Early Literacy

Early literacy skills, which are the processors of literacy skills, set down
roots during the early childhood period. In general, the developed countries apply home-based and school-based programs for the purpose of raising the next generations as competent literate individuals in the preschool period. Many studies have been performed all around the world in order to monitor the developments of early literacy skills and to examine the effect of different programs carried out. It is observed that in Turkish National Preschool Education Programs (PEP), the importance given to the emergent literacy skills and acquisitions of Turkish Language activities has been gradually on the increase. While the number of studies conducted within this field is likewise increasing, to our knowledge, no studies concerning thematic analyses carried
out regarding early literacy skills were encountered in national context.
Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the research trends in the field of early literacy in the last decade in Turkey. In this study, a thematic review approach was used to examine the articles and the theses published between the years of 2006 and 2016 regarding early childhood education programs. The study sample consisted of 99 theses and 112 articles. A publication classification form was used to examine the studies. The publication classification form consists of three dimensions: descriptive characteristics, methodological features, and content features. Whitehurst and Lonigan’s (1998) conceptual model was used to examine the content of the articles and theses.
The findings showed that the number of early literacy studies has increased in the last decade. Those skills identified as “inside-out” have been studied more in recent years, however there are fewer studies in general. The findings are discussed in the related literature and recommendations were addressed for further studies.
Keywords: early literacy skills, thematic review, early childhood education
programs

Across the nation, librarians work with caregivers and children to encourage engagement in their early literacy programs. However, these early literacy programs that libraries provide have been left mostly undocumented by research, especially through quantitative methods. Valuable Initiatives in Early Learning that Work Successfully (VIEWS2) was designed to test new ways to measure the effectiveness of these early literacy programs for young children (birth to kindergarten), leveraging a mixed methods, quasi-experimental design. Using two innovative tools, researchers collected data at 120 public library storytimes in the first year of research, observing approximately 1,440 children ranging from birth to 60 months of age. Analysis of year-one data showed a correlation between the early literacy content of the storytime program and children's outcomes in terms of early literacy behaviors. These findings demonstrate that young children who attend public library storytimes are responding to the early literacy content in the storytime programs.

This article features a discussion with Dr. William H. Teale about how young children become literate. Drawing on decades of research, he describes how preschool classrooms, practices, and policies can expand the literacy repertoires and nurture the literacy lives of young children.

Early literacy skills are crucial in a child’s learning process and awareness should be raised
in order to ensure the quality of early literacy assessments. In this paper, the writers discuss
the quality of early literacy assessment in Malaysia, LINUS 2.0 by looking at its validity and
reliability. An established early literacy program is compared with LINUS 2.0 in order to opt
for the strengths to be implied into LINUS 2.0. By using all these information, a suggestion
of improving LINUS 2.0 is given, which is by integrating the program assessment with the
Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for assessing English language literacy.
It was concluded that more studies and research should be done on early literacy
assessment in Malaysia so that more suggestions and ideas could be gathered in order to
refine the quality of early literacy skills assessment.
Keywords: Early Literacy, Early Literacy Skills, Early Literacy Assessments,

Il passaggio dalla scuola dell’infanzia a quella primaria è un momento che assume valenza centrale per il bambino. Comporta numerosi cambiamenti e richiede altrettante capacità che, pur non essendo «prerequisiti» scolastici in senso stretto, sono tuttavia necessarie per compiere senza difficoltà e con successo il percorso scolastico.
La batteria SR 4-5 fornisce uno strumento accurato e di facile utilizzo per valutare queste abilità di base, in modo da individuare precocemente eventuali fragilità e agire in un’ottica preventiva. Si compone di due test (uno per i bambini di 4 e uno per i bambini di 5 anni) che indagano l’acquisizione delle abilità fonologiche, linguistiche, logico-matematiche e di simbolizzazione e lo sviluppo psicomotorio. Include inoltre la Scheda insegnanti per l’osservazione della prontezza scolastica.
La batteria è rivolta a insegnanti di scuola dell’infanzia e primaria, per facilitarli nella comprensione dello sviluppo dei bambini e nella predisposizione di adeguati percorsi didattici personalizzati di potenziamento e supporto, e a psicologi e professionisti della salute per la ricerca e la riabilitazione.

This article is a narrative of our session at the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) Conference in Calgary on August 3, 2016, where we provided background on the research behind Supercharged Storytimes and then presented tips, tricks, and effective practices to help library staff to be intentional and interactive in the planning and delivery of early literacy storytimes. We also emphasized the importance of building a practitioner community to encourage professional growth through peer feedback and self-reflection of storytime programs. Storytime practitioners, both brand new and those with years of experience, will discover how to supercharge their storytimes and make an impact on the children in their communities.

Afterword by Nell K. Duke:  One of the most difficult challenges you face as a teacher is to teach against the grain: to teach in a way that departs from how you were taught, how your mentor taught, how your friends and colleagues teach. And perhaps few instructional practices are as engrained as teaching a letter a week. But you know now that in this case, teaching against the grain is the right thing to do. Teaching a letter of the week for twenty-six weeks is neither the most effective, nor the most efficient, nor the most compelling way to teach the alphabet to young children. You can do better—much better—and we hope that you can persuade your friends, colleagues, even your mentors to do better too.
I completely understand the insecurities that can come with moving away from a letter-a-week approach. I so appreciate the power of Bill Teale’s review of research to convince us that this is the right thing to do. I so appreciate the confidence-building tools and techniques that Becky McKay shares. I love that Becky provides a tool to help us track which letters and sounds children have learned and which merit further attention. I love that Becky offers many ideas for structuring the curriculum such that it is more meaningful to students than a week on X and actually provides more opportunities for effective alphabet instruction.
As you well know, some children don’t rely on us to develop their alphabet knowledge. Some come to us with deep knowledge of letters and sounds, perhaps even decoding words already. But as you also well know, some children depend almost entirely on us to learn the alphabet. Those children need and deserve for us to teach them letters and sounds, to develop their phonological awareness and print concepts, in the most powerful way we can find. If we’re not confident that we’ve provided this essential foundation in letter–sound knowledge, phonological awareness, and print concepts, we risk setting a negative momentum for children’s literacy: they may enter first grade lacking skills to make sense of new words; they may become reluctant readers who choose to avoid the difficulty of reading new texts; without strong reading lives, they may not gather the background knowledge and habits that will allow them future academic success. That’s what can happen if we don’t employ alternatives to letter-of-the-week.
Mark Twain once said, “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” As you move away from a letter a week, know that Becky, Bill, Ellin, and I will be gratified. And know that your colleagues may well be astonished—astonished at the depth with which you develop students’ alphabet knowledge. Moving away from letter of the week is the right direction for you to go. From here on out, for you ABCs mean A Better Course.

Modul ini merupakan dapatan kajian "Pembinaan Sebuah Modul untuk Pecutan Penguasaan Asas Literasi bagi Kanak-kanak berumur 2+, 3+, dan 4+ Tahun" yang mendapat dana daripada Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (KPT) melalui Skim Geran Penyelidikan Fundamental (FRGS), Kod Penyelidikan: 2013-0062-107-02. Hak Cipta Terpelihara 2018 © LY2018001965 Tidak dibenarkan mengeluar ulang mana-mana bahagian buku ini sama ada dalam bentuk tulisan atau ilustrasi secara elektronik, fotokopi, mekanik dan lain-lain sebelum mendapat kebenaran daripada penulis.