|
Submission from Early Childhood Australia
Inquiry into the Teaching of Reading The Inquiry into the Teaching of Reading has generated significant interest throughout Early Childhood Australia. We canvassed each of our state and territory branches, asking them what principles should underpin the approach taken to the issues confronting the Inquiry. Not surprisingly, there was a great deal of uniformity in the response. This submission will not canvass the detail of the issues raised as these are well documented in the literature. Rather, it will outline the broad principles that Early Childhood Australia believes should underpin national efforts to engage young children in the process of becoming literate. Reading and writing are interrelated and connected to other activities that young children engage with to make meaning of experience, such as speaking and listening, drawing and playing. To separate the teaching of reading from broader issues involved in literacy learning is problematic and opens up the prospect of a decontextualised approach to the teaching of reading. Such an approach would ignore the ways a child has been ‘learning literacy' from infancy and fail to capitalise on the knowledge she/he brings to the formal learning setting. For this reason, this submission will speak to the task of ensuring that children become literate—which is the best way to ensure that they read with a sense of agency and competence.
Literacy development is a social and cultural process, the foundations for which are laid in a child's earliest experiences In thinking about how best to support young children to become literate, it is important to remember that children grow and learn in their families and in their communities. Literacy learning is a social and cultural practice and, therefore, learning outcomes are dependent on the quality and nature of the interactions that occur in home and everyday settings. Literacy starts at birth; it is grounded in the need and ability to communicate The emotional foundations for learning are laid in these earliest experiences. The findings of recent ‘brain research' verify this—much of which has been documented as part of the development of the Government's National Agenda for Young Children. This research indicates unequivocally that trusting, caring relationships with known adults generate the neurological activity (connections) which are the foundation for all future growth and development. Literacy development is enhanced when adults provide a safe and stimulating environment, and communicate with and respond to children, from birth, with excitement, support and challenge.Any approach to literacy development, then, must value family and community literacy practices, including the development and maintenance of a child's first language, and build on these in early learning settings. Young children acquire literacy knowledge as they participate in activities where literacy is used to meet everyday needs. Effective literacy education recognises that family understanding and support is an essential foundation for young children's literacy learning All families have a rich repertoire of literacy practices, but the practices of different cultural and sub-cultural groups do not always connect strongly with ‘school literacy'. Some families can be said to engage in more ‘school-like' oral language practices, use writing for a wider range of purposes, read more literature to children, and more explicitly draw attention to print and how written language works. Some children have more of a struggle to make the transition from family and community literacies to school literacies. Although there is no one pathway to literacy development, what is clear is that all children need the richest possible literacy environment—before and out of school—if they are to become literate, and will develop a broad range of literacies based on the diversity and depth of their experiences.It is the responsibility of all educators to recognise the diverse nature of the experiences and abilities that children bring to formal learning programs, and build on these so that each child develops a repertoire of literacies including the ability to read. Ensuring this will require the educator to develop approaches that connect with families and learners, including those who are less privileged, and that recognise and value what parents are doing already and build their capacity and confidence in their ability to support their children's literacy development. For the young children who struggle to become literate it is essential that real partnerships with families be negotiated For hard-to-reach families, this partnership is often more difficult to achieve but it is an essential ingredient of real literacy engagement, as it is fundamentally about capacity building. Early Childhood Australia believes that capacity building is about supporting people/services/organisations (communities) to develop the confidence and skills necessary for them to achieve their purpose, in this case supporting young children to become literate. Capacity is best built when existing relationships and expertise are leveraged. This is because capacity building best takes place within the framework of relationships that have a history where the partner's commitment, capability and competence are known and valued. Inherent in relationships is the potential to share, learn, and create and sustain a conscious flow of information across the organisations and between people. This principle is fundamental to programs that can be sustained across generations within disadvantaged communities. Such approaches are not cost-free or cost-neutral, and will require a commitment that is sustained over time. There are programs already in place such as the Learning Together program in South Australia that seek to do this. The foundations of literacy are in oral language The development of literacy (including the capacity to read) is a social process with understandings about the spoken word, visual and written language constructed through interaction with others. The process of becoming literate begins with the first sounds a child hears, the first words spoken and continues throughout life. The significance of the spoken word and listening in the development of literacy (including the capacity to read) is fundamental. Phonological awareness is an important predictor of reading achievement. Many children who have difficulty identifying individual sounds in words have problems in reading new words and connected text. The value of songs, rhymes, jingles and games in building children's awareness of sounds is vital. Reciting rhymes with children in a fun environment, talking about which sounds are the same, clapping syllables and identifying words that start with the same sounds and words that rhyme are all enjoyable activities, available to all families and learning settings.Supporting children to increase their literacy capabilities requires early childhood–qualified professionals in children's services, preschools and the early years of school who have a deep understanding of the process of becoming literate and engaging young children in literacy learning Becoming literate is a complex, non-linear process. Early childhood services, preschools and the early years of school clearly play a major role in supporting children's literacy development.
They do this best by:- working in partnership with families and communities;
- recognising literacy development as a component of all aspects of young children's experience, which cannot be quarantined to a particular part of the school or early childhood service day; and
- having a deep understanding of how literacy develops and how early childhood pedagogy supports that development.
There are no short cuts to becoming literate and there are no substitutes for being supported in this process by knowledgeable teachers. There are real challenges to providing this support to young children in early childhood services and schools. With the exception of preschool services and long day care centres in NSW, early childhood specialist teachers are not mandated in early childhood services or early year's school classrooms: the specialist early childhood teacher is disappearing. Many people who have direct responsibility for the growth and development of young children in these settings may not have a deep understanding of how literacy develops in the early years and, therefore, may not know how to support its development. There are no simple solutions to this problem. What is needed are short-term strategies to support staff currently working in services and the early years of schools to develop learning environments in which young children can be immersed in the experiences that are essential to the process of becoming literate. Such support will need to be ongoing and require the provision of early childhood leadership. Longer-term strategies to strengthen and ensure the robustness of specialist early childhood degrees, including an intense focus on literacy and how it develops, will be necessary to obviate this problem in the future. At the same time, school systems and licensing authorities for early childhood services will need to put in place policies and regulations which require that people who have direct responsibility for children in the early years have early childhood degrees. Parents need to be confident that early childhood services and schools will support children to develop as active and successful participants in a world where being literate is essential. All educators who are responsible for young children need to be able to speak with confidence, to parents and others, about what is happening in their learning environment and their programs, and how this contributes to literacy development. An understanding of the multiple pathways to becoming literate will enhance educators' capacity to do this well. For parents, making the connection between what is being done in the classroom and children's learning, including literacy learning, is an essential element of the teaching task and is, in itself, an important part of literacy learning. There is also strong evidence to suggest that teacher expectation is a key component in children's literacy success and that educators need to be mindful of this when making judgements about the capacity of all children particularly those from less-privileged backgrounds. At the same time, some children starting school may not have had the early literacy experiences that will enable them to develop school literacies. Educators need to support children to develop that range of literacies that will support their ongoing learning and full participation in society. This is an ongoing process and will not be resolved by short-term specific programs. There is much evidence that such programs result in gains that are not sustained over time. Other approaches which set reading, for instance, within the framework of the social process of becoming literate and recognise the significance of family and cultural relationships need to be developed and tested through action research with capable teachers. Such programs will undoubtedly require some decrease in the teacher–child ratio in classrooms. Without this support, even knowledgeable and capable early childhood teachers will struggle with the task of engaging alienated young children in the processes for becoming literate. Children's early literacy development is too important to leave to chance.
This submission dated: May 2005.
For more information…
You may be interested in the Early Childhood Australia policy on Language and Literacy and the following resources available from Early Childhood Australia:
If you liked this article, you can 'social bookmark' it with others who might be searching for good content on early childhood. This means you can share your favourite webpages with others, or just keep an online list of your bookmarks so you can access them on any computer.
Read more about social bookmarks
|
|
