In this week's reading on Emergent Literacy, I am reminded of an activity I facilitated where children created their own storybooks. It all started when two Kindergarteners were very interested in pretending to be teachers leading a literature circle. They "read" the books by way of explaining what they saw on the pictures of each page. They provided a very creative and unique take on books about the fall season, dinosaurs, and even the ones that were Disney inspired.
With their permission I recorded their stories and played it back to them. They expressed a great deal of excitement and pride, wanting to have their peers listen to it as well. From here, I presented the idea of writing these stories out and them drawing the image they wanted to accompany their descriptions. I sensed a little bit of hesitation but one of the children wanted to make a whole different story instead. Er. wanted to draw her pictures and wanted me to write out the words providing a story for the images she drew. Em. followed suit and began her own little story book as well. I took the lead from each child who went as far as telling me exactly where they wanted their words written out on their picture! Once I completed their storybooks they were quick to share with their peers who listened intently. This motivated five other children to create their own storybooks, which they also shared with their peers, teachers and parents. (I have provided a few examples below)
It is important to note that during these moments, particularly for the children who were beginning to read and write, they were encouraged to write out their own stories; however, because the interest was on drawing and oral storytelling, I followed this lead instead. Some of the older children practiced their writing skills when they wrote out their names and they also practiced their reading skills as they read out their stories. Most of the younger children (3- and 4-year-olds) didn't "read" their exact words on the page but I believe that because they were really interested and took great pride over their work, they were able to remember the main content of their stories and therefore, told their story to their liking. Literacy was clearly at work during this experience. The children's interest and motivation to read, tell stories, and draw helped create unique storybooks, all of which create a significant foundation for their literacy development (McLachlan, 2007, Yu & Pine, 2006).
As expressed by McLachlan (2007), when an opportunity like this is presented to children in their early years the impact it has on their later literacy is significant. What I learned from this experience is the importance of following the children's lead and how this sustained their interest in the whole activity. Each child had a connection to their work and this allowed them to keep drawing, keep telling me stories, keeping telling their peers stories, and so on.
Emergent literacy was evident in the way the children and I engaged in the given literature experience - looking and reading books, reading the stories based on given images, creating images and attaching stories to it, oral storytelling, etc. - but I know full well that emergent literacy is not limited to this. The children were proud to share their creations with their parents/families and when I conferred with them about this activity, the consensus was that each child had rich literacy experience at home - trips to the library, reading to other siblings or stuffed toys, engaging in play where children pretended to be teachers leading circles or doctors writing out prescriptions, reading before bed, etc. However, I wonder about the children that do not have literacy experience of this kind and perhaps are not engaging in any form of emergent literacy as describe in our readings. I wonder whether this literacy experience excluded children who do not express themselves through drawings and artwork or are not comfortable with the oral feature of the storytelling that occurred in this activity. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recognize these children and now I wonder how I could have accommodated them. It is wrong to assume that they are lacking within their literacy development because they did not engage in the literacy experience. How then could I have supported the "literacy strengths" (Evans, 2001) that I know they had? How could I have created a space which also invited these children who were not drawers and oral storytellers? There were children who did not create storybooks who were interested in listening to their peers who played authors/writers/illustrators. What could I have done which allowed them to engage beyond just listening? Is listening enough of a literacy experience for certain children if this is all that they are doing at home and/or interested in engaging in?
P's storybook:
This is the son, boy. This is father. They are on a ship and they are watching the mice climb up the stairs. They thought the stairs were slides on a playground but it wasn't. These are the mice.
This is a tractor. This is a machine. This is a fire truck. It sprays some water. This is the recycling depot. It is where they take all the garbage.
This is a car. It is carrying a bag. The car wasn't too strong. This is a fan. The fan is blowing the car.
This is a door and the door broke - it just fell over by itself. And so they have to build a new door. They have to build a new house because the tractor was shooting some balls to the house.
This is a big ship. The wind was blowing the ship but the ship didn't go. The ships shoot some balls in the ocean and it went pop! This is the ocean.
A's storybook:
There was a flower and the castle was watching the flower. Cinderella was looking at the flower. The mouths of the flower opened. The sun came up.
There was a girl that lived in the castle and her name was Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty was watching the flower growed and it growed and growed. So while she was sleeping the flower growed and growed.
The princess named Ariel and her prince named Eric. Ariel was first a mermaid and then she turned into a princess. Eric fell into the sea and Ariel caught him. She was watching him and she saved him onto the beach where his dog was
There was Cinderella's sister and her name was Claudia and she turned into Cinderella. Then sunflowers grew and then there was a wall growing.
revisiting the storybooks with the children
References:
Evans, K. (2001). Holding
on to many threads: Emergent literacy in a classroom of Iu Mien children. In E. Jones, K. Evans & K. S.
Rencken (Eds.), The lively kindergarten:
Emergent curriculum in action (pp. 59-74). Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Makin, L., Jones Diaz, C., & McLachlan, C. (Eds.). (2007). Literacies in childhood: Changing views, challenging practice (2nd ed.). Marrickville, NSW: Maclennan & Petty – Elsevier.
Yu, Z. & Pine, N. (2006). Strategies for
enhancing emergent literacy in Chinese preschools.
Los Angeles, CA.
