‘Building Bridges’ and Indigenous Literacy: Learning from Indigenous Families

This article outlines the Australian Early Childhood Association project Building Bridges: literacy development for young indigenous children, funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Building Bridges was a highly innovative project designed to develop resources for improving literacy competence in indigenous young children.

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“Dear Sophia, I’m Going to Another World”

Advances in Early Childhood and K-12 Education - Critical Practice in P-12 Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-5059-6.ch005 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 118-141

Author(s):

Stacia M. Stribling ◽

Elizabeth K. DeMulder

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Young Children ◽

Critical Literacy ◽

Literacy Instruction ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

Classroom Community ◽

Literacy Learning ◽

Early Childhood Settings ◽

Relevant Pedagogy

This chapter shares anecdotes from two early childhood classrooms where issues of diversity helped shape and drive literacy instruction. The stories of change and challenge in these two classroom settings highlight the potential for literacy learning when it is grounded in critical, culturally relevant pedagogy, and when it takes seriously the knowledge and experiences students bring to the classroom community. The chapter has four main purposes: (a) to emphasize the need to reframe/redefine what it means to be literate, (b) to explore the ways that innovative critical literacy practices can be used in early childhood settings as effective methods for engaging young children and supporting their literacy development, (c) to share some of the tensions that emerge when incorporating critical literacy practices in diverse early childhood settings, and (d) to propose ways to better prepare and support teachers to do this work.

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Enhanced Picture Books

Technological Tools for the Literacy Classroom ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-3974-4.ch012 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 196-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria Cahill ◽

Anne McGill-Franzen ◽

Dawn Peterson

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Young Children ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Picture Books ◽

Research Literature ◽

Shared Reading ◽

Home School ◽

Early Childhood Classroom ◽

School Connection ◽

Children's Literacy

This chapter provides a rationale for using digitally Enhanced Picture Books (EPBs), electronic texts which pair text narration with animated pictures, with young children in the classroom and as a home-school connection tool. First, we synthesize the research on shared reading with young children. Next, we detail the research literature in the area of digital text use with young children. We suggest substantive variables to consider when selecting EPBs. Finally, we recommend practices for integrating EPBs into the primary and early childhood classroom in a manner that will advance young children’s literacy development.

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Identity and Precompetence in Early Childhood: The Case of School-Literacy Learning

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/183693919502000105 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 17-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Peter Freebody

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Young Children ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Literacy Learning ◽

Learning Activities ◽

Reading And Writing ◽

Knowing How ◽

School Work

This paper explores the proposition that young children need to discover and actively participate in adults’ theories of childhood. It focuses on reading and writing lessons in classrooms and homes to support and illustrate this proposition. In these and other cross-generation teaching and learning activities, an important part of adults’ theories of childhood relates to what is termed children's ‘precompetence’ in accomplishing certain tasks. To be successful participants, it is argued, children need to find the adults’ preferred ways of hearing ‘wanting to and knowing how to try’. The paper shows ways in which children collaborate in and sometimes contest the need to display precompetent identities, and briefly discusses the consequences, for enculturation in general and for school work in particular, of failing to appear precompetent.

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Citizenship for All in the Literate Community: An Ethnography of Young Children with Significant Disabilities in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings

Harvard Educational Review ◽

10.17763/haer.74.4.p46171013714642x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 74 (4) ◽

pp. 373-403 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

CHRISTOPHER KLIEWER ◽

LINDA MAY FITZGERALD ◽

JODI MEYER-MORK ◽

PATRESA HARTMAN ◽

PAT ENGLISH-SAND ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Young Children ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Children With Disabilities ◽

Ethnographic Methods ◽

Significant Disabilities ◽

Making Meaning ◽

Children's Narratives ◽

Early Childhood Settings ◽

Inclusive Early Childhood

In this study, Christopher Kliewer, Linda Fitzgerald, Jodi Meyer-Mork, Patresa Hartman, Pat English-Sand, and Donna Raschke use ethnographic methods to explore literacy development in young children considered to have significant disabilities. The study settings included nine preschool and kindergarten classrooms across five programs, all of which involved children with and without disabilities learning side-byside. Over the course of two school years, the authors observed teachers emphasizing children's narratives, and in so doing effectively fostering the citizenship of all children in the literate communities of the classrooms under study. The authors describe several themes that appeared in their data related to fostering effective literacy development in children historically segregated from rich curricular opportunities. In this effort, defining literacy as making meaning and interpreting children with disabilities as competent meaning-makers was foremost.

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Family Literacy: Schools and Families of Young Children Working Together

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/183693910102600205 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 20-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jennifer Jayatilaka

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Young Children ◽

Western Australia ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Family Literacy ◽

Early Childhood Educator ◽

Literacy Initiative ◽

Working Together ◽

Children's Literacy ◽

Masters Degree

This paper examines ways in which schools and their communities might work together to support young children's literacy development as they make the transition from home to school. Recent research in the area of family literacy is discussed and the terms ‘literacy’ and ‘family literacy’ defined. Implications and recommendations for schools are discussed in terms of a participatory, empowering model of family literacy. This model is illustrated by examples from a recent family literacy initiative conducted by the author. Jenny Jayatilaka completed this research as part of her Masters degree at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. She has been an early childhood educator for more than 20 years.

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