As the 2020-2021 school year gets underway in a variety of different formats, I thought it might be helpful to begin sharing resources that parents can use at home to support their child/ren’s learning. I have chosen to begin with a focus on families who have children that would be starting kindergarten or first grade. This first post will explore ways to foster the development of literacy as part of routine day-to-day life. Future posts will address how to determine your child’s areas of strength and areas for growth with regard to the literacy learning and how to foster growth once such areas have been identified.

Many families who are faced with the reality of e-learning or homeschooling have some apprehension around how they will help their child/ren learn to read. Literacy development is a significant part of primary (K-2) school experience. That said, it is important to remember that some of the most powerful ways children learn to read and write are from examples in their daily lives at home. Children are apprenticed into literate practices by watching and imitating the literate practices they observe parents, older siblings, and others in their social circle engage in. More often than not, unless we explicitly look for it, this apprenticeship happens at what researcher Denny Taylor refers to as “the margins of awareness” (Taylor, 1998). Kids pick up, try on, and develop an understanding of literate practices by modeling what they see those around them doing.

For example, when my son was three years old he brought me an envelope that he had put a sticker on and told me to mail it to grandpa. The sticker was not a stamp, but he had observed that I always put a sticker (stamp) on an envelope before I placed it in our mail slot. He also knew it had to be placed in the mail slot to get the mail carrier to deliver it. All of this knowledge was acquired through simple observation. While he had not yet mastered the literate practice of writing and mailing a letter, he’d figured out quite a bit through simple observation of daily routines.

Another time I was working on a grocery list when my son took the pen out of my hand and informed me, “I will do it.” He proceeded to mimic a practice that I hadn’t really even recognized as my procedure for list making. “Let’s see…we need…apples!” He would name an item and then “write it” on the notepad I’d been using. His writing consisted of scribbles, but by his thinking he had completed the task.

Each of these examples serves as a reminder that one of the most organic ways we can foster literacy development with/in our young learners is by practicing the routines of daily life. If we want to try to increase the likelihood of social apprenticeship we can utilize a strategy known as “think aloud” as we engage with literate tasks. Talk your way through the literate practices you routinely engage in. For example:

“I need to make a list for the grocery store. Let’s see, what do we need this week? I better write it down so I don’t forget. Apples…Milk…”
“Now I have to write Grandpa’s name and address on the envelope so the mail carrier knows who this letter is for and where to take it.”
“Hmm, which book is this? I’ll look at the cover. Oh, it’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I can tell by looking at the pictures and the words.”

We can also increase the likelihood children pick up and try on new ideas by having materials readily accessible. Have a spot for paper, markers, and tape by the play kitchen so kids can create their own café menus. Place a basket with birthday cards and envelopes in an accessible spot so your child can send greeting cards to family or friends. Leave a ziplock bag full of folded index cards and markers near the tub of vehicles so your child can make road signs to guide traffic during play. And remember, children learn to read the world pictorially before they learn to read the alphabetic text of words. If your child’s writing consists of pictures alone, this is absolutely fine during the early stages of literacy development.

Examples of Family Literacy Practices:

Grocery lists
To Do lists
Notes to one another
Birthday cards
Letters
Story telling
Book reading
Drawing
Reading menus at a restaurant
Reading signs on the street
Reading cereal boxes, food packaging, etc.
Following a recipe
Reading a direction guide to assemble something

To take this example one step further, a relatively easy strategy to borrow from classrooms is an instructional tool called a “morning message.” The concept of a morning message has roots in Responsive Classroom, a social-emotional learning program that aims to foster a strong sense of community within elementary and middle level classrooms. While originally designed for a classroom setting, I’ve found the morning message can be utilized equally well within a homeschool setting to facilitate the development of language and literacy.

The morning message is essentially a short note recorded on chart paper that greets learners, welcomes them to the new day, and reflects on prior and future learning (Crawfor, Nauman, & Rottman, 2002). The message works best as a tool for literacy development if you read the message along with the child (choral reading), pointing to the text as you read. This helps the child make connections between spoken language and written language.

The beauty of the morning message is that it is itself a tool of communication. In addition, a teacher or parent can use the message as a vehicle for fostering the development of specific literacy skills or strategies of focus. For example, you can direct a learner’s attention to a specific letter name by challenging him to circle all of the letter “A”s in a message. Or, you can challenge a learner to listen for and identify words that rhyme.

Guidance for the design, creation, and facilitation of morning messages is outlined below. For those who have children who will be schooling via e-learning, you might consider creating a morning message that leans on the skills addressed within the Zoom lessons facilitated by your child’s teacher. For those who have children engaged in homeschooling, you can utilize the morning message as a tool that both archives and maps forward your family’s learning adventures.

Finally, as you work to facilitate literacy development via e-learning or homeschooling, remember that a strong foundation for literacy learning has roots in the literate practices you already engage in as part of your day-to-day lives. In addition, the morning message is a simple tool you can borrow from classroom instruction that helps focus attention on basic concepts about print young children will need in order to become fluent readers and writers.

Next Blog: How to determine what your child knows about the “rules of the road” for reading

How to Construct a Morning Message

Materials:

Large pad of chart paper
- Post-it Pad works well. Or, use painter’s tape to hang chart paper on the wall.
Bright colored markers
Stickers (optional)
Pointer (optional)

Typical Elements of Message:

Greeting
Day of the Week
Date
Weather
Review of Prior Learning (typically best if this is focused on science/social studies/arts exploration). It is interesting to read a sentence like, “Yesterday we sorted apples into groups. The groups we discovered were _______, ________, and ______.” It is less interesting to read a sentence like “Yesterday we talked about an end mark called a _______.”
Preview of Forecasted Learning
Closing

Tips for Constructing a Morning Message:

Record your message on large chart paper. The purpose here is to make the text accessible to both you and your child at the same time (shared reading). In addition, when your child adds to the message his/her print will be at a size that is developmentally appropriate (larger).
Leave some important elements out (use a _________________ as a placeholder). Invite your child to fill in the missing information. S/he can draw a picture or attempt to use text to convey the missing information.
Use consistent color coding to help your child begin to distinguish between the elements of a friendly letter. One possibility is the following: Greeting (red), Body (blue), Closing (green).
Make use of repeated text across the course of a week. This allows your child to practice reading the same text and begin to develop fluency with that text. For example, “Today is ___________. The date is __________ ______, _______. The weather today is _________.”
Include textual artifacts from daily life. For example: “For breakfast this morning, we will have (glue photo of fruit loops).” This enables your child to practice reading environmental print.
Incorporate photographs
Save the messages and invite your child to practice reading them.

Sample Directed Learning Prompts:

Use this marker to circle every letter “A” you see. letter name/recognition)
Put a sticker by a capital letter. Do you see other capital letters or not? Let’s put stickers by them if we do. (differentiation between capital and lower case letters)
Will you use this marker to draw a box around the word “we” every time you see it? (sight word recognition)
Let’s read the message again. This time let’s listen for words that rhyme. Put your finger on your nose if you hear two words that rhyme.
Do you see a sentence in the message that is a telling sentence? Which one? How do you know?
Do you see a sentence in the message that is an asking sentence? Which one? How do you know?
Do you hear any consonant blends in this morning’s messages? Which ones? Can you find them in the message?

Citations:

Crawford, L., Nauman, K., & Rottman, C. (2002). Active literacy: A practical visual sourcebook. Minneapolis, MN: Origins.

Taylor, D. (1998). Family literacy: Young children learning to read and write. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.