I was reminded recently that young children can be so curious about the writing they see all around them. When we were out on the playground today, Edgar, a four year old boy, asked me what a sign said. I responded, “I can’t read it from here. Let’s walk over there and see what it says.” We read it together. The sign said, “Please do not dig in the garden. Sand stays in the sandbox. Thank you.” Since Edgar’s first language is Spanish and he is not fluent in English yet, I showed him where the garden was and talked about its purpose and why we shouldn’t dig in it. Then, I saw a spot on the lawn where someone had dumped a lot of sand. I explained why the sand is supposed to stay in the sandbox. On his own, Edgar eagerly started shoveling the extra sand back into the sandbox. I suggested that it might have been the custodian who put the sign there, because his job is to take care of the grass. Edgar was happy to be helping, and I was excited about all the new vocabulary he was hearing. By having this conversation, I was encouraging his curiosity and adding to his background knowledge, as well as his English vocabulary. In addition, when he asked me to read the sign to him, this helped me learn where he is on the road to literacy. Unlike some of his classmates, he already knows that reading and writing have a purpose and that purpose is to communicate.
The professional development training I’ve had has helped me get better at modeling and encouraging early literacy behaviors in my classroom. Research has shown that print awareness (also known as “book and print rules”) should be explicitly taught while reading with preschoolers. This means that children need to learn what a letter is, what a word is, that reading goes from left to right on the page, where the front and back of the book is, what a title page is and what the author and illustrator means. One thing I usually do is point to the words as I’m reading them. I just glide my finger along the text as I’m reading. I automatically did this while reading the sign to Edgar. This helps children learn that reading is done from left to right. Sometimes I check kids’ knowledge by pointing to the upper right hand corner of the text and say, “Is this where I should start reading?” In this way, I become the “Amelia Bedelia of the classroom as I purposely do things the wrong way to see if kids notice. Amelia Bedelia is a beloved character in a series of books written for elementary school aged children who always seems to misunderstand and do things backwards. I can usually detect a collective sigh of relief from the children when I finally get it right!
Another strategy I use when there are not too many words on a page is to point to each word as I’m reading. This can help children understand that a group of letters is a word. It is also useful to point out that the “empty space” between letters means that one word is done and another one is beginning. To practice this, I often have my class count the words together with me. In this way, they are learning to count and also gaining print awareness. Thinking about Edgar again, we could look at the sign tomorrow and have him count the words in the sign. I could also ask him if he recognizes any letters in the sign.
In my classroom I have a daily message which I write on a large white board at the front of my circle time area. While I read the message, I use a pointer stick to point to the words. I usually write a greeting and then put a statement or a question on the board and children freely give their responses. For example, this week we were talking about the letter Hh, so I tried to think of words that start with that letter for the message. The message I wrote on the board today said: “Hello Happy Hands! How do you know when someone feels happy?” We talked about how you can make your hands look happy – by waving, giving a “thumbs up” sign, a hug, blowing a kiss or by shaking someone’s hand. After that we talked about needing to look at our friends’ faces to see how they are feeling. I drew pictures of a happy, sad, and mad face and wrote the words under them. This is an important conversation to have with children at the beginning of a new school year when they are just starting to learn how to relate to each other. After a brief discussion, I have one child come up front to write the letter of the week and circle it on the white board. This helps them learn what a letter is. After that, we count together the number of letters the child has found. During discovery center time, children are encouraged to use the pointer sticks to read the message and use the dry erase markers to trace or rewrite the letters. These daily rituals are all developmentally appropriate, because they are fun and meaningful, and they help children “get the connection” between talking, listening, reading, and writing. These activities only take a few minutes, but the added exposure to important literacy concepts is well worth it. All of this knowledge is being stored in their amazing brains and the more practice children have with early literacy the more prepared they will be when they begin kindergarten.