Six Foundational Pillars of Literacy Instruction

Literacy and language development are not mutually exclusive. Effective literacy instructional cannot take place without the understanding of how language develops.

In a Scientific American article, Patricia K. Kuhl writes, “At birth, the infant brain can perceive the full set of 800 or so sounds, called phonemes, that can be strung together to form all the words in every language of the world.” Early literacy begins in-utero with the development of oral language and the subsequent pruning of sounds to mimic the mother tongue. Infants use non-verbal communication such as facial gestures, eye contact, crying and body movements to communicate their needs. As their facial muscles strengthen, they add sounds (gurgles and coos). Eventually these sounds mimic the home/maternal language or conventional language. Conventional sounds morph into one-word utterances, followed by short phrases and later, complete sentences. As the child is continuously exposed to language and linguistic experiences (play, interactions), their vocabulary, sentences and overall language skills increase in sophistication.

During the emergent literacy phase while children are busy developing their oral language, they begin to take notice of how and why to use print. It is here that the six Pillars of Literacy take shape.

Pillar #1: The Alphabetic Principle

The understanding that letters and sounds represent spoken language. Children start to notice that the “squiggles” are called letters (graphemes), and each letter has a specific shape [ and sound] attached to it.

Pillar #2: Phonics:

The overall understanding that each letter (grapheme) has one or more corresponding phonemes (sounds). When letters are arranged in a particular order, their corresponding sounds create a word. Sounds can be manipulated to form different words. Underneath the phonics umbrella, there is phonemic and phonological awareness.

• Phonemic Awareness: The ability to hear, identify and subsequentially manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.

• Phonological Awareness: The ability to identify and manipulate different parts of spoken words like syllables, morphemes (prefixes, suffix, root), syntax (word arrangement within a sentence) and semantics (word meaning within the sentence/text). This is the understanding of the structural analysis of word.

Pillar#3 Word Recognition

The recognition of words that can’t be decoded and therefore must be memorized as well as the recognition of words “on-sight” due to repeated exposure and encounters during reading and writing. These words are usually called sight words and high frequency words.

At one point it was determined that the difference between the two was the sight words were undecodable and high-frequency words were the frequently encountered words, some decodable, some not. However, the meaning of each term has evolved. High-frequency words eventually become sight words. This means that a high-frequency word for one student can still be a sight word for another.

• High-frequency words: words that occur repeatedly within a text as evidenced by research of the most commonly used words when writing (each language has their own collection of high-frequency words).

• Sight Words: words that are recognized at first glance and can be read automatically. These words are not identified by researchers because they are contingent upon reading ability.

Literacy is much more than the ability to hear, identify, manipulate letters and sounds and memorize words. It also NOT about how fast a child can read.

Pillar # 4 Vocabulary

Knowing the definition of a word is an integral part of oral language communication and development and a vital component of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge is divided into four components.

• Listening-understanding the meaning of words when listening

• Speaking-understanding the meaning of words used when speaking.

• Reading-understanding the meaning of words in a text when reading

• Writing- understanding the meaning of words used when writing.

Pillar #5 Comprehension

The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend. “Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows” (Reading Rockets). More formally, reading comprehension has been defined as “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” (Snow, 2002, p. 11).

Reading comprehension involves the ability to think critically, literally and inferentially. It is just as much about the reader citing text evidence to support claims as it is applying and integrating personal experience, evaluating, synthesizing, creating and extracting new information.

In the same manner that a student manipulates graphemes and phonemes, readers should be able manipulate texts when reading in order to fully comprehend. In this information age, we must acknowledge the shift of comprehending a single text to the comprehension of multiple texts and sources.

Pillar #6 Fluency

Fluency NOT about WPM (words per minute) nor is it indicator of comprehension. Fluency is the ability to read accurately and with expression. It is when reading sounds like speaking.

In closing, reaching the ultimate goal of comprehension involves knowledge and understanding of child development, language development, linguistics and the six foundational pillars of literacy. Successful literacy instruction must also acknowledge the information age and its impact comprehension as it moves from being able to read and comprehend single texts to multiple texts. and sources at once.