Emerging Literacy: Reading-Writing Experiences in a Kindergarten Classroom

Author(s): Doris C. Crowell, Alice J. Kawakami and Jeanette L. Wong

Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 40, No. 2, Children Reading and Writing (Nov., 1986), pp.
144-149
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20199336
Accessed: 29-03-2015 16:27 UTC

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literacy:
Emerging
Reading-writing
in a
experiences
classroom
kindergarten
Here are five classroom activities, some teacher centered and
some child centered, that develop the beginnings of literacy for 5
year

olds.

Doris

C. Crowell

Alice

J. Kawakami

Jeanette

L. Wong

Turning a kindergarten classroom into

a community
of young readers and
writers was the purpose of our project.
the year, two curriculum
Throughout
researchers
and the kindergarten
a
teacher observed and documented
wide variety of children's behaviors
that reflected a range of developmental
levels in literacy.
By late spring, many of the children
were using reading and writing func
David
had
For example,
tionally.
drawn a complex scene of a haunted
house in the woods and was struggling
to label the details of his picture with
single words. Bryan and Tina had writ
ten passages.
Their stories began in
the morning,
related events in chrono
144

The Reading

Teacher

November

logical order, and ended with the last

occurrence of their day.
sat in the library corner
Clarissa
writing a note to her father about the
book she had just read. Lillian had
saved a piece of recycled paper with
on the back because
she
printing
thought she might need one of those
words for her writing the next day.
Two children played doctor's office
in the doll corner. One child carefully
recorded the name of the other who
was playing the patient, along with her
and time of appointment.
diagnosis
Dennis
studied intently the list of as
signments of classroom duties for the
day, turned with resolve, and began
putting

milk
snack

straws,

napkins,

and

cartons

on the table in preparation

of

for

time.

The children described above were a

few of the 25 randomly selected stu
dents from urban families of all socio
economic
in an
levels
included

1986

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experimental
kindergarten
project.
This study was conducted in a class
room with 25 children and one regular
teacher.
searcher

its course,
During
was
in the classroom

re

one
2 morn

ings each week for the 2 hour language

arts period. On 2 other days each
week,

the

second

researcher

was

The
present for the entire morning.
school day was 6 hours long. In addi
tion, the researchers met periodically
after school with the teacher for plan
ning and ongoing evaluation.
The study was conducted at the Ka
mehameha Elementary Education Pro
gram (KEEP), a laboratory school that
has the responsibility
for developing
programs to benefit children from Ha
waiian and part-Hawaiian
families.
This article will describe the literacy
oriented curriculum of this kindergar
ten classroom and a few specific activi
ties that were critical to our effort.
Goals
We began the project with the idea that
kindergarten forms the bridge between
the child centered experiences of home
and preschool and the more academic
demands of elementary
school. With
this in mind, we planned experiences
to help children discover that writing
and

reading

are

natural,

essential,

and

in their environ
enjoyable elements
ment. We wanted the children to de
velop a love of books, an enthusiasm
for reading and writing, and a realiza
tion that there are many ways to com
municate one's ideas. We wanted them
to develop thinking and problem solv
ing strategies so they could face daily
academic challenges
and
confidently
constructively.
This article describes five classroom
activities from our program that ap
peared to facilitate the development of
literacy related behaviors in children.
The first two?the morning message
and reading
stories
aloud ?were
teacher directed. In these, the teacher
the processes of literacy and
modeled
Emerging

the children practiced

three activities?writing,

them. The

last

sharing, and
set up by
independent reading?were
the teacher to be child centered rather
than teacher directed.
instruction
Teacher directed
The morning message and reading sto
ries aloud were two activities which al
to model
the
lowed
the teacher
these are
processes of literacy. While
time honored activities in kindergarten
classrooms, we extended them tomake
thinking processes more explicit to the
children. Through direct instruction,
we guided and supported students' ac
tive participation at each step. The fol
lowing examples were taken from the
notes of our daily observations.
Morning message
rou
the morning business
During
tine, Mrs. Wong wrote this message as
the class watched
and tried to read
along.

Today isMonday.
An egg hatched! We have
a baby bird!
When
the message had been written,
the class read it aloud as a group, al
though they didn't know the word
Some children
read it as
hatched.
Mrs.
Wong stopped them and
happy.
reread the sentence with happy in
Then
she asked
place of hatched.
whether itmade sense, and many chil
dren said no. Someone suggested that
hatched would make sense because the
sentence was about an egg. Finally,
fluently
they read the entire message
with comprehension.
The message was relevant in that it
information
contained
interesting
in the
about an event that occurred
It was apparent that the
classroom.
children understood the content of the
from the kinds of questions
message
asked
afterwards, among them:
they
"How big is it?" "What color is it?"
"When did it come out?"
literacy: Reading-writing

experiences

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145

Within
this daily activity, the chil
dren practice both listening and read
They use context
ing comprehension.
combined with some word and letter
cues to decode a meaningful message.
As the students began to notice some
of the writing
conventions
that the
teacher used, the function of the mes
sage was extended to include instruc
tion in writing as well as in reading.
This instruction was always in the con
text of the message, which contained
information important to the children.
As the children became aware of spe
cific elements
in the message,
the
teacher followed their lead and elabo
rated on their observations.
For

after

example,

another

message

had been written and read, Mrs. Wong

asked if the children had anything to
say about it. A boy went to the board
and pointed to the letter b in back and
books. Mrs. Wong underlined the let
ters, explaining that he heard the same
beginning sound in both words. A girl
pointed to the s at the end of books say
ing "plural". Mrs. Wong circled the s,
commented that it was a plural form,
and asked what that meant. The chil
dren answered that it was more than
one

book.

wrote

it is,

and

drew

an

arrow to the word it's.

Thus she was able to capitalize on
the children's observations when they
were actively concerned with the con
struction of the message. The teaching
practices were designed to model use
ful written communication
and to en
courage children's active participation
in the construction of meaning.
Story reading
Mrs. Wong chose Clifford Gets a
Job (Bridwell, 1972) for a story read
ing. She began by asking the children
about jobs that they did at home and
reasons for having jobs. She intro
146

Mrs. Wong also helped the children

become aware of the structure of sto
ries. They learned that stories should
contain characters, setting, and plot. In
addition, they began to notice some of
characteristics of print and the rhythm
of written language.
Several

The Reading

Teacher

November

criteria

that

emerged

were

useful in selecting books that were ef

fective in involving children in both
content

When called to the board, another

child pointed to it's and identified it as
a contraction. Mrs. Wong praised this
observation,

duced the story by asking the children

to predict why Clifford might need a
job. She then read the story aloud,
stopping from time to time to discuss
text ideas. She encouraged the children
to "read" with her some of the key
phrases that recurred in the text.
Thus, this traditional story reading
event was enriched by comprehension
in the experi
instruction described
model
(Au,
ence-text-relationship
1979; Au and Kawakami,
1984). This
model for reading lessons allows stu
dents to participate
in the
actively
of meaning
from
group construction
text with guidance from the teacher's
questions. The children make predic
tions based on their own experiences
and confirm or reject these predictions
using details from the story.

creasing

and

meaning,
awareness
their

as well
of

as
the

in

vari

eties of written
language. We chose
stories that contained a conflict and a
resolution in order to facilitate the stu
dents' awareness of story structure and
enable them tomake predictions which
could be validated. We also selected
books that provided rich language pat
terns and rhythms that captivated the
children.
These early experiences of reading
the morning message
and listening to
stories read aloud helped children de
velop and sustain positive expectations
about writing and books. These expe
riences helped them become aware of
both the form and the function of liter
ature. They also allowed the children
to interact and jointly approximate ma
ture

communicative

behavior.

1986

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Child centered
literacy experiences
In an environment where functional
reading and writing were modeled
daily, children came to believe that lit
eracy is an integral part of life and that
reading and writing are not isolated
school subjects. They began to regard
literacy skills as highly useful, and
to prac
they welcomed
opportunities
tice

In Mrs.

them.

Wong's

classroom,

three child centered activities that pro

vided this practice were writing, shar
and independent
ing one's writing,

her

reading.

Writing
the
Following the morning message,
children were given the opportunity to
write for about 30 minutes each day.
Their efforts ranged from drawings, to
to
drawings with labels or captions,
sentences with invented spelling or re
buses

for unknown

words.

they wrote about their own

personal experiences while the teacher
walked around the room and conferred
with individual children to guide their
efforts. By careful questioning,
she
them
recall
additional
informa
helped
tion about their topics. She assisted
them in applying the writing conven
tions that she had modeled during the
Often

morning

messages.

She

encouraged

and supported all efforts that approxi

mated reading and writing as she chat
ted with these kindergartners
who
were actively creating meaningful
text.
Mrs.

asked the teacher how to write

park. She responded by presenting the
question to other students at the table.
Tina said "Park, park, puh, puh, puh."
Kapua chimed in with "It's a R Write
P." Kimo wrote a B. Immediately Ka
pua reached out and wrote a P in the
corner of his paper, saying "That's a P."
Kimo wrote P_for
park.
Mrs. Wong
then praised Kimo's
She had not given him the
message.
word; she had helped him discover a
strategy for continuing to write when
He

Wong

was

always

aware

of

the

importance of the social setting for

children's
learning. She encouraged
them to discuss topic choice among
their classmates and to seek peer as
sistance during writing.
She encour
and
aged an attitude of helpfulness
mutual interest in each other's work.
This was demonstrated
by Kapua,
Tina, and Kimo as they sat on one side
of the table. Kimo wanted to write "I
went to the park." However,
he had
written:
IW to the

not

available.

wrapper.

Sharing
A logical continuation of the infor
mal conversations among the children
was to have them share their writing
with each other. An author's chair
(Graves and Hansen,
1983) was set up
so that children could read their work
aloud to the class and respond to their
peers' comments and questions. The
children commented on the correspon
dence of words and illustrations,
the
a
of
main
observ
idea,
development
ance of logical sequence, use of de
scriptive words, and other conventions
of writing.
Early in the year, the teacher often
had to support the reading by reread
ing each line of the piece after the au
thor had just barely whispered
the
words
that he or she had written.
Questions

Emerging

was

assistance

The teacher's observations

of indi
vidual children and her interactions
with them during the writing period
provided her with insights into their
This knowledge helped
development.
her make appropriate changes in the
classroom environment during writing
and other activities to meet these de
For example,
needs.
the
veloping
teacher placed pencils and pads of re
cycled note paper in strategic locations
around the room when two little girls
were observed exchanging
telephone
numbers on the back of a chewing gum

literacy:

and

comments

Reading-writing

from

an

experiences

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ap

147

audience quickly encour

preciative
more
confident
sharing. For
aged
Dennis
example,
quietly read his piece
to the group: "I have a new He-Man
pajamas." Kalani raised his hand. "I
a

have

question.

Is He-Man's

picture

on the pajamas?" Dennis said yes as he

proudly displayed his picture.
Sharing one's writing also gave chil
dren the opportunity to hear the whole
piece for the first time. Changes that
they
they had not considered when
wrote suddenly became imperative as
they read aloud. In this setting, the
teacher had the opportunity to help the
children become aware of techniques
for expressing themselves on paper.
For

example,

Mrs.

Wong

com

that Dennis was very clever in

figuring out how to write his message.
that he had put in the
She observed
words
for new and have.
complete
Dennis
reported that Esther helped
him with new and he copied have from
a list of high frequency words posted

mented

on

the board

as a reference.

As the year progressed,

the children
were able to read their own work with
some authority, listen with comprehen
sion, and question each other for clari
of their messages.
The
fication
and
had
children's
writing
reading
taken on great importance in the life of
the classroom. Many of the pieces that
were shared were also published
in
small book format and made available
to the rest of the class. Listening to the
shared pieces gave children experience
in developing
listening comprehen
sion. Having these books available in
the library gave children the opportu
nity to practice
reading behaviors.
Mrs. Wong had set up an environment
where sharing and publication were
significant achievements.
Independent reading
The third child centered activity was
a daily period of independent reading.
Early in the school year, children were
given the opportunity to look at books
148

The Reading

Teacher

November

Mrs.
while
independently
Wong
worked with other writers who were
finishing and preparing to share. Dur
time, students
ing this independent
clustered in groups, reading and talk
ing about books that the teacher had
read aloud to the class. Often a group
of two or three huddled around a book
that they had heard and jointly told the
story by recounting catchy phrases or
recognizing them in print. As the chil
dren began publishing
their own sto
ries, these books were added to the
classroom library.
During one period of observation,
Clarissa sat reading through a stack of
books that she had written and pub
lished. Dennis thumbed through Mar
vin K. Mooney Will You Please Go
Now by Dr. Seuss (1972). Anne told a
story and showed the pictures of the
book The Story about Ping
(Flack,
1933) to an imaginary audience. Es
took turns reading
ther and Kapua
Harry the Dirty Dog (Zion, 1956).
It became
that
apparent midyear
their
literacy experiences
through
many children were developing a core
as well as
of frequent sight words,
for interpreting meaning
strategies
from illustrations. In response to this
observation,

we

introduced

a collec

tion of very easy, illustrated

story
books a few at a time for independent
to
the children
reading. We wanted
have access to reading materials which
would give them many opportunities to
read books successfully
The children were observed enjoy
of
ing these easy books regardless
their level of proficiency in word iden
tification. Edwin turned pages of Cow
boy Andy (Chandler, 1959). He told a
to "Sam's Daddy's
story of going
friend's house" and taking his gun,
lasso, and pony. Although no one was
paying attention to him, he worked his
way through the whole book. Ray leen
chose Thump, Thump, Thump! by
Anne Rockwell
She read
(1981).
"Thump, Thump, Thump" on every

1986

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page that it appeared, filling in the gist

of the story for the words
that she
couldn't read. She beamed when she
reached the last page. Esther proudly
read and showed the pictures of Snow
(McKie and Eastman, 1962) to several
interested children.
As children discovered
that they
were able to read and enjoy these
the opportunity
books, they welcomed
to share with any child or adult who
to be in the general area.
happened
Some students began to read all the
books by one author. Others were seen
with a favorite book day after day. The
independent reading time allowed stu
dents to assume either the role of the
teacher or the role of the student as
they practiced
literacy skills in con
texts of their own construction.
Summary
Within an environment
that provided
frequent models of the functional use
of reading and writing, as well as am
to practice literacy
ple opportunities
the
children
in this kinder
behaviors,
were
classroom
garten
readily con
vinced that reading and writing were
important. Early in the school year, we
observed as they learned to hold the
books

appropriately,

turn

pages

one

at

a time, follow the story line as it was

reflected in the illustrations, and use
paper and pencil to communicate their
own ideas. As they combined these be
haviors and learned others, their ac
tivities more closely
approximated
functional reading and writing.
By late spring, they all displayed
some proficiency.
test
Standardized
scores at the end of the year using the

Gates Reading Tests: Readiness Skills

(1968) showed that all of the children
in the class were above the 50th per
centile and the class average Readiness
Score was at the 86th percentile. More
importantly, their enjoyment was ap
parent as they voluntarily engaged in
behaviors that reflected emerging liter
acy.

in
Crowell, a curriculum researcher
in Early
the Center for Development
Kamehameha
Schools,
Education,
does applied re
Hawaii,
Honolulu,
search in early literacy and the devel
opment of thinking skills. Kawakami is
an educational specialist in the Kame
curricu
hameha Schools, developing
in early
research
lum and doing
literacy. Wong teaches inKamehameha
Elementary School and does research
in the Center for the Development
of
Early Education.

References
Au, Kathryn H. "Using the Experience-Text-Relationship
Method with Minority Children." The Reading Teacher,
vol. 32 (March 1979), pp. 677-79.
Au, Kathryn H., and Alice J. Kawakami. "Vygotskian Per
inSmall Group
spectives on Discussion Processes
Reading Lessons." InThe Social Context of Instruction,
PL.
edited by
Peterson, L.C Wilkinson, and M. Hal
linan.New York, N.Y.: Academic Press, 1984.
Bridwell, Norman. Clifford Gets a Job. New York, N.Y.:
Scholastic, 1972.
Chandler, EdnaW. Cowboy Andy. New York, N.Y.: Random
House, 1959.
Flack, Marjorie. The Story about Ping. New York, N.Y: Vi
king, 1933.
Gates Reading Tests: Readiness Skills. New York, N.Y:
Teachers College Press, 1968.
Graves, Donald, and Jane Hansen. "The Author's Chair."
Language Arts, vol. 60, no. 2 (1983), pp. 176-83.
McKie, Roy, and Philip D. Eastman. Snow. New York, N.Y:
Random House, 1962.
Rockwell, Anne. Thump, Thump, Thump! New York, N.Y:
Dutton, 1981
Seuss, Dr.Marvin K. Mooney, Will YouPlease Go Now. New
York, N.Y: Random House, 1972
Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog. New York, N.Y: Harper
and Row, 1956.

on the ability
to read
A story
artist Robin M?ller received the Toronto
IODE Children's Book
In the Children's Book
Award for his recent book The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
"The pub
Centre's Bookviews
(vol. 8, no. 4, March 1986) M?ller commented:
lic already knows the title, of course, and there are a number of different ver
sions of it. It's a literary theme. The children realize that the story isn't about
Canadian

magic

but the ability to read."

Emerging

literacy: Reading-writing

experiences

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149