Emergent Literacy

these students can be understood by complete strangers. Con- ventional students have learned the knowledge and skills of how we use words and text to communicate. But conventional instruction will only be inappropriate after a rich foundation of emergent literacy experiences has been laid. With conventional skills, our students can read to learn about any topic. They can be known and understood by anyone they choose. The goal of comprehensive emergent literacy instruc- tion is to move our students towards conventional literacy. COMPREHENSIVE EMERGENT LITERACY INSTRUCTION Erickson (2017) identified six instructional routines that en- compass comprehensive emergent literacy instruction. Com- prehensive instruction addresses all of the elements necessary for students to read with comprehension and write to convey thinking. These routines include: • Access to AAC, demonstrated and used by others, all day, every day. • Shared reading: a more skilled other scaffolds engagement with text. • Shared writing: co-construction of text, when a more skilled other scaffolds the process of developing an idea that is then represented in print. • Alphabet instruction and phonological awareness: learn- ing the name and forms of each letter and the most com- mon sounds they represent. • Independent reading: students apply their knowledge of books to independently handle and engage with texts. • Independent writing: students apply their knowledge of the alphabet to independently generate text. With the exception of AAC modelling, each of these instruc- tional routines is likely familiar to early childhood educators. De- tails on how to best implement each of these routines can be found in sources listed at the end of this article. The purpose of the remainder of this article is to reassure any educator who is overwhelmed by the idea of adding six new routines (and their accompanying new terms and tools) to their classroom reper- toire. While each of these routines has unique value as specific literacy interventions, they share much in common. Embedded in each of these routines is a common flow of interactions be- tween educators and our students. This flow helps structure a set of experiences that our students require to build a founda- tion of literacy. As we’re learning to implement the routines of comprehensive emergent literacy instruction, it may be helpful to focus on the big picture of this flow of interaction. Over time, we can refine our practice, adding more detail and precision to each individual routine. THE CYCLE OF EMERGENT LITERACY INSTRUCTION The cycle of emergent literacy instruction is an explicit ap- proach to literacy and language instruction. The cycle illus- trates the common flow of interaction between educators and

knows about language and literacy can usually be observed and described. The continuum of literacy understandings is illustrat- ed in Figure 1. Our early emergent students are still learning what language and the tools of literacy are all about. They may bang books together, chew the crayons, or ignore the symbol display. They may only engage with a page or two of a book, or a letter or two of a keyboard, before appearing to lose inter- est. They may have motor disabilities that have prevented them from physically exploring books or writing tools. Early emergent students communicate in ways that are idiosyncratic. As caring adults, we interpret their behavior to infer their feelings and pref- erences, then show them ways they could express their message with AAC. Early emergent students need frequent, predictable instruction that demonstrates the purpose of these tools, using formats that are accessible to them. Our job is to entice these students to observe us and interact with us as we use language and text. Daily emergent literacy routines allow them to make sense of these tools and experiences, and their role within them. We know our students are making progress when they engage with us with a favorite book, select a graphic symbol or a string of letters. These behaviors demonstrate their growing familiarity with literacy routines, tools and behaviors. Emergent students are learning to participate in common routines like reading a storybook with us. They can predict what is happening. They have an idea what is expected of them when we sit down to read a book, draw a picture or point to a symbol while we talk. They observe us select letters and symbols to ex- press ideas, but they are just learning to use symbols or letters or words themselves. Their early communication with symbols is inconsistent and often inaccurate or difficult to interpret. But we have piqued their curiosity and demonstrated these tools have meaning and relevance. Our emergent students are devel- oping preferences, such as favorite books, activities or reading partners. Our job is to expand on those preferences and support these emergent students to actively participate with language and literacy. We know they are making progress when we see them initiating communication, interacting with us with books and directing how we read with them and exploring the alpha- bet to generate text. Early conventional students are demonstrating consistency, such as readily participating and contributing in language and literacy routines. They might know the names of most letters but are still learning how they represent sounds in words. They are attending to a complete text and not just to page-by-page interactions. They are initiating communication around differ- ent activities. Familiar partners can interpret their messages, using context to fill in gaps in the student’s message. Slowly, they begin to use tools like AAC and the alphabet to demon- strate what they understand. Traditional, conventional literacy instruction will teach these students the conventions of spelling, reading comprehension, decoding, and syntax, like word order and grammar. It is only when their skills are conventional that

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