Required Areas of Study
English Language Arts
The aim of the English Language Arts Curricula, Kindergarten to Grade 12, is
to graduate students who can use language confidently and effectively to meet
life's various intellectual, social and vocational challenges.
The focus of the English Language Arts program is on the development of the
two interrelated domains of Oracy (listening and speaking) and Literacy (reading,
writing and responding to literature). Language development is complemented
through the supporting domains of Media Literacy, Educational Drama, Research
and Presentation, and Computer Applications.
The Kindergarten program works toward the development of the Emerging Phase
foundational objectives of the English Language Arts Curriculum. Kindergarten
students will demonstrate emerging:
- use of oral language to bring meaning to what they observe, feel, hear or
read
- ability to listen to the ideas of others in small and large group situations
- recognition that what is said can be written and read
- interest in participating in the exploration of the patterns, sounds and
rhymes of the English language during listening, speaking, and shared reading
and writing activities
- desire to participate in the discussion of the ideas and illustrations in
a variety of resources
- awareness that various cultures, lifestyles and experiences are portrayed
in literature
- awareness that print and symbols in their environments convey meaning.
The Developmental Continuum of Learning Objectives outlines the specific knowledge,
skills and attitudes to be developed by students from Kindergarten to Grade 5
as they gradually achieve the broader foundational objectives for each grade level.
This chart should serve as a guide for planning developmentally appropriate
activities and experiences at the Kindergarten level, and for taking advantage
of "teachable moments".
Activities and Experiences
The Kindergarten teacher should promote the development of oracy and literacy
by inviting interaction and communication in activities and experiences.
Through experiential approaches, the teacher can encourage students to be
active listeners and reflective speakers, and to explore the various uses of
print as they participate in meaningful, subject-integrated activities. Learning
to read, write, speak and listen is dependent upon physical, socio-emotional
and intellectual development. Students need to develop positive feelings about
themselves as readers and writers in order to meet challenges with confidence.
They need experiences which enable them to recognize that print and symbols
in their environment convey meaning. They also need experiences which encourage
self-expression. They need experiences with their own familiar oral language.
For example, the teacher can print for the students a familiar story.
A program designed to incorporate these experiences will develop emergent
readers and writers more effectively than a program which places great emphasis
on drill or formal instruction in recognizing and printing the letters of the
alphabet. These skills are required, but by themselves are sterile and insufficient
in developing literacy. The capacities that are needed can be developed within
the context of the play activities and experiences of the Kindergarten program.
Oracy Development
Frequent opportunities for oracy development should be provided through activities
such as role playing, the use of read-along books, the use of puppets, and class
and small group discussions.
The teacher's role is important for promoting interaction and communication
with peers and adults as students listen to and discuss stories, manipulate
objects, explore, think, make predictions and engage in problem-solving activities.
The Kindergarten teacher can ensure that such communication occurs by soliciting
students' questions, opinions and comments in both one on one and group situations.
The teacher should also invite students to talk about what they do, what they
feel, what they see, what is being read to them, and what they think. Questions
the teacher might ask include:
- "Why do you think each of the three little pigs built a different house?"
- "Do you think that animals really talk to one another like they do in
this story?"
- "What other stories can you think of where animals talk?"
- "Can you think of a different ending for this story?"
Literacy Development
Literacy development occurs as children come in contact with print in a variety
of situations in the Kindergarten classroom:
- daily reading by the teacher, teacher-librarian, volunteer, or an older
student
- a classroom library containing high quality resources
- printed material accompanying the activities at centres such as the writing
centre, the imaginative play centre, the block building centre
- environmental print and labels in the classroom
- print used along with visual cues on activity charts
- collaborative writing of greeting cards for various occasions, stories,
thank you notes, etc.
The Kindergarten program should provide opportunities for class and small group
shared reading and writing activities. These activities should introduce students
to a variety of genres and should include informative materials as well as fiction
works.
Following are some suggestions for collaborative reading and writing activities.
Students should be encouraged to:
- browse in the library regularly
- listen to the teacher reading aloud (for both pleasure and information)
- discuss the author, the illustrator, the rhythm, the mood of a selection
- share thoughts and preferences
- respond to literature by talking about characters and events, or by drawing
- participate in various collaborative writing experiences by dictating their
ideas to an adult or to an older student (experiences such as writing a simple
poem, creating lists and menus, writing a get well card to a friend who is
ill or a thank you note to an artist who came to the school)
- share emergent writing with peers in small groups.
The English Language Arts developmental continuum should guide teachers' intervention
and interaction with students in all the activities mentioned above. It should
be stressed again that oracy and literacy development occurs through all areas
of study.
A Word About Phonics
Whether or not to teach phonics is often an issue of great concern to early
childhood educators. The English Language Arts Curriculum acknowledges the importance
of phonics in enabling readers and writers to convey and construct meaning.
However, it advocates that students learn phonics generalizations in the context
of reading and writing stories, charts, passages, sentences and word families.
Over-emphasis on worksheets and drills is described as being an artificial and
tedious approach to understanding and using written language.
The chart on the following page, taken from: English Language Arts: A Curriculum
Guide for the Elementary Level, Saskatchewan Education, 1992, pages 52 and
53, describes the development of spelling and phonics knowledge and abilities
at the preschool to Grade 1 level. It also includes suggestions for the teacher's
role.
The Development of Spelling and Phonics Knowledge and Abilities
Prephonemic Stage
(Preschool, K, Grade 1)
Observable Understandings and Abilities
During this stage, students:
- recognize that printed symbols carry meaning
- understand that speech can be written
- understand that pictures extend and clarify the meaning of print
- use letter-like symbols frequently in combination with numbers, drawings
and designs to convey meaning
- use letter-like formations at random
- show eagerness to dictate ideas for others to write down
- attempt first "messages" which are typically own names
- realize there is a relationship between oral and written versions
of words.
Teacher's Role
- Read to students daily.
- Display and read printed charts, stories, classroom labels and directions
with students.
- Encourage students to contribute to environmental print displays.
- Track print during shared reading experiences to develop concepts
of directionality, lines and sentences, words, and punctuation and its
purpose.
- Focus on words as language units (framing).
- Model reading and writing daily.
- Have a variety of writing tools and paper accessible.
- Provide daily writing opportunities.
- Encourage students to communicate by "putting on paper" what best
represents or looks like what they want to say.
- Observe, record and report students' interest in printed language.
(See the "Emerging Literacy Checklist" in the "Evaluation" component
on page 187.)
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Early Phonemic Stage
(K, Grade 1)
Observable Understandings and Abilities:
During this stage, students:
- are developing the "alphabetic principle"--they know that letters
correspond to sounds but cannot necessarily match sounds to letters
- can form some, but not all, letters of the alphabet
- understand left-to-right directionality
- string letters together to look like printed language
- frequently code or spell accurately the initial and final sounds in
words.
Teacher's Role
- Read to students daily.
- Continue to develop "word" concept.
- Display and discuss key vocabulary words.
- Encourage students to write what they want to say using pictures,
scribbles, letters or sounds they know, leaving blanks for unknown parts.
- Ask students to read back "what their writing says".
- Explore rhyming words and word families (at, cat, mat, hat).
- Model writing during collaborative writing activities.
- Compose and sing rhymes and songs with students.
- Compile files of dated writing samples.
- Observe, record and report, to students and parents, students'
knowledge of phonics and the extent to which this knowledge is applied
during reading and writing activities.
- Praise accurate letter-for-sound applications in writing, and accurate
sounding of words, word parts and letters in reading.
- Explain to colleagues and parents that the developmental approach
to spelling recognizes students' early invented spelling as their efforts
to apply phonics and language rules to the print system. These spelling
efforts should not be regarded as mistakes during these early stages
of development.
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The Environment
The environment within the classroom plays an important role in promoting
an interest in language, as well as an awareness of the diverse functions of
language.
Following are some suggestions for creating a language-rich and stimulating
environment in the Kindergarten classroom, and for promoting the use of language
for various purposes :
- Provide a variety of fair and equitable books in as many centres as possible,
but especially the quiet-time relaxation centre (e.g., fiction, non-fiction,
wordless books, concept books).
- Include a variety of materials in the writing centre; e.g., paper, hole
punches, staplers, markers. (See "The Writing Centre," for more suggested materials.)
- Display a variety of printed messages (e.g., labels, the daily schedule,
environmental print, lists, messages that serve as reminders or organizers).
- Provide reading, writing and illustrating materials in various activity
centres (e.g., pencils and note pads for making grocery lists, tickets or
appointments; address books, telephone books, magazines, recipe books).
- Space permitting, make or ask children to bring scrapbooks to school for
use as personal journals. Children could make entries, as desired, during
their playtime or occasionally during planned periods (e.g., after an outing).
The Kindergarten program should nurture interest in oral and printed language
and expand the communication and learning abilities for children of all cultural
and linguistic backgrounds.
John McInnes Interviews Two Early Childhood Educators