In this review of the emergent literacy literature, we identified areas of emerging evidence that have instructional implications for teaching beginning reading to students with diverse literacy experiences and learning needs. These areas represent conso lidation of current research and discourse on the aspects of emergent literacy knowledge that affect reading acquisition and the contexts that facilitate literacy knowledge.
The identified critical areas of emergent literacy knowledge are neither new nor revolutionary. Rather, they reflect consistent findings related to effective classroom practices and confirm the validity of literacy activities that have been practiced for years. Furthermore, the areas of literacy knowledge that affect reading acquisition complement and overlap.
In the following section, we highlight emerging evidence on those literacy practices that impact reading acquisition and development. In addition, we draw instructional implications for students with diverse literacy backgrounds and introduce major ideas that reflect the collective foci and content of the emerging evidence. Our goal is to point out how literacy practices can be aligned with a set of curriculum design principles to develop a better match between individual literacy experiences and the de sign of beginning reading instruction. We attempt to connect research and practice by responding to two focal questions: (a) What are the research-based "big ideas," or instructional priorities, for emergent literacy? and, (b) For those instructional priorities, what is the existing research evidence regarding curriculum design?
Ideally, teachers observe and evaluate what primary-age children know about reading and writing in order to plan instruction and monitor learning throughout the year. This is particularly important with beginning reading, where classroom expectations and experiences should match appropriately individual levels of literacy experiences.
In addition to the degree and type of interaction students experience during storybook reading, it is necessary for teachers to consider family characteristics. Variance in family background as well as in literacy experiences indicates a need to consider differences between family environments and ethnic groups when planning reading instruction.
In the following section, we discuss these areas of emerging evidence in relation to a framework of curriculum design principles. We derived two big ideas from the areas of emerging evidence and now use the principles of conspicuous strategies, mediated scaffolding, strategic integration, primed background knowledge, and judicious review to render those ideas more explicit and employable. The procedural design principles in combination with the big ideas illustrate how to translate research into practic e. The following section should not be viewed as a prescription, but rather as an application of principles that can be used to make tangible these aspects of instruction that are important for students who lack literacy experiences.
Conspicuous Strategies
As an instructional priority, conspicuous strategies are a sequence of teaching events and teacher actions used to help students learn new literacy information and relate it to their existing knowledge. Because emergent literacy focuses on the developmen t of general, diffused literacy knowledge rather than specific components of instruction, our review found limited applications for this design principle. However, conspicuous strategies can be incorporated in beginning reading instruction to ensure that all learners have basic literacy concepts. For example, during storybook reading teachers can show students how to recognize the fronts and backs of books, locate titles, or look at pictures and predict the story, rather than assume children will learn this through incidental exposure. Similarly, teachers can teach students a strategy for holding a pencil appropriately or checking the form of their letters against an alphabet sheet on their desks or the classroom wall.
In addition to teaching the physical aspects of literacy, conspicuous strategies can be used to help children understand the symbolic aspects of literacy. Roberts (1992) suggested that children's concept of a word proceeds along a developmental continuum from awareness of words in spoken language to awareness of words in written language. Although children eventually learn the abstract characteristics of a word through experiences with print, teachers can use a conspicuous strategy to focus the child's attention on the definitional attributes of words. By making explicit the connection between speech and print and discussing the featural and relational characteristics of words, teachers can help children acquire the abstract concept of word and accommo date their schemata to new information (Roberts, 1992).
Mediated Scaffolding
Children who have had limited exposure to print often lack the language experience, background knowledge, and awareness of print-speech relations that many children from the broader school population already possess upon entering school. Moreover, it can not be assumed that these children will acquire this conceptual knowledge incidentally. Through the use of mediated scaffolding, teachers can provide guidance and support to help students (based on individual needs and current levels of ability) acquire the literacy concepts that will support initial reading acquisition and help reduce the likelihood of future academic failure.
Mediated scaffolding can be accomplished in a number of ways to meet the needs of students with diverse literacy experiences. To link oral and written language, for example, teachers may use texts that simulate speech by incorporating oral language patte rns or children's writing. Or teachers can use daily storybook reading to discuss book-handling skills and directionality-concepts that are particularly important for children who are unfamiliar with printed texts. Teachers can also use repeated reading s to give students multiple exposures to unfamiliar words or extended opportunities to look at books with predictable patterns, as well as provide support by modeling the behaviors associated with reading. Teachers can act as scaffolds during these story book reading activities by adjusting their demands (e.g., asking increasingly complex questions or encouraging children to take on portions of the reading) or by reading more complex text as students gain knowledge of beginning literacy components.
Mediated scaffolding can also be used to address the social contexts and conditions that influence individual literacy knowledge by making the work and social contexts of the classroom compatible with those of the home and community. This can be done by organizing environments that match children's cultural experiences (e.g., parental attitudes towards literacy) with their instructional experiences, and by helping children see the connection between their literacy values and the act of reading.
The literature on classroom literacy environments supports the instructional value of mediated scaffolding, in keeping with Vygotsky's theory (cited in Morrow, 1990) that children learn higher psychological processes with adult guidance within a child's " zone of proximal development." Indeed, Morrow (1990) found that classrooms in which teachers provided guidance to students produced more literacy behaviors than classes where no guidance was given. In the adult-guided classrooms, teachers provided scaffo lding by introducing literacy materials in the play centers and discussing with children how to use the materials (e.g., reading to dolls, writing notes to friends, making shopping lists, and taking telephone messages). The students in those classrooms, in turn, used more printed materials with attention to their printed aspects and produced more printed materials than students in classrooms with no specific teacher guidance.
Strategic Integration
Many children with diverse literacy experiences have difficulty making connections between old and new information. Strategic integration can be applied to help link old and new learning. For example, in the classroom, strategic integration can be accom plished by providing access to literacy materials in classroom writing centers and libraries. Teachers can also develop thematic play centers -- such as a grocery store or doctor's office -- where primary-age students can act out reading and writing beha viors. Students should also have opportunities to integrate and extend their literacy knowledge by reading aloud, listening to other students read aloud, and listening to tape recordings and videotapes in reading corners.
Instruction that integrates students' existing literacy knowledge with new learning can also help children become efficient at constructing meaning from text. However, as Stahl and Miller (1989) noted, instructional approaches that emphasize the construc tion of meaning alone may not be the most efficient means of helping children comprehend text. These authors observed that children need to develop word recognition abilities in order to read with understanding. Stahl and Miller (1989) suggested integra ting effective components of beginning reading programs regardless of philosophy -- an approach they observed in first-grade classrooms where teachers implemented reading programs that integrated direct instruction of phonics with children's literature an d individual opportunities to write.
Morrow, O'Connor, and Smith (1990) offered further support for the importance of integrating effective components of reading programs. They found that a storyreading program in an urban district with at-risk kindergarten children appeared to improve free and probed recall comprehension, attempted readings of favorite stories, children's concepts about books and print, and children's awareness of learning to read. However, in terms of developing auditory and visual discrimination or letter identification it did not appear to be superior to a readiness program. The authors concluded that a blend of approaches, that is, a strong storybook reading program coupled with instruction in letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence may be a reasonable ins tructional strategy, particularly for children with meager literacy experiences.
Primed Background Knowledge
All children bring some level of background knowledge (e.g., how to hold a book, awareness of directionality of print) to beginning reading. Early literacy contexts of home and community provide opportunities for children to learn about print through enc ounters in meaningful, real-life social interactions (van Kleeck, 1990). Background knowledge is important because it gives students a conceptual foundation for further learning. For example, Ehri and Sweet (1991) found that children's success with fing erpoint reading was influenced by what they already knew about print (e.g., letter names, phonemic segmentation).
Teachers can utilize children's background knowledge to help children link their personal literacy experiences to beginning reading instruction, while also closing the gap between students with rich and students with impoverished literacy experiences. Ac tivities that draw upon background knowledge include incorporating oral language activities (which discriminate between printed letters and words) into daily read-alouds, as well as frequent opportunities to retell stories, look at books with predictable patterns, write messages with invented spellings, and respond to literature through drawing (Hiebert & Papierez, 1990).
Judicious Review
Design principles serve as a framework for organizing effective, efficient instruction. However, even high-quality instruction falls short of its ultimate goal if not accompanied by opportunities for students to apply what they have learned. Judicious r eview suggests that proficiency occurs through frequent, diverse, purposeful, and meaningful practice. For the general knowledge forms encompassed by emergent literacy, this means that students should be offered repeated opportunities to engage in beginn ing literacy activities, and practice what they have learned. Review activities need not be highly controlled rehearsal sessions. Appropriate activities could include alphabet games, repetitive rhyming activities, re-reading of favorite stories, and reg ular opportunities to engage in literacy talk with teacher and peers.
The typical variation in literacy backgrounds that children bring to reading can make teaching more difficult. Often a teacher has to choose between focusing on the learning needs of a few students at the expense of the group, or focusing on the group at the risk of leaving some students behind academically. This situation is particularly critical for children with gaps in their literacy knowledge who may be at risk in subsequent grades for becoming "diverse learners."
The primary purpose of this section then was to discuss how literacy practices can be aligned with a set of curriculum design principles to develop a better match between individual literacy experiences and the design of beginning reading instruction. Em ergent literacy knowledge provides a necessary and important (but not sufficient) foundation on which to build. A secondary purpose was to reconcile the emerging evidence on emergent literacy with the demands and limitations of beginning reading for the purpose of suggesting feasible, effective and efficient instruction that ensures that all students will obtain the necessary literacy background to support successful reading acquisition.
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Morrow, L. M. (1990). Preparing the classroom environment to promote literacy during play. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 5, 537-554.
Morrow, L. M., O'Connor, E. M., & Smith, J. K. (1990). Effects of a story reading program on the literacy development of at-risk kindergarten children. Journal of Reading Behavior, 22(3), 255-275.
Roberts, B. (1992). The evolution of the young child's concept of word as a unit of spoken and written language. Reading Research Quarterly, 27(2), 125-138.
Stahl, S. A., & Miller, P. D. (1989). Whole language and language experience approaches for beginning reading: A quantitative research synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 59(1), 87-116.
van Kleeck, A. (1990). Emergent literacy: Learning about print before learning to read. Topics in Language Disorders, 10(2), 25-45.