Supporting young children's literacy development

last updated:April 2009

Here we present two vignettes which illustrate different aspects of teaching literacy to primary children. The first vignette suggests how teachers can support children's literacy development by targeting the two different pathways of transferring visual information into meaning. The teachers in the case study developed children's phonetic skills as well as teaching them to grasp the meaning directly from the visual image, which, as dual route theory suggests, is the optimal approach to teaching reading. The second vignette shows how the use of thinking strategies can contribute to children's understanding of a written text.

Example 1: Phonics and teaching literacy
The staff at one primary school undertook a project aimed at raising attainment in literacy by introducing the Letters and Sounds programme, based on the recommendations of the Rose Review. The programme involved all children up to and including Year 2, their teachers and support staff.

The programme focused on the teaching and application of word recognition skills. Some of the examples of the various activities used within the four parts of a daily lesson included:

Part 1: Revisit and review – for example 'Noisy Letters' where the children are given a GPC (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence), or a word or sentence containing that GPC and asked to locate their partner with the same GPC, e.g. c representing /k/ as in cat or oy representing /oi/as in boy.

Part 2: Teach – for example using words with the focused GPCs in them, showing the children how to separate the phonemes through robotic speaking and adding sound buttons to each GPC, e.g. the word 'feet' would be robotically spoken as 'f-ee-t'.

Part 3: Practice – when children are encouraged to practice blending, reading, segmenting and spelling words with new GPCs. Activities might include children using magnetic letters to make words.

Part 4: Apply – children read or write words or sentences using high frequency words and words containing the new GPC. Activities involve GPC relays, where children get parts of words and put the correct GPC in the gaps within a specified time limit; silly sentences, where children are asked to read a sentence, see if it makes sense and then make a written or verbal response.

Daily 20 minute phonics sessions were introduced in school as part of the programme. All children were assessed and grouped in appropriate phases, often in mixed year groups, even across Key Stages, for phonics sessions.

The teachers observed increased attainment in personal, social and emotional development, improved motivation of SEN children and inclusion. They also noticed that children became more confident when writing and the standards in the Foundation Stage generally improved.

Reference
Miller, K., & Rainford, J. Implementing the 'Letters and Sounds Programme' in the primary school.

Example 2: Using thinking skills strategies in teaching literacy
A primary teacher set out to improve Year 1 children's comprehension of literacy texts and encourage wider participation within the class through speaking and listening. She also wanted to explore the use of thinking skills strategies when teaching literacy.

During the first – pilot – phase of the project the teacher tried two thinking skills strategies. The first thinking skills strategy was Community of Enquiry, following the Philosophy for Children programme devised by Matthew Lipman. The children shared a selected text by having the book read aloud to them. Then they generated questions, arising from their understanding of that shared text. These questions were then used as a basis for a communal debate. Techniques such as evidence-based comments were encouraged, such as 'I agree with ... because…'

The second strategy was the odd one out strategy, which is based on the skill of categorisation and comparison. The children listened to a story and then selected three main characters. They then identified similarities and differences between the characters, first working in pairs and then sharing their ideas with the whole class ('think-pair-share').

After the pilot phase, the teacher decided to use the odd one out strategy as this had produced a wider range of participation. Ten sessions of odd one out thinking strategy were carried out and the results compared to standard literacy teaching, which does not employ thinking strategies, in the control class.

The teacher researcher found that:

• the children could learn how to take turns in a discussion and give feedback within a structured activity, but these skills needed to be taught explicitly, they were not simply picked up through the everyday activities in the classroom
• young children, aged 5 and 6,  were able to compare and contrast characters in stories, identifying a range of characteristics through the odd one out strategy
• using adults to scribe for young children enabled them to articulate their thoughts explicitly.

The teacher summed up that the main benefit of using thinking strategies was that the children realised that discussing a story helps understand it better.

Reference
Anderson, B. Can thinking skills offer a framework to support young children's comprehension in literacy?