Chapter 5: Findings — Distinguish Between Literacy & Non-Literacy Events
The children, through their actions, indicated that they had a great deal of knowledge about literacy. They used terms such as read, draw, and write as they engaged in literacy events and they seemed to understand the meanings of those terms. For example, when Cathy wrote experience stories with the children, they often asked to read the charts and they were aware that reading meant focusing on the print not the pictures on the charts.
Excerpt from Field Notes (1/4/90, 8:50 A.M.):
Cathy started to write “David is here” on the chalkboard and Michael read and signed the words as Cathy wrote them.
Michael: (to Cathy, in sign) Read.
Michael read the sentence, in sign and voice, and then David asked to read it.
Excerpt from Field Notes (1/19/90, 10:45 A.M.):
During book time, Michael went to the alphabet chart on the cabinet door at the side of the room and I joined him. He looked at the chart, pointed to the picture of a bird (for the letter B) and signed and said, “Bird.” He next pointed to the letter B and made the sign for the letter.
Excerpt from Field Notes (2/26/90, 1:00 P.M.):
Cathy had just finished writing an experience chart with the children about their trip to the dentist. Billy read the chart with Cathy. Cathy would read a sentence and stop before the last word and have Billy complete the sentence as she pointed to the final word (dentist, chair, up, glove, and mirror).
All but one of the children made a distinction between drawing and writing and there were significant differences in their drawing and writing samples. This ability by young children to distinguish between drawing and writing in their work has been documented by researchers in studies on literacy learning of hearing children (Baghban, 1984; Dyson, 1982, 1983; Harste et al., 1984; Mason, Stewart, & Dunning, 1986; Morgan, 1987; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988; Temple, Nathan, Burris, & Temple, 1988). Dyson (1982, 1983), in studies of early writing development, noted that young children differentiate between drawing and writing in their products although they sometimes use the terms draw and write interchangeably. Like the children in the current study (as evidenced in their drawing and writing samples), the children in Dyson’s studies understood that writing contained letters or letter-like forms as opposed to pictures.
The sections that follow provide evidence from the data that indicate the value and importance the children placed on literacy events. The excerpts described relate to behaviors observed during literacy events but not during non-literacy events. Some of the children’s actions and enthusiasm were observed during free play or recess, although not as frequently or with the intensity as during literacy events, and rarely were they observed during structured activities, such as auditory training practice or speech lessons.