practical problems that arise in the course of daily life in the classroom.

• We have added a number of new pedagogical features, including:

• Chapter Goals that outline the learning objectives for each chapter which are as-sessed through multiple choice assessments and application exercises;

• Pause and Think About …that encourages students to reflect on the chapter con-tent;

• Link to Practice that enables students to apply key concepts in classrooms where they are doing observations and internships.

Enhanced Pearson eTextThe Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content with the following multimedia features:

• Video Examples illustrate a teacher using one of the many instructional strategies described in the text. Seeing the strategy in action in a classroom with children helps to bring the print to life.

• Application Exercises challenge learners to use chapter content to reflect on teach-ing and learning in real classrooms. The questions in these exercises are usually constructed-response. Once learners provide their own answers to the questions, they receive feedback in the form of model answers written by experts.

• Self-Checks help assess how well learners have mastered the content. The self-checks are made up of self-grading multiple-choice items that provide instant feed-back on whether questions are answered correctly or incorrectly.

ThemesChildren are at the center of all good language and literacy teaching. This principle underlies the four themes that run throughout this book: blending natural and explicit instruction into a high-quality program, respect for diversity, instructionally linked as-sessment, and family involvement.

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x Preface

Our first theme acknowledges the two very different views on how to teach lan-guage and literacy to young children, the natural approach and the explicit instruc-tion approach. We believe that both approaches to early literacy instruction have their advantages. The natural approach provides opportunities for children to learn about literacy on their own and with help from the teacher and peers. Learning can occur at the appropriate pace for each child and build on what he or she already knows. This approach provides children with rich opportunities to acquire oral lan-guage and to move through the developmental progressions in emergent reading and writing. The downside to this approach is that not all children are ready or able to take full advantage of these learning opportunities. These children have a ten-dency to “fall through the cracks” in programs that emphasize the natural approach only and make very little progress. Such children need to be explicitly taught vo-cabulary, phonological awareness, alphabet, and concepts of print before they can fully profit from the learning experiences in an emergent literacy program. The book describes how children acquire language and literacy knowledge in many different contexts, how teachers can design authentic classroom opportunities for using oral and written language, and how teachers can design developmentally appropriate ways to explicitly teach the core skills that have been found to be predictive of later reading achievement.

Our second theme is respect for diversity. Children’s personal experiences, both at home and at school, are important factors in learning. In our diverse society, children come to school with vastly different backgrounds, both in terms of life experiences and language. This diversity needs to be taken into account when designing instruc-tional activities for children and in evaluating children’s responses to these activities. Illustrations of how teachers can work effectively with diverse learners can be found throughout this book. This new edition includes special features in several chapters that explain how to adapt instruction for English language learners and children with special needs. Every child comes to school with a wealth of information about how written and spoken language works in the real world. Teachers must discover what each student already knows to build on that student’s knowledge through appropri-ate classroom activities.

Because we recognize that assessment cannot be separated from good teaching, instructionally linked assessment is our third major theme. We introduce the princi-ples of assessment guided instruction in Chapter 1. Chapter 9 focuses on assessment and describes strategies that teachers can use to understand children’s language and literacy knowledge in the context of specific learning and teaching events. Chapter 9 also describes how standardized tests can be used to document how well schools, and now individual teachers, are doing their jobs. This “accountability” function of assess-ment is becoming increasingly important in the current political climate, so it is crucial that teachers understand how to interpret the results of these standardized assessment instruments. So, assessment-guided instruction is our third theme. Find out what chil-dren know and can do—and plan instruction based on each child’s needs.

The fourth theme running through this edition is the importance of the family in young children’s language and literacy development. The family and the home environment shape children’s early language and literacy experiences—the sounds and words they hear, the storybooks read to them, the experiences they have with written language. Connecting home and school is critically important. In several chapters, we include descriptions of how early childhood teachers can connect with families and engage caregivers in their children’s school or center. The aims are two-fold—to provide effective communication strategies to share information with and receive information from caregivers about the children, and to provide suggestions for what families might do to support and celebrate language and literacy learning in the home.

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AcknowledgmentsMany outstanding educators helped us write this book. In a series of new special features, Luisa Araújo and Myae Han describe how teachers can help English lan-guage learners become bilingual and biliterate. Laura Justice and Karen Burstein have written special features on meeting the needs of children with special needs. Karen Burstein also provides her insights into assessing young children. Thanks to Michelle Rhodes and Marilyn LaCount for sharing their parent and child activities which en-courages language and early literacy. Sohyun Meacham provides readers with best practice recommendations for appropriate assessment of young children whose home language is not English, and Colleen Quinn shares information on a specific assess-ment strategy used in many early childhood programs. Like us, they sat before their computers for many days. Thanks, colleagues!

Several classroom teachers and professors shared their secrets, showing how the-ory and research link with quality classroom practice. We are grateful to Lisa Lemos, Cathy Coppol, Patty Gleason, Dawn Foley, Tiffany Bodemann, Marcia Euriech, and Diane Corley. From these teachers and others like them, we have seen how exciting language and literacy learning can be when teachers and children are engaged in pur-poseful language arts activities. From them and their students, we have learned much.

Several of our colleagues played a role in the construction of this book through their willingness to engage us in many conversations about children’s language and literacy learning. Never unwilling to hear our ideas and to share their own, colleagues like Susan B. Neuman, New York University; Jay Blanchard, Cory Hansen, and Nancy Perry at Arizona State University; and, Roberta Golinkoff, Chrystalla Mouza, Kim Wagner, and Sharon Walpole, University of Delaware, have greatly helped us frame our arguments. We would also like to thank the reviewers of this edition, Barbara G. McWethy, Mercer University and Mary Barbara Trube, Ohio University- Chillicothe, who provided valuable feedback. The students we have nurtured and taught, both young children and college students, also have influenced the development of our ideas. Their questions, their talk, their play, their responses, their enthusiasm—each one of them has taught us about the importance of the language arts in our lives. Their positive response to our ideas fueled our eagerness to share those ideas more broadly.

Finally, our families have helped us write this book. Our grandchildren and grand-nieces and grandnephews are providing wonderful examples of their use and enjoy-ment of oral and written language. The stories of their journeys to being competent language users bring life to the research and theory discussed in our book. Don (Skip) Enz, Ron Vukelich, and Philip Roskos gave us time to write but also pulled us from our computers to experience antique shows, museums, trips, home repairs, life. And then, of course, there is our extended family—our parents, David and Dorothy Palm, Art and Emma Larson, Bill and Jeannine Fullerton, William and Arlene Schenk,—who provided our early reading, writing, speaking, and listening experiences and helped us know firsthand the joys of learning and teaching the language arts.

—C.V., B.E., K.A.R.

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