EDLA203 Melissa Gallo

Sara Sirianni S00122173

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Assessment Task 3: Critical Reflective Essay

Three essential ingredients for effective literacy teaching and learning for children
in the early years.

The three essential ingredients I chose to investigate and explore for effective
literacy teaching and learning for children in the early years are oral language,
teaching strategies focusing on guided reading, and storytelling. Oral language is
an important skill to develop, as it is the prime means of communication in
society. Teaching strategies such as guided reading help children to use and
choose appropriate reading strategies. Storytelling is an excellent way for
children to use their creativity and enhances their oral language skills. I believe
these ingredients are fundamental aspects for effective literacy teaching and the
development of students.

Oral language is the foundation for student learning and not only essential for
literacy learning, but for every aspect of schooling and life beyond the classroom.
Three areas that can be developed or extended to promote effective classroom
communication and participation include: developing communication skills
awareness of context, purpose and audience; speaking and listening courtesies
appropriate behaviour for different situations, negotiating classroom rules; and
problem solving in the classroom formal and informal talk, spoken to written
language (Allen, 2000). Children learn to communicate effectively by
experiencing situations in which they both use and hear others use language for
a variety of purposes. In the classroom children need practice in interacting with
peers, teachers and adults. The more opportunities children have to
communicate with a variety of language models, the more flexible and
sophisticated their language will become. The four key components of language
are: phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. Communication requires a
capability to integrate all four components simultaneously. Early childhood
teachers should integrate these to support childrens language growth and when
monitoring their language development (Fellowes, Oakley, 2010). Language
plays a vital role in the personal and social development of children. It enables
EDLA203 Melissa Gallo
Sara Sirianni S00122173

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them to gain an understanding of themselves and others, and strengthen social
relationships. Speaking can occur in many different forms ranging from informal
to formal. It is important for children to know the types of speaking behaviours
appropriate in the classroom; for example the style of language acceptable for a
class discussion differs from the style used with peers in the playground. The
language children use will vary according to the age of the audience, familiarity
with that audience and purpose for speaking. Talk enables the social
construction of meaning as students are impelled to use, explain, discuss, and ask
questions about the topics they are studying in all areas of the curriculum
(Smith, 2001). Talking is an essential way of exploring ideas, researching
problems, negotiating relationships, understandings, and agreements, and
reaching decisions among people. It is important for students to get regular
experience in using talk in small group situations so they develop the ability to
discuss issues that are important to them with confidence and sensitivity.
Through experience in talking with others, students may learn to share ideas,
develop new insights, dispel misunderstandings, and discover ways of building
relationships with others. Through the development of their critical and creative
oral language capacities students prepare to participate actively in society.
Teachers should stress the uses of spoken language as a tool for inquiry and
discussion as students seek to understand the world in which they live and take
an active role in it (Smith, 2001, pg. 8). A major challenge for teachers is to help
children bridge the gap between spoken and written language. As children come
to school from different backgrounds and their speech reflects their native
language, teachers need to ensure that children are able to choose from
alternative forms when writing.

There are several key teaching and learning strategies that can be applied to help
children learn to read texts. Some include reading aloud to children, language
experience approach, shared reading, and guided reading to name a few. In some
of these strategies, most of the reading responsibility lies with the teacher as
she/he models and demonstrates to the children how to read. As students
become more confident over time, the teacher gradually releases responsibility
through guided reading and then encouraging independent reading. I will be
EDLA203 Melissa Gallo
Sara Sirianni S00122173

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focusing on the guided reading strategy, which is an important part of the early
years classroom. It involves providing scaffold and support to a small group of
students with similar needs as they read a common text. Children are grouped
according to specific reading needs and given texts at an instructional level.
Guided reading enables children to practice using reading strategies and the
teacher helps them apply this knowledge to new reading contexts (Fellowes et
al, 2010). Prompts teachers can ask during guided reading include, what is
happening in the story? Does that make sense? Does that sound right? These
encourage children to think about the text and provide responses about their
thoughts and what connections they made with it. Early readers need to learn to
become increasingly phonemically aware. They need to learn how the alphabetic
system codes the language and how letters represent the sounds in words. After
reading, it is important to have a discussion about the text and its meaning. Then
complete a follow-up activity to explore the text and consolidate their
understanding. It is important that the students are able to engage in the four
roles of the reader in gaining understanding of the text. These include the code-
breaker role, text-participant role, text-user role and text-analysis role (Fellowes
et al, 2010). The teacher can ensure they are taking on these roles by probing
thinking and asking questions about the text. This strategy is helpful for teachers
to monitor the reading progress of all students in the group to assist the student
in future teaching sessions.

Storytelling, which involves the verbal telling of a story, is an effective and
efficient learning tool and a useful means for developing childrens oral language
skills. Storytelling is important in supporting expressive and receptive language
learning that encompasses: listening, attention and observation, ability to
sequence events in a logical order, and increased word knowledge (vocabulary).
Childrens own storytelling is enhanced when they have the opportunity to
observe and listen to the teacher telling stories. They learn about the required
features including familiarity with narrative text structures - stories need a
beginning, middle and end, the use of voice, non-verbal communication methods
such as gestures, body language and facial expressions. They also discover
different techniques that can be used in telling stories to enhance the experience
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Sara Sirianni S00122173

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for example incorporating props (Fellowes et al, 2010, pg. 67-69). When
children listen to stories, the mechanical difficulties of reading and writing are
put aside and the storytellers pace, intonation, gestures and expression support
their imagination (Winer, 2008). Awareness of elements such as setting,
character, theme and plot can be developed through hearing stories often.
Storytelling is a fun and effective way to learn concepts, vocabulary, language
and to acquire comprehension skills (Trostle Brand, Donato, 2001). It is more
dramatic, colourful, active than story reading, children are more likely to tune
into a story well told than a story well read, especially for children who have a
short attention span and for those with limited vision and/or auditory skills.
Children have more avenues for comprehension available to them - auditory,
tactile and visual experiences, which characterize storytelling, all enable the
child to comprehend meaning using a multisensory approach (Trostle Brand et
al, 2001). Oral language is the foundation skills that children bring with them to
school. Therefore, it is important to make daily opportunities for children to
create and tell stories orally. There appears to be a close relationship between
childrens oral language skills and their ability to use written language effectively
(Dawkins, ONeill, 2011). Proficiency in oral language performance and the
development of and experience with, literate oral language will support the
transition from spoken to written text by reducing the cognitive demand of
creating written text (Dawkins et al, 2011). Children require frequent
experiences in listening to and telling stories (Winer, 2008), this enables them to
discover the enormous facilitating power of language and prepare them for
learning to read and write. An important strategy is the shared book experience
where teachers read Big Books and other enlarged texts to children, and point to
the print as it is read. While introducing and reading the text, childrens attention
should be drawn to basic concepts of print such as the distinction between
pictures and print; left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence; book concepts (cover,
title, page), and simple punctuation. It is essential that teachers read aloud to
their class once or twice a day, exposing children to numerous enjoyable stories,
poems, and information books. Furthermore, teachers should provide supportive
conversations and activities before, during, and after reading. Repeated reading
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Sara Sirianni S00122173

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of favourite books builds familiarity, increasing the likelihood that children will
attempt to read those books on their own (Roskos, Christie, Richgels, 2003).

The three essential ingredients I identified and analyzed in depth in this essay,
oral language, teaching strategies concentrating on guided reading, and
storytelling, all link together and contribute to effective literacy teaching and
learning for children in the early years. These three critical content categories in
early literacy provide a foundation for children to develop in further years.
Young children need writing to help them learn about reading, they need
reading to help them learn about writing; and they need oral language to help
them learn about both (Roskos et al, 2003).

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References:

Allen, L. (2000). Oral Language: Resource Book. Rigby Heinemann.

Dawkins, S., & O'Neill, M. (2011). Teaching literary language in a storytelling
intervention. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 34(3), 294-307
http://ezproxy.acu.edu.au/login?url=http://search.informit.com.au/docu
mentSummary;dn=188515;res=AEIPT
Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2010). Language, Literacy and Early Childhood
Education. Oxford University Press.

Roskos, A. K., Christie, F. J., & Richgels, J. D. (2003). The Essentials of Early
Literacy Instruction. (pg. 1-8). Retrieved from:
http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200303/Essentials.pdf

Smith G., Patricia. (2001). Talking Classrooms: Shaping Childrens Learning
Through Oral Language Instruction. International Reading Association.

Trostle Brand, S., & Donato, J. (2001). Emergent literacy: An evolving process. In
M. McHugh-Pratt (Ed.), Storytelling in emergent literacy: fostering multiple
intelligences (pp. 1-12). Albany, NY: Delmar.
http://ezproxy.acu.edu.au/login?url=http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/ereserve
/copyright/documents/TrostleBrand13899.pdf
Winer, Y. (2008). Stories for telling. Castle Hill: Pademelon Press. (pp. 1-10).
Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.acu.edu.au/login?url=http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/ereserve
/copyright/documents/Winer13897.pdf