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HEAD START®

Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence to Learning

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community

Introduction

Overview

Purpose
This technical guide is designed to enhance the skills of education staff in collaborating with families to support children's development of language skills.

Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence and Learning describes emerging literacy for children from birth through the preschool years. The emerging literacy philosophy does not refer to children's readiness to learn different language skills. Instead, literacy development is seen as a continuous process which begins in infancy with exposure to oral language, written language, books, and stories. It is a process that has its roots in the home, with branches extending to other environments. ¹

Head Start is among the most important of these branches. Whether children and families are enrolled in center, home-based, family child care (FCC home), or combination programs, Head Start staff are in an ideal position to build on the language learning that takes place in each child's home. This guide helps staff create literacy-rich environments in center, group socialization, and FCC home settings and gives families the information, support, and materials they need to encourage their children's emerging literacy. Participants learn how to engage children in meaningful conversations, help children express their own ideas and feelings, promote a love of reading, encourage children by listening to what they are trying to say rather than correcting the way they say it, and set the stage for children to make their own literacy discoveries.

Outcomes

After completing this guide, participants will be able to:

Support children's acquisition of emerging literacy skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - in the context of home, family, and the program

Converse with children in ways that encourage them to talk with other people

Encourage children to develop a love of reading that will support their learning in school

Provide culturally relevant language and literacy experiences that offer many opportunities for children to express themselves and build knowledge and understanding

Collaborate with parents and other staff to create literacy-rich environments (in home, center, group socialization, and FCC home settings) that allow children to explore the different ways people use written words (print) to communicate and record thoughts and ideas

Support children's skills in their home languages as they acquire English language skills

Audience

This guide is for education staff in center, home-based, and combination settings, including classroom teams (teachers, assistants, and volunteers) and home visitors. It is also appropriate for FCC providers. Interested family members may want to participate.

Performance Standards

This guide supports the following child development and education concepts, which are based on the Head Start Program Performance Standards:

Parents are the principal influence in their children's lives.
Staff and parents share information about emerging literacy. They plan ways to support language development in home, center, group socialization, and/or FCC home settings.
Staff help children understand and use language in an environment that encourages easy communication among children and between children and adults.
Staff can create an environment in which children gradually work toward recognizing that letters and numbers are symbols that represent concepts and ideas.
Programs recruit staff, volunteers, and consultants who can talk to children in their home languages.
The curriculum is consistent with the Head Start Program Performance Standards, is based on sound child development principles about how children grow and learn, and supports each child's social and emotional development, cognitive and language skills, and physical development.
The child development and education approach for all children is developmentally and linguistically appropriate, responds to each child as an individual, and supports and respects gender, culture, language, ethnicity, and family composition.
Head Start should support family literacy through materials, services, and activities that are provided by the program or through referral to another agency in the community.

Organization

This technical guide, Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence and Learning, is designed to further develop the skills that education staff need to promote children's emerging literacy - their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

By completing the activities in this guide, participants will achieve the following Guide Outcomes:

Provide environments that encourage children to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills - at home and at Head Start
Respond to children's nonverbal and verbal communications and encourage children to express their ideas and feelings to others
Read aloud to and with children every day - one-on-one and in small groups - to introduce children to books and oral and written language, promote thinking skills, and encourage children to love books and learning
Plan and carry out literacy experiences that build on children's interests and activities
Model the many ways adults use oral and written language to accomplish goals, provide information, and communicate with other people
Respect and build on children's home language skills while providing opportunities for them to learn English language skills

Each module includes module outcomes, key concepts, and background information. The Module Outcomes were developed from the Guide Outcomes. Emerging Literacy: Linking Social Competence and Learning contains the following modules:

Module 1: Emerging Literacy: Supporting a Natural Process

This module provides an overview of emerging literacy, the four interrelated language skills, and the skills used to support the language development of all children, including those who are learning a second language and those with disabilities.
Module 2: From Cooing to Talking: Partners in Conversation

This module enhances the staff's ability to listen and respond to children, engage them as equal partners in conversations, and encourage their use of listening and speaking skills during routines, while playing with peers, and during other daily activities.
Module 3: The Magic World of Reading: Opening Doors for Children

This module helps staff improve their skills in choosing books, reading aloud to children, inviting discussions about books, and planning follow-up activities that enhance children's enjoyment and understanding of books.
Module 4: Setting the Stage for Literacy Explorations

This module allows staff to create literacy-rich environments in Head Start settings, recognize and support children's drawing and writing skills, and promote literacy exploration through the environment and activities related to children's experiences and interests.

Each module has specific outcomes for participants to achieve, and each activity is designed to fulfill one or more outcome. For easy reference, the outcomes are listed with the activity.

Each module includes a Key Concepts section that summarizes the main ideas addressed in the workshop and coaching activities. The Background Information section of each module provides a more detailed discussion of the key concepts. Trainers can use this information to review the content covered in the module, present mini-lectures, or distribute as a resource for participants.

Each module closes with Next Steps, suggested activities for building on the skills developed through this guide. Some of the activities can be documented in a participant's professional portfolio, an ongoing collection of items that demonstrate an individual's professional growth and achievement.

Continuing Professional Development, a section that appears after the modules, includes suggested activities participants can undertake to sustain and enhance the skills they develop through this guide.

A Resources section at the end of the guide describes books, journal articles, and audiovisual materials that offer in-depth information about the topics covered in this guide.

The Appendices section of the guide provides participants with detailed information that they may use as they complete the activities in the guide and as a resource on the job.

The following Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community can be used in conjunction with this guide:

Observation and Recording: Tools for Decision Making

Engaging Parents

Setting the Stage: Including Children with Disabilities in Head Start

Individualizing: A Plan for Success

Curriculum: A Blueprint for Action

Definition of Icons

Coaching

coaching
A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback. The activities are written for a coach working closely with one to three participants.

Workshop

workshop
A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers.

Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice

Next Steps: Ideas to extend practice
Activities assigned by the trainer immediately following the completion of the module to help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress toward expected outcomes of the module.

Continuing Professional Development

Continuing Professional Development
Follow-up activities supporting continued staff development in the skills addressed in a particular training guide including:

Opportunities tailored to help the participant continue building on the skills learned in the training; and
Strategies to help the participant identify new skills through opportunities in such areas as higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs.

At a Glance

Module 1: Emerging Literacy: Supporting a Natural Process

(W) Activity 1-1: The Purpose of Language
Time: 120 minutes
Materials: Handout 1: How and Why Children Use Language Skills

Appendix C: Emerging Literacy: From Cooing to Conventional Reading and Writing

(C) Activity 1-2: Emerging Literacy: Step by Step by Step
Time: 120 minutes
Materials: Handout 2: Emerging Literacy - An Ongoing Process

Handout 3: Observation Summary

Appendix C: Emerging Literacy: From Cooing to Conventional Reading and Writing

Chart paper, markers, tape

(W) Activity 1-3: The Comforts of Home
Time: 240 minutes
Materials: Handout 4: Magical Memories

Handout 5: Encouraging Children's Language Development

Chart paper, markers, tape

Appendix A: Responding to Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Children and Families

Appendix B: Strategies for Supporting Children with Speech or Language Delays or Disorders

Chart paper, markers, tape

Module 2: From Cooing to Talking: Partners in Conversation

(W) Activity 2-1: I'm Listening to You
Time: 120 minutes
Materials: Handout 7: Talking, Playing, Teaching, and Learning

Handout 8: Encouraging Children's Communication

Handout 9: Teaching Roles (for trainer only)

Appendix B: Strategies for Supporting Children with Speech or Language Delays or Disorders

Appendix C: Emerging Literacy: From Cooing to Conventional Reading and Writing

Age-appropriate toys (for example, snap-lock beads; small, colored blocks; Legos; and/or beads and laces), index cards, chart paper, markers, tape

Appendix B: Strategies for Supporting Children with Speech or Language Delays or Disorders

Appendix C: Emerging Literacy: From Cooing to Conventional Reading and Writing

Chart paper, markers, tape

(W) Activity 2-3: Teaching Children to Play the Conversation Game
Time: 150 minutes
Materials: Handout 11: Overcoming Challenges to Conversations

Appendix D: Playing the Conversation Game

Index cards, chart paper, markers, tape

(C) Activity 2-4: Won't You Be My Conversation Partner?
Time: 150 minutes
Materials: Handout 12: Practicing the Conversation Game

Appendix D: Playing the Conversation Game

Chart paper, markers, tape

Module 3: The Magic World of Reading: Opening Doors for Children

(W) Activity 3-1: What Makes a Good Book Good?
Time: 120 minutes
Materials: Handout 13: What Makes a Good Book Good?

Appendix E: Books for Young Children

Appendix F: Choosing Books with Diverse Characters and Themes for Young Children

Appendix G: Getting to Know Children's Literature

Chart paper, markers, tape, index cards

Pictures or photographs of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers looking at books

Children's books (one for each participant)

Pamphlets, brochures, book lists, and other materials about the early childhood services offered by the local library (one set for each participant)

Appendix E: Books for Young Children

Appendix F: Choosing Books with Diverse Characters and Themes for Young Children

Pamphlets, brochures, book lists, and other materials about the early childhood services offered by the local library (one set for each participant)

Chart paper, markers, tape

(W) Activity 3-3: Will You Read to Me?
Time: 120 minutes
Materials: Handout 15: Checklist for Reading Aloud to Preschoolers

Appendix H: Reading with Babies and Toddlers

Chart paper, markers, tape

Children's books (one per small group)

(C) Activity 3-4: Would You Like to Hear a Story?
Time: 180 minutes
Materials: Handout 15: Checklist for Reading Aloud to Preschoolers

Handout 16: Portrait of an Emergent Reader

Handout 17: Responding to an Emergent Reader

Handout 18: Open-Ended Questions for Reading Aloud

Appendix H: Reading with Babies and Toddlers

Chart paper, markers, tape

Module 4: Setting the Stage for Literacy Explorations

(W) Activity 4-1: Creating a Literacy-Rich Environment
Time: 150 minutes
Materials: Handout 19: Creating a Literacy Environment

Handout 20: Setting Up a Library Area

Handout 21: Setting up a Writing Area

Handout 22: Encouraging Literacy in All Interest Areas

Handout 23: Using Print in the Environment

Handout 24: Helping Your Child Become a Reader

Chart paper, markers, tape

Art materials

Catalogs

(W) Activity 4-2: We Want to Read and Write
Time: 180 minutes
Materials: Handout 20: Setting Up a Library Area

Handout 21: Setting Up a Writing Area

Handout 22: Encouraging Literacy in All Interest Areas

Handout 23: Using Print in the Environment

Handout 24: Helping Your Child Become a Reader

Chart paper, markers, tape

(W) Activity 4-3: Making Our Mark
Time: 150 minutes
Materials: Handout 25: Literacy Experiences

Appendix I: Learning about Writing

Chart paper, markers, tape

Handout 27: Emerging Literacy Planning Web

Appendix I: Learning about Writing

Chart paper, markers, tape

W = Workshop Activities
C = Coaching Activities

¹ Dorothy S. Strickland and Lesley Mandel Morrow, editors, Emerging Literacy: Young Children Learn to Read and Write (Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1989), vii.

Go back to the Preface

Go to Module 1

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Last Modified: 05/06/2005