Fostering Emerging Literacy - A Tip for Parents and Teachers of Young Children


by Suzanne Lieurance - Date: 2007-02-20 - Word Count: 501 Share This!

As a children's author, many times when I speak at elementary schools it's in conjunction with some writing project the students have been doing. Very often each student in the school has written a small book of his own, which is usually just a few pages of lined tablet paper, stapled together between two pages of colored construction paper, with colorful drawings or photos clipped from magazines to use as illustrations.

Most of the students enjoy making these books. And though they may be fairly simple projects, they are invaluable as far as being evaluation tools for the teacher. Which leads me to this literacy tip for preschool and elementary school teachers and parents. You're probably already aware of this tip of you're an elementary school teacher, but I think this is a worthwhile reminder for parents and teachers, so here goes.

Before you have students make their own books, spend some time with the class (or your own child, if you're a parent helping the child at home) surveying several picture books. These don't have to be children's picture books. Beautiful "coffee table" books for adults can be also used.

Point out to the children the way the books are put together - usually in what the publishing world calls "spreads" with text on one page of the spread and an illustration on the opposite page of the spread - Or - a picture book might have the text and illustrations on the same page, all the way through the text.

Make sure the children realize that the illustrations they will later paste or draw in their own books should correspond to the text in the same way the pictures and illustrations do in a professionally published book. That is, pictures on a particular page should match up with the text (or action) on that same page.

This seems so simple. But so many young students miss this concept. When I look at their books during my school visits, I often notice that the illustrations on a particular page have nothing to do with the text or action on that page. As a teacher, when you see students doing this, it will let you know they are missing some of the visual clues and cues in books, which might be one reason they are having trouble reading (sounding out the words) or comprehending the text as well as they could be.

If you're a parent, you should become aware of the same thing and help your child learn to more clearly understand the structure of books. Don't assume that your young child will naturally know how to put together text and illustrations simply because you've read countless stories aloud to him or her (although, if you have, your child will probably be more aware of how those books are a perfect marriage of text and illustration).

Talk about books and the relationships between words and illustrations. This goes a long way in fostering emerging literacy, and you'll notice a big difference in the way many students contruct their own books.


Related Tags: literacy, emerging literacy, for teachers

Suzanne Lieurance is a children's author, freelance writer, former classroom teacher, and a writing coach. She has written 13 published books for children with one more due to be released soon. She created the Writing for Children Center online at http://www.writingforchildrencenter.blogspot.com and the Children's Writers Coaching Club to help both aspiring children's writers and classroom teachers. Lieurance also helps people who like to write become "working" freelance writers. Visit her website at http://www.workingwriterscoach.com to find out how to receive her two f.ree ebooks for writers and also receive a f.ree subscription to The Morning Nudge.

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