My knowledge of literacy before I began research on this topic could be classified as limited and vague. I had a general idea of what I thought the term literacy encompassed. For me, the term literacy simply meant the ability to read and write. As I have learned from the research I have completed my idea of literacy does not even begin to expound upon the actual definition of literacy. The term literacy, is in fact a very general term and is not limited to just reading and writing. My new understanding of literacy is that literacy is any skill that makes an individual a competent person. Even if a person cannot read or write, this does not mean that they are not competent in other skills. Since I had a very general idea of what I thought literacy was I felt it would be an interesting topic to research and learn more about. When thinking about what aspect of literacy I wanted to focus on I decided to look at literacy skills in children from impoverished environments.
My desire to learn about this topic came from a personal experience I had working with children from impoverished environments. In my sophomore year of college I participated in a Read Aloud program through an organization at Marshall University. For this program volunteers, including myself were assigned to specific schools in the area that were noted as being at risk schools. This label was placed upon these schools because they were receiving low test scores and very little federal funding. The goal of this program was to enhance literacy experiences in school-age children. My role in this program was to be a facilitator of these literacy experiences. To do this, I would read aloud to a classroom of children twice a week. While I was reading to the children and observing in the classroom I noticed that many of the children had trouble with many of the basic literacy skills such as reading, writing, and phonemic awareness. I discussed this observation with the teacher of the classroom and she stated that she felt that many children in the classroom had delayed literacy skills because they had not received very many literacy experiences at home before they entered school. I knew that factors such as the environment a child lives in can affect literacy because children living in impoverished environments are not receiving as much stimulation and exposure to literature. Also, many of the children’s parents work constantly to provide for the family and have little time to focus on their children’s literacy skills. Since I was aware of how impoverished environments and parent interactions can affect literacy I wanted to focus my research on an area I was unfamiliar with. I wanted to specifically look at an educator’s role in the development of literacy in children from impoverished environments.
Since I knew what area I wanted to focus my research towards, I then developed an essential question that I would aim to answer through my research. The question I developed was, “In what ways can teachers foster the development of literacy skills in children from impoverished environments?” When thinking about what an educator’s role would be in the development of literacy, I began to wonder if there were any specific techniques or strategies a teacher could use to aid in the development of literacy skills in children from impoverished environments. To answer this question I determined that there were three areas which needed to be assessed. These areas in turn became the foundation questions of my research. The first foundation question I needed to answer was, “What literacy skills are common among all school-age children?” I felt that the answer to this question would give me a general idea of what literacy skills school-age children should have to be literate individuals. I would also be able to take the information found on this question and compare it to the information I found on my second foundation question which was, “What literacy skills are unique to children from impoverished environments?” This question would allow me to compare and contrast the literacy skills of children from impoverished environments to children who do not live in these environments. Once I answered these questions I felt I then needed to focus on how teachers can aid in the development of literacy skills in children from impoverished environments. This idea led me to develop my last foundation question which was, “How can teachers aid in the development of literacy skills in children from impoverished environments?” The questions that I have developed have been very beneficial in guiding the research that I have done. From the research I have found numerous amounts of evidence to help me answer both my foundation questions and my essential question.
Searching:
In regards to literacy skills common among all school-age children I found that most of the research discussed that there are specific emergent literacy skills all chidlren should develop to be successful in school. These skills are important because “emergent literacy skills are the basic building blocks for learning to read and write” (Phillips, n.d.). Some of these emergent literacy skills include the idea of print concepts, writing, comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency and vocabulary (Barone, 2004). Some of the literature went on to break these skills down in to three domains of emergent literacy skills. These domains included oral language, phonological processing, and print knowledge. The domain of oral language can simply be defined as the spoken language of an individual. Oral language is important because children learn what words mean by listening to them and making connections which increases their knowledge of “vocabulary, syntax, and narrative understanding” (Phillips, n.d.). If children do not know what words mean or represent then they may have an even harder time learning to read. Children should develop knowledge of vocabulary and syntax by the age of 3-4 years (The Reading Skills Pyramid, 2004). Since these skills are acquired at such a young age it makes sense that if children enter school without these skills that they will be behind their typically developing peers.
The same is true if children do not develop phonological processing skills. Phonological processing skills can be defined as a child’s ability to hold information in their memory, decode words, and then understand that words are made up of different segments including phonemes and syllables (Phillips, n.d.). These skills are important because children must be able to decode words they see so, that they can make sense of them. If children are unable to this they will find it incredibly difficult read many basic words. Phonological processing skills such as these are continually developed from 3-4 years through the second grade (The Reading Skills Pyramid, 2004). As the child gets old and begins to have more experiences with reading words and books these skills will become more developed.
The last domain discussed in the research was print knowledge (Phillips, n.d.).Print knowledge can be defined as, “a learners growing recognition of conventions and characteristics of a written language.” (Lanthrop, n.d.) This includes knowledge that letters can be uppercase or lowercase and that words and not pictures represent print. These skills are typically developed from 3-4 years through Kindergarten (The Reading Skills Pyramid, 2004).The importance of these skills are that children recognize what print is and have knowledge of the rules associated with writing. For example, children should be aware that when reading a book you read the words on the page, you do not make up a story pertaining to the pictures on the page.
The research on literacy skills common among all school- age children shows that the development of literacy skills typically moves in a sequential order. There are certain skills that are typically developed at certain ages, and as children get older these literacy skills become more advanced. It becomes a concern when children are not developing these emergent literacy skills and begin to show delays.
Delays in literacy skills can be caused by numerous factors, but low socioeconomic status has been categorized as the number one risk factor for reading failure (Lanthrop, n.d.). This seems to be the case because many of these children have parents who are illiterate and are unable to provide them with appropriate literacy experiences. One specific literacy experience that these children receive very little of is engagement in conversation. These children actually do not hear as many words as other children (Cooter, 2006). This can be detrimental to the child because they are not receiving the verbal input they need. Since these children are not hearing as many words there is a greater chance of them being behind there age matched peers. For example, at age 4 years, children who live below the poverty line are 18 months below what is normal for their age group (Klein & Knitzer, 2007). This can also affect the child when they enter school. In fact, children from low- income homes entering kindergarten will only know one-third of the words of other children (Klein & Knitzer, 2007).
The effect of poverty on literacy is profound. Children growing up in impoverished environments will not have the same literacy experiences as other children which in turn causes them to have delays in literacy. None of the research on literacy skills in children from impoverished environments discussed any specific aspects of literacy that are delayed. I simply found that in general these children will be likely to present delays because of the limited literacy experiences they are receiving before they enter school. This correlation between delayed literacy skills and children from impoverished environments is of great concern because 80% of kids attending public schools in the United States live in poverty (Fillipoff, 2001). This means that there is chance that more than half the students attending public skills in the United States may have difficulties with some aspect of literacy. If this is the case, teachers need to be equipped to specific abilities to foster the development of literacy skills in these children.
From the research I conducted I found two common themes associated with how teachers can foster the development of literacy skills in children from impoverished environments. The themes I found included the need for an intentional curriculum and professional development. Each of these themes were fascinating to me in that through researching them I realized how much time and effort teachers put in to preparing their students for future success. Even though these three themes are beneficial in developing literacy skills in children from impoverished environments, I found through my research that there is no specific approach that will help every child. It became apparent to me from the research I conducted that no student is alike and teachers need to be aware of the individual needs of each student before choosing a literacy instruction approach (MetLife n.d.).
Since no student is alike and each student has individual needs I found through my research that it is important for students to have an intentional curriculum. (Klein & Knitzer, 2007) My understanding of an intentional curriculum is that students have a curriculum focused towards the area in which they are presenting difficulties. From my research I found that literacy is the area that children from impoverished environments struggle with. Since literacy is where they have difficulties I found many suggestions on how to increase these children’s literacy skills through intentional instruction. The most common intentional instruction technique I found in the research is to engage these children in “purposely planned experiences with literacy related materials” (Lathrop n.d). Examples of these experiences I found through my research include, having students keep literacy journals. Literacy journals are where students write reflections about literacy materials such as, books, newspaper articles, or songs. The student’s reflections are then shared with the class. (Rizopoulos & Wolpert, 2004). Another example described in the research I found was summer reading programs such as, Americorps Energy Express, where emphasis is placed upon literacy experiences (National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 2007). Other examples I found of planned experiences with literacy include “teacher read-alouds”, “students reading aloud to others”, and “shared reading” (National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 2007). In all of these literacy experiences there is an interaction between students, teachers, and the literacy material. These types of readings encourage discussion among individuals about the literacy material. I found the importance of these types of readings to be that they “engage children in focused and meaningful discussions about books” (Lanthrop n.d.).
One specific form of shared reading discussed in the literature is dialogic reading. Dialogic reading is a specific type of shared reading in which the teacher becomes a facilitator of language by engaging students in a conversation about a book. With dialogic reading the student reads the book and the teacher then rephrases statements and asks questions about comments posed by the students. The use of dialogic reading has been shown to “help develop, print awareness, vocabulary, and listening comprehension” (Lanthrop, n.d.). It also leads students to use longer sentences and expand their vocabulary (Cooter, 2006).
The literature on intential instruction showed me just how important it is for children from impoverished environments to have a curriculum that is focused towards literacy. Without a curriculum focused towards literacy these children may miss out on literacy experiences and meaningful discussions about literacy materials. Students from impoverished environments may also fall behind if their teachers are not educated on how to teach literacy skills. This is why teachers need to continually go through professional development because “children make the most gains when a research-based curriculum is used in conjunction with web-based professional development” (National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 2007).
The need for professional development of teachers was a theme I found throughout much of my research. The research discussed that professional development is important because literacy skills are not developed, they must be taught. Learning the skills necessary to be literate individuals is a difficult task. That is why teachers need “better preparation and support to be able to guide students through the complex mix of skills that go into learning to read” which is one specific type of literacy skill (Lindjord, 2003). If teachers have this preparation and support they will be better able to “articulate a continuous flow of knowledge from kindergarten through high school so all students develop the skills they need to be successful in school” (MetLife n.d.). If students are not receiving the instructions they need to be successful there is an even greater chance that they may fall behind. Since children from impoverished environments already have delays in their development of literacy skills, having a teacher who lacks the training necessary to teach literacy skills may increase their chances of falling even farther behind. To prevent this from occurring, teachers need to make it their responsibility to participate in education and training that focuses on how young children grow, learn, and increases their knowledge of early literacy skills. (MetLife n.d.) If teachers have a good knowledge base of literacy and how to teach literacy skills they will be better able to provide instruction to all children, even the ones who are not presenting delays. This is why it should be a “teachers priority to become familiar with strategies to improve “all” students’ literacy skills so they may become productive members of our classrooms and world communities” (Rizopoulos & Wolpert, 2004).
Conclusion:
In regards to my essential question there are many ways in which teachers can foster the development of literacy skills in students from impoverished environments. Specifically, I found that an intentional curriculum and professional development are very important factors in developing the literacy skills of students from impoverished environments. An intentional curriculum requires teachers to be aware of each student’s individual needs. There are many techniques out there to improve literacy, but it is the teachers’ job to determine which technique is the best. One specific technique discussed was the use of dialogic reading, which focuses on increasing the literacy skills of children by encouraging communication about a book.
The need for professional development is very important because teachers need to be well rehearsed in how to go about teaching literacy skills to students who are presenting delays. Literacy skills are not innate abilities therefore it becomes the teacher’s job to facilitate the learning of these skills. If a teacher lacks the skills necessary to teach literacy to children then this may only cause further delays. This is especially true with children from impoverished environments because they would not be receiving adequate literacy experiences at home or in school which would put them even farther behind. There is no reason why students should not be receiving an education that prepares them to be successful literate individuals. Through my research I have learned that “all” students need teachers who know how to foster the development of literacy skills because literacy skills are such a complex task to learn. The teaching of these skills becomes even more important though with children from impoverished environments because they enter school lacking many literacy skills that many of there age matched peers have developed.
