In the primary grades, reading and writing instruction have traditionally been two of the three basics that all children must master. Traditional wisdom is bolstered by research that has tracked children's reading success from kindergarten and 1st grade into later elementary and high school years. These longitudinal studies confirm that the process of becoming literate begins early in life and that children's early experiences affect school readiness and later school success (Hart and Risley 1995, Juel 1988, Snow et al. 1991).
To better understand the factors that influence literacy, the Center for Children and Families at the Education Development Center, Inc., is working with Harvard University on the Home-School Study. By following more than 60 children over a period of 10 years, we are learning about the types of environments and teaching practices that stimulate language and literacy development.
Two Classrooms
As part of the study, researchers visited 69 1st grade classrooms in 11 school systems. During these visits, we observed the classrooms, instructional materials, and samples of children's work, and interviewed the teachers. In addition to identifying factors that support literacy, we discovered enormous variability in how educators conceptualize and foster literacy. Two vignettes illustrate the variations.William's classroom has centers for math, science, language, writing, and art. The classroom library area, appealingly decorated with a rug and a blanket, has more than 40 books. Children's stories about beavers and their poems about spiders and ants line the science center walls. Elsewhere their stories about their vacations, a hungry tomato, and what happened one dark night fill the walls alongside colorful posters displaying letters, numbers, and nursery rhymes. As William joins the reading group, his teacher, Ms. Kerlan, is discussing current events with the children, using a map to show them where events occurred. Later she will meet with them individually to assign tasks such as alphabetizing words, reading silently, and writing synopses of stories they have read.Christine's classroom has no centers, library area, or evidence of written work in social studies or science. In reading group, her teacher, Ms. Green, asks the children to make umbrellas to put on the windows. "It is April," Ms. Green says. "What happens in April?" When there is no response, she replies, "It rains a lot. If it rains a lot we need an umbrella." The children cut out umbrellas and write umbrella on their cut-outs. Christine is the first one done. Ms. Green sees that the b is written as a d and offers to change it for her. She then writes the word umbrella on the board and asks the children to write their names on their umbrellas.
These vignettes illustrate two ends of the spectrum in literacy instruction. In William's classroom, children are surrounded by print and books, and they undertake a wide range of writing tasks. They write about personal experiences, integrating reading and writing as they create new endings for stories. Writing is part of their science and social studies work. Although Ms. Kerlan occasionally focuses instruction on isolated letters, her primary goal is to encourage reading and writing for many purposes.
In contrast, Christine's classroom provides comparatively few opportunities to read books, and Ms. Green limits writing to exercises that build skills (for example, copying words, practicing handwriting) and that reinforce basic knowledge of sound-symbol correspondence. Her concern that children arrive at correct answers makes it hard for her to allow them to write for self-expression or to explore what they are learning in science and social studies through reading and writing tasks. On the other hand, the daily activities help Christine to focus on individual letters and sound-symbol relationships, a vital skill for many children (Foorman et al. 1997).
The Reading-Writing Link
How do such diverse classroom environments and learning experiences affect young children's ability to learn the basics of reading and writing? To identify the correlations between instructional practices and literacy learning, we tested children, beginning in kindergarten, using a battery of language and literacy assessments. In 1st grade, we gave them individualized reading tests (oral reading, comprehension, decoding) and a spelling test. To examine the effects of 1st grade programs on reading growth, we statistically controlled for students' vocabulary at the end of kindergarten and for whether they were identified as needing remedial help in reading. We then examined the impact of 1st grade classroom experiences on children's reading at the end of 1st grade.
We found that the amount of writing children did in class was correlated with 1st grade reading achievement (r = .32, p < .01). Students with higher reading achievement scores were in classrooms where teachers asked students to engage in narrative and informational writing. Both narrative writing and writing related to content studies were positively associated with reading, but content-related writing was an especially important predictor of reading level. Consistent with these overall findings, William was one of the highest-scoring children in 1st grade, while Christine was among the lower-scoring children.
These findings illustrate the value of integrating writing activities into reading and content area studies in the primary grades. When children have many opportunities to write and when reading and writing are integrated into content area studies, children become better readers and writers. This conclusion is consistent with research showing that reading and writing are closely linked processes and that participation in strong writing programs benefits children's reading and writing development (Shanahan and Lomax 1988, Tierney and Shanahan 1991).
Frequent writing helps beginning writers in multiple ways. As they produce invented spelling, children may become intensely engaged in figuring out how to spell words they want to write to communicate. Such attention to the individual sounds of words and the pairing of sounds to symbols enhances children's spelling and decoding, with low achievers benefiting most (Clarke 1988). As they listen and respond to each other's work, they develop skill in identifying sources of confusion as well as effective compositional techniques (Hansen 1983, Hindley 1996, Zaragoza and Vaughn 1995). Such composition skills may benefit children's reading comprehension as well, because reading can be thought of as a process of composing meaning (Langer 1986).
Integrating writing and reading into content area projects appears to have special benefits. Such linkages encourage children to extend their thinking, to be more critical, and to adopt multiple perspectives (Many et al. 1996, Tierney et al. 1989). Further, linking content area instruction and literacy also can help to enhance children's literacy growth while deepening content learning (Guthrie et al. 1996, Morrow et al. 1997).
Links with National Standards
Too frequently, education research stands apart from the real world of schools. However, current standards-based reforms indicate an increasing convergence between research and broad-based policy movements. The approach to writing that we found most likely to support literacy growth is consistent with practices described in the Standards for the English Language Arts developed by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. These standards state that children should write for different purposes, including research. In an example of the standards in practice (Crafton 1996), 2nd graders studying the Iditarod dog race read Stone Fox, a book about the race. The class brainstormed questions together and listed people who might ask such questions. Individual children then assumed a particular perspective (veterinarian, historian, reporter) and generated additional questions. Finally, small groups conducted research (using a toll-free phone number to call Alaska; watching the dog race; reading) that culminated in projects.
Another standards-based reform effort that is encouraging the integration of writing and reading into content areas comes from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a voluntary national teacher certification movement. The board has developed and adopted standards in several certification areas. One of these, the Early Childhood/Generalist certificate, is for teachers of children from ages 3 to 8 years (National Board 1995). The standards value integration of subjects and varied uses of writing. Teachers create portfolios that display how they integrate subject areas, using reading and writing in varied ways. Their work is scored by other practicing teachers, who are trained by seeing examples of highly accomplished teaching. Thus, the standards are being translated into classroom practices for both those teachers completing the assessments and those scoring them.
Where Literacy Is Basic
Early literacy instruction is indisputably basic. Discussions about its key ingredients typically have focused on the importance of phonics. While children undoubtedly must learn how to connect sounds to symbols and that phonics helps some children make this vital connection (Adams 1990), children also must have reasons to use print.
At a time of hope for educational reform, it is reassuring to see research and reform efforts come together. As awareness and acceptance of standards-based reforms grow, we can expect to see school systems supporting teachers as they engage young children in different content areas through reading and writing experiences.
Our own hope is that, in the coming years, we will hear fewer debates about what constitutes effective reading instruction and see more primary classrooms like William's—classrooms where literacy is basic to all learning.
