This page contains answers to common questions of students and parents.

1. What is emergent literacy?
2. What is phonological awareness?
3. What is phonemic awareness?
4. What are the components of a daily literacy lesson?
5. What can parents do to support their child's literacy development?

What is emergent literacy?

Emergent literacy is the set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that 
children acquire during the years before they begin to read and write in 
conventional ways.

Emergent refers to the fact that becoming literate is a developmental 
process. It begins long before children receive formal instruction, and 
proceeds in varied ways and at different rates. Children construct an 
understanding of literacy using guidance and materials supplied by adults. 
This process is nourished by children's interest in learning to read and to 
use print to communicate.

Literacy refers to a set of related abilities that includes skill using and 
understanding oral language, familiarity with books and their use, 
understanding how language and print are related, and learning to make sense 
of print and use print to represent words and ideas.

Literacy develops when life experiences give purpose to varying uses of 
print and to language activities related to books. Reading develops as 
children come to understand how to make sense of print. For example, a child 
might learn the first letter in his/her name and then use that knowledge to 
identify his/her cubby. Writing develops as children learn the power of print
to send messages. For example, a child might write the first letter of her 
name and post it on a block structure that she wants saved. Language skills 
develop as children learn to understand the language of books and to 
communicate complex ideas clearly.

Young children learn about language and literacy through interaction with 
adults, peers, and materials in situations that provide motivation to speak, 
read, and write.

In order for young children to develop literacy knowledge and skills they 
must have adults who facilitate their literacy development by providing 
tools, information, and opportunities to engage in literacy-related 
activities. For example, literacy tools could be crayons, pencils, paper, 
books, alphabet cards, word cards, or stencils. Literacy information might 
be the alphabet or instruction in how to make letters.

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What is phonological awareness?

Phonological Awareness is an understanding of the sound structure of 
languagethat is, that language is made up of words, syllables, rhymes, 
and sounds (phonemes). This knowledge occurs initially in oral language; 
students do not have to know how to name letters or their corresponding 
sounds in order to demonstrate phonological awareness.

By the end of kindergarten, given sufficient instruction, practice, and 
exposure to many literacy activities, students should be able to:

Word level: recognize how many words are in a sentence.

Syllable level: segment and blend words of at least three syllables.

Rhyme level: understand the concept of rhyming and recognize and generate 
rhyming words.

Sound level: isolate the beginning or ending sounds in words, segment and 
blend sounds in a word with three sounds, and change a sound in a word to 
make a new word in familiar games and songs.

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What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic Awareness one component of phonological awareness.  It is an 
understanding that words are made up of individual sounds, or phonemes, that 
can be taken apart and changed and put together 
again to make different words.

Phonemic awareness is the ability

- to hear sounds that make up words
- to see relationships between sounds
- to alter and rearrange sounds to create new words.

Some of the most appropriate ways to do this with young children is through 
songs, rhymes and books.

Children first become aware of spoken words, then syllables, then onsets and 
rimes and finally individual sounds.

There is a difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. Phonics refers 
to an understanding of the sound and letter relationships in a language. 
Phonological awareness is necessary in order to use this phonics knowledge 
effectively in reading and writing. Phonemic awareness focuses on sound 
units (phonemes) while phonics focuses on the association to the written 
symbol. Phonemic awareness must come before phonics.

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What are the components of a daily literacy lesson?

Components of a Daily Literacy Lesson 

 
Read Aloud - Teacher reads stories / poems that are at or above the 
students independent and guided reading levels. This familiarizes students 
with book language, story structure, descriptions, plot development, 
concepts of print, phonics and phonemic awareness, and the love of 
literature. 

Shared Reading - Provides the beginning support that enables children to 
read independently. The teacher reads a story to the whole group or class. 
During rereading, the children participate, reading more and more of the 
text. 

Guided Reading - A small group, teacher-directed process that helps the 
children to develop the reading strategies they need to become independent 
readers. 

Independent Reading - Provides opportunities during the day for children to 
practice and internalize strategies learned during shared and guided 
reading, using many different types of text. 

Write Aloud / Modeled Writing - The teacher models the processes an author 
uses in planning and writing a story or other product, for the whole class 
or a small group. 

Shared Writing - The teacher and the children work together through the 
processes that occur in writing: concepts and conventions of print, 
sound/symbol relations, phonics, and spelling. 

Guided Writing - The children write with or for the teacher, following the 
same processes as Shared Writing. 

Independent Writing - Children learn to write by writing for their own 
purposes and from their own experiences. They learn to think of themselves 
as authors, making good writing decisions while employing the entire Writing 
Process (from first draft through editing to "published" product). 
Additional practice of discrete skills may be in the form of directed 
writing or worksheets.

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What can parents do to support their child's literacy development?

Emergent literacy is the oral language, writing, and reading behaviors that 
occur before children begin to read and write in conventional forms and 
which occur more frequently in a language-rich environment.

Language-rich environments can be found both at home and at school.  At 
school we surround children with oral-language activities, reading and 
writing activities, and the opportunity to explore and practice all of these 
components of early literacy.  At home you can support your child's literacy 
development in many ways.  Of course reading all types of books with and to 
your child is always invaluable, and can never be done too often.  Also 
necessary for successful literacy development is a strong oral language 
base.  You do this when you have conversations with your child, play rhyming 
games, recite nursery rhymes, sing songs, and just 'play with language'.  
Every child needs a solid oral-language background to become a successful 
reader. 

Let your child see you using reading and writing in 'real-life' ways, such 
as making a grocery list or reading a recipe.  This helps children make 
connections about why we learn to read and write.

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