How We Learn

How We Learn sections include: (click to view the section)

Beliefs About Literacy Development

How We Learn

What Children Need to Know

Beliefs About Literacy Development

What do we believe ?

The beliefs on which this document is based include the following:

• Parents are their children's first teachers.
• Literacy learning is a natural process that begins in the home.
• Parents strongly influence children's attitudes about school and learning.
• There is a direct relationship between the family's literacy and a child's educational success.
• Children learn to read best when they have books and other reading and writing materials at home and plenty of chances to read and write and talk, with parents and on their own. (Books can come from library, bookstores, as gifts and as treats !)

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How We Learn

How do children learn?

Learning to read is like learning anything else - it happens over time, with practice and with the help of others. Think of a learning experience you have had. Consider things such as:

• what motivated the learning,
• who was involved,
• what that person's role was,
• how you knew what to do, and
• what your feelings were throughout the process.

Usually in bringing back those memories you might recall seeing something done that you wanted to learn either for fun or to improve yourself in some way. You found someone who could teach you and engaged their help. They began by demonstrating the skill for you in some way and then turned it over to you to try, staying close to provide support. As you became more and more confident, your knowledgeable other offered less and less support. You received feedback and praise and that encouraged you to continue practicing. Eventually you were ready to try the skill out on your own and show others what you could do. Over time you found other ways to use your skill. Some version of this scenario is how we learn most things.

If we think about how a child learns something like how to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it is basically the same process. First he watches someone else like Mom make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for an older sibling's lunch box, probably many times. Then he asks to do it too. Mom allows him to try, more than likely standing close and keeping her hand on the knife and the child's hand. He tries to make a sandwich on his own while someone watches and he learns by doing. The more he practices, the better he gets. Mom begins to offer less support. It helps during his practice that Mom gives him helpful pointers or feedback so he gets better faster. One day he tells Mom "I can do it by myself!" Then he expands this new knowledge and may try to make different kinds of sandwiches and may even feel confident enough to try other types of food preparation.

This is how we all learn - by having a purpose for learning, by demonstration or modeling by a knowledgeable other, by doing and by practice, getting feedback from an expert, practicing, refining - eventually doing the learned skill on our own - and then expanding it to other situations or uses.

This is the same way we learn to talk, to read, and to write. As you read this document, keep in mind that as your children learn to read and write, offer them demonstrations, modeling, opportunities for practice, and lots of support and slowly but surely step back and let them take off on their own!

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What Children Need to Know

What are the things to look for as children are learning to read and write? What are some of the things my child needs to know how to do?

Children are unique. There is wide variability in attention to print for many reasons - interest, preschool experiences, attention span, opportunities to learn. . . The following is a list of possible accomplishments and can be used as a guide to understanding your child's progress in learning about print. There are many such lists available and they all differ in some ways. Please use this as a guideline only to what is reasonable to expect within a range of ages.

Birth to 3 Year Old Accomplishments

• Recognizes specific books by cover
• Pretends to read books
• Understands that books are handled in particular ways
• Enters into a book sharing routine with parents/caregivers
• Labels objects in books
• Comments on characters in books
• Looks at picture in book and realizes it is a symbol for real object
• Listens to and responds to stories
• Requests / commands adult to read or write
• May begin attending to specific print, such as letters in names
• Uses increasingly purposeful scribbling
• Occasionally seems to distinguish between drawing and writing
• Produces some letter-like forms and scribbles with some features of English writing

3 - 4 Year Old Accomplishments

Children are unique. There is wide variability in attention to print for many reasons - interest, preschool experiences, attention span, opportunities to learn. . . The following is a list of possible accomplishments and can be used as a guide to understanding your child's progress in learning about print. . There are many such lists available and they all differ in some ways. Please use this as a guideline only to what is reasonable to expect within a range of ages.

• Knows that alphabet letters are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named
• Recognizes print in the local environment
• Knows that it is the print that is read in stories
• Understands that different text forms are used for different functions of print
• Pays attention to separable and repeating sounds in language
• Use new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in own speech
• Understands and follows oral directions
• Is sensitive to some sequences of events in stories
• Shows an interest in books and reading
• When being read a story, connects information and events to real-life experiences
• Questions and comments demonstrate understanding of literal meaning of story being told
• Displays reading and writing attempts, calling attention to self: "Look at my story."
• Can identify about 10 alphabet letters, especially those from own name
• Writes (scribbles) message as part of playful activity
• May begin to attend to beginning or rhyming sounds in salient words
• Recognizes his/her name in print
• Attempts to write name

Kindergarten Accomplishments

Children are unique. There is wide variability in attention to print for many reasons - interest, preschool experiences, attention span, opportunities to learn. . . The following is a list of possible accomplishments and can be used as a guide to understanding your child's progress in learning about print. . There are many such lists available and they all differ in some ways. Please use this as a guideline only to what is reasonable to expect within a range of ages.

• Knows the parts of a book and their functions
• Begins to track print when listening to a familiar text being read or when rereading own writing
• "Reads" familiar text (not necessarily verbatim from print)
• Recognizes and can name all uppercase and lowercase letters
• Understands that the sequence of letters in a written word represents the sequence of sounds (phonemes) in a spoken word (alphabetic principle)
• Learns many, though not all, one to one letter correspondences
• Recognizes some words by sight, including a few very common ones (the - I- we - the - my - you)
• Uses new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in own speech
• Notices when simple sentences fail to make sense
• Connects information and events in texts to life and life experiences to text
• Retells, reenacts, or dramatizes stories or parts of stories
• Listens attentively to books the teacher reads to class
• Can name some book titles and authors
• Demonstrates familiarity with a number of types or genres of text (storybooks, poetry, newspapers and everyday print such as letters, signs, notices etc)
• Correctly answers questions about stories read aloud
• Makes predictions based on illustrations or portions of stories
• Demonstrates understanding that spoken words consist of sequences of sounds
• Given spoken sets like dan, dan, den can identify the first two as the same and the third as different
• Given spoken sets like dak, pat, zen can identify the first two as sharing a common sound
• Given spoken segments can merge them into a meaningful target word
• Given a spoken word can produce another word that rhymes with it
• Independently writes many upper and lowercase letters
• Uses phonemic awareness and letter name knowledge to spell independently (invented or temporary spelling)
• Writes unconventionally to express own meaning
• Builds a repertoire of some conventionally spelled words
• Show awareness of distinction between "kids writing" and conventional writing
• Writes own name (first and last) and the first names of some friends or classmates
• Can write most letters and some words when they are dictated  

What are the expectations in Reading and Writing for my child in the early grades of elementary school?

Standards have been developed by the New Standards Primary Literacy Committee funded by the U. S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement. For specific information about expectations for Kindergarten through Grade 3, please visit www.ncee.org for the publication entitled, Reading and Writing Grade by Grade: Primary literacy standards for kindergarten through third grade. Also, check with your state education agency for guidelines specific to your state.

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