May/August 2002 | NW REPORT

Paths to Literacy: From Story Hour to Student Publishing

In education, no skill is as fundamental as reading. Children who read well in the early grades enjoy more success in their later years of schooling than those who struggle to make sense of the printed page. Those who don't become proficient readers are more likely than their classmates to drop out before completing high school.

The No Child Left Behind Act leaves no doubt about the importance of effective reading instruction, setting a national goal for every child to become a proficient reader by the third grade. With 70 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families currently unable to read at even a basic level, teachers face a daunting challenge.

Two new books from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory help educators equip young learners with the skills of literacy. Many Paths to Literacy: Language, Literature, and Learning in the Primary Classroom is written by Rebecca Novick, leader of the Laboratory's Literacy and Language Development Team and an author who's written extensively on early literacy. Learners, Language, and Technology: Making Connections That Support Literacy , by Judy Van Scoter and Suzie Boss, examines the timely topic of using computers and other technologies to support literacy development.

Many Paths

"Teachers are well aware that success or failure in learning to read does not begin in kindergarten," says Novick. Children come to school with "widely differing literacy histories and experiences." The comprehensive program she advocates in Many Paths to Literacy adds to those rich and varied experiences, helping children build bridges from home to school, from oral language to written language, from letter decoding to reading comprehension.

Although her insights are grounded in scientifically based research, Novick also draws on the insights, strategies, and classroom examples of effective teachers. The result is a practical, accessible resource for preschool and elementary teachers and others who care about how children become competent at integrating the activities of speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Novick opens with a developmental look at literacy. "Long before children are able to match print with sound," she explains, "they are using language to persuade, reason, reflect, imagine, respond, analyze, observe, compare, infer, empathize, share experiences and ideas, solve problems, and for the sheer joy of playing with words."

Children learn to use language in a social context—using words to communicate with parents and other caregivers. Their home language environments differ widely, however, with some children experiencing what Novick calls "a language-impoverished environment." The typical middle-class child enters first grade with 1,000 or more hours spent reading with an adult—compared with only 25 hours for a child from a low-income family, she reports.

Drawing on research about "well-read-to" children, Novick explains the importance of engaging young learners in positive experiences with reading. "Reading and being read to at school and at home are the best ways for children to catch up with their peers in vocabulary, concept development, and content knowledge," she concludes.

Many Paths to Literacy provides guidance on selecting children's books and specific strategies to build comprehension along the developmental path from emergent literacy to independent reading. Vignettes from real classrooms—many serving children from culturally diverse families—show how teachers put these strategies to use.

Although increasing children's literacy skills is a serious national issue, the effective primary classroom remains a place where child's play is welcome and appropriate. Silly songs and nursery rhymes, word games and riddles, make-believe and dress-up are all part of the "work" of learning about language. These activities are far from frivolous, Novick points out. "Rather, they help children develop phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate the separate sounds in words), which plays a key role in phonics knowledge (understanding that letters stand for the sounds in spoken words)."

Similarly, Novick makes a strong case for attending to children's emotional and aesthetic literacy, or what she calls "learning to read the heart." Reading offers a powerful way to connect children's emotions and background experiences with text, thereby engaging young readers and integrating higher-level comprehension skills.

Learners, Language, and Technology Cover

Connecting With Technology

Learners, Language, and Technology reinforces what good teachers already know: Young children seize on a variety of tools to explore their world. "Technology offers new tools," explain the authors, providing children with "new experiences and additional ways of learning and understanding."

The book guides teachers to understand the role technology can play in early literacy by supporting social learning, encouraging play, adding to print-rich environments, and furthering language development. Classroom strategies offer developmentally appropriate ways to incorporate computers, digital cameras, tape recorders, portable keyboards, and a wide range of other tools to enhance learning.

Technology holds special promise to serve students with specific learning needs. The authors explore strategies for meeting the needs of English language learners, struggling readers, and the many students who stand to benefit from a wider variety of assessment tools.

Van Scoter, a former elementary teacher and now an associate with the Laboratory's Technology in Education Center, stresses that the teacher—not the technology—must set the instructional agenda. "Many of the best examples of integrating these new tools into learning projects come from creative teachers who understand children," she says, "not from 'computer teachers.'"

The book includes guidelines for several classroom uses: working with words, student publishing, working with images, using audio/video recorders, and making connections.

Finally, several stories from the often messy, real world of the classroom offer examples of "putting it all together."

To order Many Paths to Literacy: Language, Literature, and Learning in the Primary Classroom and Learners, Language, and Technology: Making Connections That Support Literacy, see the Document Order Form or the NWREL Products Catalog Online, www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/.

| Next Article | Front Page | NW Report Index |