Early Literacy Dinosaurs
By Maryann Manning

I want to address some early literacy dinosaurs that used to roam the world of reading education in the form of sacred practices. Though nearly extinct, these dinosaurs occasionally rear their heads when I peek around corners of classrooms or listen to some teachers. I'd like to advocate the permanent exile of such dinosaurs as Readfirstosaurus, Letter-of-the-Weekatops and Copyodon, all of which have long overstayed their welcome.

Readfirstosaurus
Back in prehistoric reading times, when I first began teaching, I believed students always read first and then began to write. However, that was before I became a constructivist and a student of the works of Amelia Ferreiro. I now know that reading and writing development go hand in hand. I also know that the best way for a child to learn and practice phonics is through writing.

My research with Constance Kamii and others since that time has made me aware that literacy begins with scribbling and then moves from one level to the next. I have thousands of papers in my attic from English-speaking children that all have the following levels that are similar to those first described by Ferreiro. Level I: letter strings; Level II: minimum/maximum groups of letters with no letter sound correspondence; Level III: consonantal level where students write words using only consonants and letter-name vowels (invented spelling that can be read); Level IV: almost conventional spelling with more vowels; and Level V: conventional spelling that contains few misspellings.

When children begin kindergarten they are generally spelling between Levels 0 and III, depending upon the opportunities they've had to engage with print. Through practices such as reading daily news, environmental print experiences and shared reading, the children will continue to move to higher levels. Few young children move to conventional spelling before second grade unless they entered school at a very high level.

Using vowels other than letter name vowels and some consonants are impossible for most kindergartners and first-graders; therefore, giving traditional spelling tests aren't appropriate. Children can memorize words just like they can learn math algorithms, but they are only learning tricks that make no sense to them.

Reading develops simultaneously with spelling as students form letter-sound relationships, become phonemically aware and make phonics generalizations. I find it interesting that when a child is spelling at Level III, he or she is beginning to read. When I read a primary child's writing, I can predict the progress that has been made in reading based on the spelling levels.

Letter-of-the-Weekatops
This dinosaur has been very slow to slide into obsolescence. There are some three-year-olds and many more four-year-olds who can say letter names and words that begin with the letter. We want our students to begin writing the very first day of kindergarten at whatever level they are spelling. In order for children to spell the words they want to spell, they need to learn as many of the letters of the alphabet as soon as possible. There is no reason to only introduce one letter a week when many students already know many of the letters. The letter-of-the-week practice belongs to the "children are empty slates" era in educational history when we had to teach all of the letters and make the introduction very slow. We also didn't know back then how well students could write in kindergarten.

Instead of using practices such as the letter-of-the-week, engage in daily environmental print activities. An excellent book about the use of environmental print is Integrating Environmental Print Across the Curriculum by Lynn Kirkland, Patricia Kuby and Jerry Aldridge (Corwin Press, 2006).

Copyodon
I admire the antique alphabet samplers that I've seen in museums and read about in the history of education books that describe Colonial schools. If I was a young teacher back a hundred or more years ago with no materials and little teacher education, I would probably have had my students copy. Copying was appropriate then, but now we know a lot more about literacy development and most classrooms have books to read, materials, paper and pencils.

The act of having students copy from the whiteboard or on a worksheet or workbook belongs to a behaviorist tradition that was based on the assumption that in order to learn something, you must follow a model and engage in numerous practice activities to internalize a behavior such as forming letters. We now know that students must be active in the construction of their own knowledge and go through levels of being wrong before they become conventional in the processes of spelling and writing.

Students must produce their own spelling at their own level. When a child spells a word such as learn, "lrn," it's because the child is not at the level where writing the vowels will make sense. We can make the child memorize "learn," but he or she may still write "lrn" in personal writing until using all vowels is meaningful. Copying words and letters won't speed up the process. Also, after students begin to read, they'll see words many times and their visual memory will help them know if the word is spelled correctly.

Journal writing
Instead of copying, having students engage in many writing activities will further their literacy growth. Journal writing of all types where children express their own ideas is one of the most important strategies. Giving each child his or her own whiteboard so he or she can write original thoughts is an easy way to facilitate sharing and social interaction about spelling. Cutting up sentences written on paper strips and asking your class to put them back together is another common activity that requires students to think. Copying is a passive activity that must be replaced with real writing.

I hope you've gotten a good laugh out of Readfirstosarus, Letter-of-the-Weekatops and Copyodon because you have relegated them to your old practice pile. Maybe one day these practices will rightfully find their place in the museum of practices we now know to avoid.

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.