Maori Literacy Research | He Matai Matatupu | Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust

Observing emerging literacy
There have been many exciting observational studies of children’s writing since the 1970s. The young child has emerged as an active participant in the process of becoming a writer. To take only one illustration, the studies of Mexican and Argentinian children by Ferreiro and Teberosky (1982) described the fascinating shifts occurring well before children begin to use the alphabetical principle of letter-sound relationships, which we commonly think of as the beginning of writing. These preschool children were making discoveries about writing, constructing the writing system and making it their own. The observation of early writing behaviours has taken us forward in great leaps since 1975.
Many observers discovered that preschool children explore the detail of print in their environment, on signs, cereal packets and television advertisements. They develop concepts about books, newspapers and messages, and what it is to read these. Case studies over long periods of time show how children change over time and how more advanced concepts emerge out of earlier understandings.
Preschool children already know something about the world of print from their environments. This leads them to form primitive hypotheses about letters, words or messages both printed and handwritten. It is a widely held view that learning to read and write in school will be easier for the child with rich preschool literacy experiences than it is for the child who has had few opportunities for such learning.
We have learned of these things mainly through research which has used observation rather than experimentation as its method. When we become neutral observers and watch children at work in systematic and repeatable ways we begin to uncover some of our own assumptions and notice how wrong these can sometimes be.

Observing school entrants
Systematic observation of school entrants has distinct advantages over readiness testing. At entry to school children have been learning for five to six years since they were born. They are all ready to learn more than they already know. Why do schools and educators find this so difficult to understand? Teachers must find out what children already know, and take them from where they are to somewhere else.
When we give a ‘readiness test’ to a new school entrant we are trying to predict school progress from what a child already knows (see Measuring abilities, page 17). We are merely asking, ‘Are you ready for my programme?’ Readiness tests divide children into a competent group ready to learn on a particular programme and a problem group supposedly not ready to learn. On the other hand, observations which record what learners already know about emerging literacy eliminate the problem group. They are all ready to learn something, but are starting from different places.
Suppose we observe the literacy behaviours of a group of new school entrants. Some know a little about reading and writing and others know very little. Those who know very little may have paid almost no attention to print in their preschool years because they had little opportunity or encouragement, or no incentive or interest. Or perhaps some adults around them tried to teach them and the children found the tasks very confusing and so withdrew their effort to learn. Undoubtedly, what the young child knows about literacy when he or she enters school is not a matter of competency unfolding from within, for in an oral culture where literacy does not exist, no such behaviour unfolds. It is a matter of opportunities to learn about a very arbitrary symbol system. There will be individual differences for other reasons but the one aspect of this development that we can influence and foster is in the area of appropriate opportunities to learn. That usually means providing a responsive environment within which the child can explore and negotiate meanings.
When children enter school we need to observe what they know and can do, and build on that foundation whether it is rich or meagre.
The New Zealand teachers I worked with in various research projects did observe children when they entered school and taught to expand the various competencies that children already had. They taught in ways that introduced children to print in reading and in writing activities so that they could learn more than they already knew. They gave more help and more attention to the children who knew the least, making up for missed opportunities to learn.
The observation tasks used in this Survey are not readiness tests which sort children into who is ready to face literacy learning and who is not. In particular the Concepts About Print (CAP) task is not a readiness test beause it only samples one dimension of a child’s preparation for formal instruction. However, ‘. . . in the United States . . . the CAP tests have tended to be used in kindergarten in much the same way that readiness tests are often used’ (Stallman and Pearson, 1990). While those authors look to the construction of better commercially available tests of readiness, I strongly support the abandonment of the readiness concept in its old form. All children are ready to learn; it is the teachers who need to know how to create appropriate instruction for where each child is. To do this effectively they need to observe a wide range of literacy behaviours throughout the first years of school. (See also Clay, 1991, page 19.)
My theoretical analysis of beginning reading and writing tells me that children have to extend their knowledge along each of several different dimensions of learning as they approach formal literacy instruction. At the same time they have to learn how to relate learning in any one of these areas (say letter learning) to learning in any other (say messages and meanings). Along each of these dimensions more learning has to occur. It does not happen in an orderly way. It is not the same for all children. Each learner starts with what he or she already knows and uses that to support what has to be learnt next.
To become observers of the early stages of literacy learning teachers will have to give up looking for a single, short assessment test for the acquisition stages of reading and writing. Children move into reading by different tracks and early assessments must be wide-ranging. If there is a single task that stands up better than any other it is the running record of text reading. This is a neutral observation task, capable of use in any system of reading, and recording progress on whatever gradient of text difficulty has been adopted by the education system. (See pages 49-77, also Johnston, 1992.)

	page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Observing emerging literacy There have been many exciting observational studies of children’s writing since the 1970s. The young child has emerged as an active participant in the process of becoming a writer. To take only one illustration, the studies of Mexican and Argentinian children by Ferreiro and Teberosky (1982) described the fascinating shifts occurring well before children begin to use the alphabetical principle of letter-sound relationships, which we commonly think of as the beginning of writing. These preschool children were making discoveries about writing, constructing the writing system and making it their own. The observation of early writing behaviours has taken us forward in great leaps since 1975. Many observers discovered that preschool children explore the detail of print in their environment, on signs, cereal packets and television advertisements. They develop concepts about books, newspapers and messages, and what it is to read these. Case studies over long periods of time show how children change over time and how more advanced concepts emerge out of earlier understandings. Preschool children already know something about the world of print from their environments. This leads them to form primitive hypotheses about letters, words or messages both printed and handwritten. It is a widely held view that learning to read and write in school will be easier for the child with rich preschool literacy experiences than it is for the child who has had few opportunities for such learning. We have learned of these things mainly through research which has used observation rather than experimentation as its method. When we become neutral observers and watch children at work in systematic and repeatable ways we begin to uncover some of our own assumptions and notice how wrong these can sometimes be. Observing school entrants Systematic observation of school entrants has distinct advantages over readiness testing. At entry to school children have been learning for five to six years since they were born. They are all ready to learn more than they already know. Why do schools and educators find this so difficult to understand? Teachers must find out what children already know, and take them from where they are to somewhere else. When we give a ‘readiness test’ to a new school entrant we are trying to predict school progress from what a child already knows (see Measuring abilities, page 17). We are merely asking, ‘Are you ready for my programme?’ Readiness tests divide children into a competent group ready to learn on a particular programme and a problem group supposedly not ready to learn. On the other hand, observations which record what learners already know about emerging literacy eliminate the problem group. They are all ready to learn something, but are starting from different places. Suppose we observe the literacy behaviours of a group of new school entrants. Some know a little about reading and writing and others know very little. Those who know very little may have paid almost no attention to print in their preschool years because they had little opportunity or encouragement, or no incentive or interest. Or perhaps some adults around them tried to teach them and the children found the tasks very confusing and so withdrew their effort to learn. Undoubtedly, what the young child knows about literacy when he or she enters school is not a matter of competency unfolding from within, for in an oral culture where literacy does not exist, no such behaviour unfolds. It is a matter of opportunities to learn about a very arbitrary symbol system. There will be individual differences for other reasons but the one aspect of this development that we can influence and foster is in the area of appropriate opportunities to learn. That usually means providing a responsive environment within which the child can explore and negotiate meanings. When children enter school we need to observe what they know and can do, and build on that foundation whether it is rich or meagre. The New Zealand teachers I worked with in various research projects did observe children when they entered school and taught to expand the various competencies that children already had. They taught in ways that introduced children to print in reading and in writing activities so that they could learn more than they already knew. They gave more help and more attention to the children who knew the least, making up for missed opportunities to learn. The observation tasks used in this Survey are not readiness tests which sort children into who is ready to face literacy learning and who is not. In particular the Concepts About Print (CAP) task is not a readiness test beause it only samples one dimension of a child’s preparation for formal instruction. However, ‘. . . in the United States . . . the CAP tests have tended to be used in kindergarten in much the same way that readiness tests are often used’ (Stallman and Pearson, 1990). While those authors look to the construction of better commercially available tests of readiness, I strongly support the abandonment of the readiness concept in its old form. All children are ready to learn; it is the teachers who need to know how to create appropriate instruction for where each child is. To do this effectively they need to observe a wide range of literacy behaviours throughout the first years of school. (See also Clay, 1991, page 19.) My theoretical analysis of beginning reading and writing tells me that children have to extend their knowledge along each of several different dimensions of learning as they approach formal literacy instruction. At the same time they have to learn how to relate learning in any one of these areas (say letter learning) to learning in any other (say messages and meanings). Along each of these dimensions more learning has to occur. It does not happen in an orderly way. It is not the same for all children. Each learner starts with what he or she already knows and uses that to support what has to be learnt next. To become observers of the early stages of literacy learning teachers will have to give up looking for a single, short assessment test for the acquisition stages of reading and writing. Children move into reading by different tracks and early assessments must be wide-ranging. If there is a single task that stands up better than any other it is the running record of text reading. This is a neutral observation task, capable of use in any system of reading, and recording progress on whatever gradient of text difficulty has been adopted by the education system. (See pages 49-77, also Johnston, 1992.)