Portfolio: A Resource

2.1 Provides a thorough account of these developmental influences, supported by key theorists, frameworks, literature &/or research

While I was searching for some information about how literacy develops in early childhood I came across this wonderful resource which describes in details how teachers and families can help children to develop their literacy skills.

According to Raban and Coates:

What is now evident is that the development of literacy is very much social and is being experienced and experimented with throughout children's daily lives. Indeed the concepts of literacy that young children bring to school will be defined by their experience and understanding of the functions of literacy in the world that surrounding.

Focusing on language and literacy development as a social practice is a particularly a very helpful conceptual framework to support teacher practice. This framework acknowledges the importance of social and cultural contexts to children’s learning, and recognises the significance of children’s diverse backgrounds and the richness of the language and literacy knowledge they bring to kindergarten. It moves beyond the perspective in which language and literacy development is treated as a series of technical skills that can be taught independently of the social context. As Hamer observes “Socio cultural theory challenges us to widen our perspective beyond that of the individual child and of knowledge and meaning in isolation. Instead, children are viewed as inseparable from their social contexts, and knowledge and meanings are seen as embedded within socio cultural practices”.

Figure 1 which is adapted from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of developmental processes) highlights the importance of moving forward from a technical view of language and literacy learning that focuses on a narrow set of skills and processes to a more holistic socio cultural perspective.

This conceptual framework highlights the importance of:

1: teachers’ critical reflection on their practices.

2: the inter-relationships of educational research into young children’s learning and    development, language development and early literacy learning, including their working definition of early literacy.

3: the  beliefs, principles and practices, including the teacher’s role, the image of the child and

 intentional teaching practices.

4:  rich conversations and interactions in the kindergarten learning environment.

5:  supportive partnerships with children, parents, families and communities.

6:  inclusive learning environments and children’s capacity to experiment and engage with

literacy through play.

7:  connections with children’s prior language and literacy experiences, family priorities for

supporting literacy, children’s interests and strengths and community and family

opportunities for language.

Current research about language and literacy learning and development, and ways of engaging children in learning, has found a strong evidence of the need for supportive adult interactions in rich, inviting learning contexts where language and literacy learning is related to real-life purposes. Children learn best when, with the support of a knowledgeable and trusted adult, they are actively involved and interested. For teachers, it is particularly useful to build strong relationships with their students. The importance of a supportive learning environment is highlighted by Hyson’s research, which identified a number of factors that undermined young children’s positive approach to learning. She found that things such as non supportive relationships between adults and children, not challenging and irrelevant learning experiences, and teaching methods that fails to support children’ s  engagement and motivation to learn were associated with children becoming disengaged learners.

It is, therefore, necessary that teachers critically examine their current practices for planning and implementing literacy programs. As children explore sounds and babble, play games and interact with adults, listen to and enjoy songs, rhymes and stories, and engage in conversations in the context of everyday social and cultural experiences they build language skills. These skills provide a foundation for their literacy learning. Language is very essential for building relationships and social practices. The relationship between social and emotional competence and language ability seems to be reciprocal,  language serves to support social interactions and social interactions provides  a context for  further development of  linguistic skills. These skills are supported by interactions with adults and peers where opportunities for establishing and practicing language skills, role modeling, and offering feedback are provided.

Link:

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/qklg_pd_resource_supporting_literacy.pdf