Literacy Components

Loren Evans
Kelsey Gillman

Key Components of
Literacy
Emergent Literacy
Concepts About Print
Alphabetics and Phonological Awareness
Phonics Instruction
High Frequency Words
Shared and Interactive Reading Practices
Formal and Informal Assessment Techniques

Emergent Literacy
Emergent Literacy is a childs knowledge of

reading and writing before they can actually

read or write.
Examples of emerging Literacy:
Noticing logos such as restaurant signs, cereal
boxes and other logos.
Imitation of reading or making grocery list or
use of technology
Pretend reading
All children no matter how impoverished their environment may

be, have begun the journey along the path that begins with
language acquisition and ends in formal literacy (Gunning, 2016).

Concepts About Print

Reading from left to right
Reading from top to

bottom
Awareness that letters
and words convey
meaning
Print is what we read
The movement from one
line to the next while
reading
Illustrations match print
Every book has a front
cover, back cover and an
author

(C.A.P.) Assessment
The (C.A.P) Assessment was established by the
educational psychologist and author Marie Clay.
The assessment is used to capture childrens
print awareness before they have been formally
taught reading skills.
A book is read to the child by the teacher and the
child is asked to respond to questions about the
book. Those questions are the concepts about
print.
Marie Clay calls concepts about print the rules of the road, and writes,
Teachers must help all children become knowledgeable about these essential
concepts so they open doors to literacy. (Clay,2014)

Developing Reading and Writing

through..
Alphabetic
Knowledge- is
the ability to name
and identify sounds
of the alphabet.

Phonological
Awareness- is the
Gunning writes The two best predictors of future success in
hear sounds
reading are phonemic awareness ability
and letterto
knowledge.
(Gunning,2016)
that make up words
within the spoken
language.

Phonics
A method of teaching;
phonics instruction
helps one read by
correlating sounds with
letters or groups of
letters in the alphabet.
Phonics instruction
teaches skills needed
for decoding words.

Phonics

High Frequency Words

also known as sight words
There are reasons why children should be
taught high frequency words.
1. Words such as the, what, are do not follow
the rules taught with phonics. These words
cannot be sounded out, therefore, children
must know these words by sight.
2. High frequency words are words that appear
frequently in written text and have little
meaning alone.

High Frequency Words

Gunning suggests When teaching high frequency
words, limit the number of words to three or four.
Children learn sight words in just a few quality
encounters. (Gunning,2016)
Gunning also states Many students pick up a
number of high-frequency words through reading
signs and other print to which they are exposed in
class and through shared read. (Gunning,2016)
Word banks are beneficial for students to use
when learning high frequency words. The use of
words banks can also help reinforce phonics skills.

Shared
Readin
g
Shared reading
occurs when the
teacher reads a text
to the whole class
and the strategies
and skills are
practiced in the
safety of a group
setting.

Interactive Reading
During interactive

reading, the teacher

does not deliver the
information, however,
the teacher serves as a
mediator in helping
students to uncover
and answer key
questions of a text. The
teacher also engages
students in discussion
and collaboration.

Interactive Reading Cont.

In an interactive reading, students become

involved in the reading process by responding

to the teacher-readers prompts and probes.
The teacher-reader may also model making
predictions or drawing inferences (Gunning,
p. 119, 2016).

Assessment
Formal

Informal

Informal assessments are

Formal assessments are

not data driven. They are

usually referred to as
often used in making
standardize testing or any
judgment of students
test that produces
knowledge and learning.
percentile, or a standard
Running records,
Assessments
be used in many
different ways,
score.
Used tocan
compare
checklists,
and portfolios
however,
it is depending
type
of information
students
scores
among upon the
are
types
of informal
a teacher is seeking on which assessment is needed.
peers.
assessment.

References
Clay, M. M. (2014). By different paths to common outcomes: Literacy teaching and
learning.
Aukland, New Zealand: GlobaEducation Systems (GES).

Gunning, T. G. (2016). Creating literacy instruction for all students. Ninth Edition.
Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.