Early Literacy Intervention

The purpose of African Americans and Boys: Understanding the Literacy Gap, Tracing Academic Trajectories, and Evaluating the Role of Learning-Related Skills is to explain which factors contribute to the literacy gap of African Americans, but primarily African American boys, in early childhood education. The study highlights that previous research identifies the presence of an achievement gap and makes associations with socioeconomic status (SES), lack of motivation, discrimination, and misbehavior as influences to the gap (Cortina, Kizzie, Matthews, & Rowley, 2010). However, in this study, the researchers attempt to explain why the gap exists, arguing that learning-related skills (LRS) best explain the literacy gap, more so than problem behaviors, socioeconomic status, and home literacy environment (Cortina et al., 2010).

Next, is the Early Literacy Intervention Literacy Intervention Initiative Act. “The early childhood years are the most Important period for literacy development.” (Freeman, Decker, Decker (2013) p. 231). The Early Literacy Initiative is a joint effort with the State and local government to identify children with reading deficiencies and implement early reading intervention programs. The purpose of Early Literacy Initiative is to reduce the number of poor readers by providing research based prevention programs to ensure that every student can read by the 3rd

When children enter school, it is important for teachers to understand that each child brings with them their own set of experiences and background knowledge. Some children are fortunate to bring with them a strong vocabulary, which can translate to these students having between 4,000 and 8,000 more word meanings by the second grade than their peers with weak vocabularies, therefore it is important to intervene in the early grades to help prevent such a vast discrepancy and strengthen the vocabulary of the students who enter school less prepared. This article represents the findings of adding small-group interventions to first grade classroom’s Read Aloud Curriculum with the expectation that it would improve vocabulary for students identified

Using the bottom-up approach to disseminate the information for teachers and students affected by the Leveled Literacy Intervention program (LLI). Chen (2015) explains that if a “real world program is found practical, an effective evaluation provides systematic and evidence of the of the intervention’s effectiveness long-term and in the real world” (p. 400). Accelerating the dissemination of effective interventions and practices are indispensable to LLI and the improvement in reading achievement (Ng & Bartlett, 2017). The bottom-up reading model ensures sustainability of effective intervention or training and developed by stakeholders and researchers (Ng & Bartlett, 2017; Chen, 2017). Notably, it is the process of getting teachers to collaborate

This literature review is my work in progress for my master`s final project at Washington State University. My chair Dr.Tom Salsbury recommended some of the articles that I included in this literature review. The key words are engagement, motivation, English language Learners, reading, struggling readers, parent involvement, home literacy, literacies, home-school connections, and funds of knowledge.

Recently the term “reading readiness” has given way “emergent literacy” by which we mean the many skills children need for reading and writing. From the time they were born and continuing through the preschool years, each child picks up in his or her own way. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are all part of emergent literacy. Literacy really begins when an infant coos or babbles, then hears those sound repeated by a responsive and loving adults. These early conversation, which can make adults feel a little silly, and a gentle introduction to spoken language

The U.S. Department of Education’s study of 22,000 kindergartners in the kindergarten class of 1998-99, found that Black and Hispanic children were substantially behind when they entered kindergarten (Children’s Defense Fund, 2009). Children from low-income are less likely to participate in high quality early childhood and pre- kindergarten programs that prepare children to succeed in school. Early Head Start programs serve only 3% of infants and toddlers from eligible low income families (Fiester, 2010).

“Literacy learning has a profound and lasting effect on the social and academic lives of children. Their future educational opportunities and career choices are directly related to literacy ability. Since early childhood is the period when language develops most rapidly, it is imperative that young children are provided with a variety of developmentally appropriate literacy experiences throughout each day, and that the classroom environment is rich with language, both spoken and printed. Early childhood teachers are responsible for both understanding the developmental continuum of language and literacy and for supporting each child’s literacy development.

Learning New Words From Storybooks: An Efficacy Study With At-Risk Kindergartners by Laura M. Justice, Joanne Meier and Sharon Walpole set out to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing storybook reading activities to at risk kindergarten children who are in low socioeconomic status communities. The study examined the ability to learn new words from reading the same books over a period of 10 weeks and whether elaboration versus non-elaboration of specific words in context would influence the accusation of vocabulary. This is relevant to reading as vocabulary acquisition is a strong predictor for future reading performance. The study several references research articles in which deficits in vocabulary suggested potential future reading problems. Given this idea, the study aimed to identify means in which to enhance low SES children's vocabulary in order to potentially encourage future reading development.

When dealing with early literacy and early fluency providing the reader with input and checking their fluency is very much so key. In both you have to make sure they have a strong oral vocabulary bank and also be fluent with it through literacy text and context. In Early literacy you have to watch over the leaner and make sure they are able to comprehend phonemes, As for Fluency they need to be able swing their phonics into word study. In early fluency they have to be able to develop the skill to match the sound with the spelling patterns of the English letters and parts of the words. With fluency they need to have listening comprehension differences with L1 and English.

While there are children from many socio-economical statuses that may struggle with reading in general, there is a large percentage of children from poor families that have little to no money to spend on things such as books. Children raised in poverty, those who have limited proficiency in English (when taught in an English speaking school), parents' whose reading levels are low, and those with speech, language, and hearing handicaps are also at increased risk of reading deficiencies. Of the 16 million children living in poverty in the U.S., two-thirds don’t have a book to call their own (RIF, n.d). RIF encourages reading for any child not just children that are at risk they essentially cover every child, so there is no real influence to their intervention; they simply want to ensure that every child grows up with the opportunity to

One of the identified critical instructional components for helping students learn to read is vocabulary. Since the National Reading Panel (2000) and the National Early Literacy Panel (2009) reported that strong early oral vocabulary knowledge is a predictor for later successful reading outcomes, an increased research and teaching focus in this area has arisen.

This paper is a review of the article entitled, “The Importance of Early Vocabulary for Literacy Achievement in High Poverty Schools.” The article was co-written by Lowry Hemphill of Wheelock College and Terrence Tivnan of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The article was published by the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk in 2008. The author’s objective was to gather data supporting the correlation between early literacy vocabulary skills and literacy achievement in students raised in low socioeconomic situations.

Literacy consists of a range of ways to understand and decode symbols for communication in a community (Barratt-Pugh & Rohl, 2000, p. 25). Emergent literacy is a term used to describe how young children interact with books, reading and writing (What is Emergent Literacy, 2006, p.1). Emerging literacy is an ongoing process and to ensure this process is successful children need to be stimulated through active engagement with books and writing opportunities.

When returning back to teaching I think it’s important for me to understand the major factors that affect reading vocabulary levels. Researching this topic will prepare me in becoming a better English teacher. Exploring these various affects will allow me to become more conscious and prepared when it comes to helping my students with vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. When entering the classroom every child is different so it’s important to understand diversity in the classroom. Wright states, “Right from the beginning of schooling, there are profound differences in vocabulary knowledge among young learners from different socioeconomic groups. Just consider the following statistics: by age 4, a child interaction with his or family has already produced significant vocabulary differences across socioeconomic lines, differences so dramatic that they represent a 30 million word catastrophe” Furthermore, this paper will explore three major factors that affects reading vocabulary levels, home environment, school experiences, and child’s ability to make connection during reading.