Maya Losardo, Age 6

MORNING/AFTERNOON
MESSAGE AND NEWS

Main Purpose
To use print as a communication tool

Children learn that print is a tool to communicate with others. Thoughts and messages can be translated into print and preserved for others to read and reread. Children are made aware of the process of translating meaningful oral language into print.

Materials
Paper; blackboard; markers; chalk; flannel board; felt letters

Description of Activity
Write a message each day during the large-group circle, while the children are watching. The content of the message can be generated by one or more children, by adults, or by both children and adults. Children can volunteer information they would like to share with the rest of the class, or you can elicit comments on specific topics (e.g., important events in the community, weekend experiences, a favorite book or activity). You can also ask more specific questions (e.g., what the weather is like, what children liked best about school that day) or use the message for planning by describing the daily schedule and activities or an important event that will take place in the classroom that day. Write the message on a large sheet of paper or chalkboard, or use magnetic boards or letters. Add pictures and objects.

Draw children's attention to the process of translating oral language into print, and discuss the advantages of recording a written message and news. Repeat readings of the message, and have children retell the message to one another ["Jamie, tell Sarah what we are going to do today"]. Help children read along by pointing with your finger at each word read. Encourage children to read the message along with the adult, and discuss the message or the news. Encourage children to make evaluations and express opinions ["What did you think of the muffins we baked today?"], to investigate causes and effects ["Did you enjoy the trip to the train station?"], to solve problems ["Why didn't it work?" "What could we have done differently?"], and to make predictions ["What are you planning to do this weekend?"]. This activity develops the following behaviors and concepts that are related to early literacy:

Print/Book Awareness
Print-book conventions, awareness of graphic symbols, letter identification; letter-sound correspondence-single sounds and letters, words

Metalinguistic Awareness
Perception and memory for sounds-words, phrases; phonological skills-alliteration, segmentation

Oral Language
Vocabulary-words and sentences; narrative skills-narrations of real events; literate discourse-categorical organization, decontextualization

ADULT-CHILD INTERACTIVE BEHAVIORS

High Demand/Low Support

Children offer ideas and dictate coherent narratives. They participate in writing the message by helping to spell selected words. They will: name individual letters, identify corresponding sounds, select letters to represent sounds, and use letter sounds to write words

Support Strategies

• Open-ended questioning
  Ask children to volunteer to spell a word that they dictated.
  Yesterday we had snow. How do we write snow?
  
  
• Providing feedback
  Encourage children to self-evaluate and correct responses by asking them for clarifications.
  Why did you say that we need a t in milk?
  
  
• Cognitive structuring
  Have children identify one letter or sound at a time.
  How do we write cat? What's the first letter?
  
  Help children make distinctions and comparisons of relevant features of letters and sounds.
  How do we write a b? On which side of the circle is the stick?
  How do we write a d?
  
  
• Task regulation
  Stretch (e.g., Ssss-sunday) or iterate (e.g., T-t-t-today) sounds to help children identify them. Provide choices.
  Does cat start with a c or an s?
  
  
• Instructing
  Ask children to help spell words by identifying single letters and sounds.
  The first sound in snow is /s/. Which letter is that?
  
  Read one sentence at a time, pointing to each word. Then ask children to read that sentence with you as you point to the individual words.

Medium Demand/Medium Support

Children participate in writing the message by adding comments. They will:
identify a printed word and recognize some of the words in the message

Support Strategies

• Open-ended questioning
  Ask children if they would like to add anything to the message. Nathan said that it's cloudy today. What else?
  
  Write the additional comments, and ask children to read a word.
  
  
• Cognitive structuring
  Demonstrate the one-to-one correspondence between a child's utterances and the printed words by pointing to each word while reading it aloud.
  Beth said, "I went sledding in the park." And here are the words, I went sledding in the park.
  
  Provide strategies for how to identify a printed word.
  Each word is separated from other words by empty spaces.
  
  
• Task regulation
  Circle or highlight with a color marker a word proposed by the child, and ask the child to read it. Circle or highlight names of children in the class or add them at the end of the message as authors, and ask children to identify them. Provide visual cues by drawing a picture or showing an object that corresponds to the chosen word.
  
  
• Instructing
  Point out important words before reading with the children.
  This sentence was about Bro's trip to the hospital. Let's read the word Bro together.
  
  Model reading the word.

Low Demand/High Support

Children attend to the writing of a message. They will:
know that the print tells the message

Support Strategies

• Instructing
  Draw children's attention to the link between the oral dictation of the message and the print by pointing to the text while reading the message. Ask them to show that print conveys the message. Where does it tell us what we are going to do today?
  
  Circle names of children in the class, and model associating printed and spoken names with classmates represented in the message.

Comments/Adaptations

Comments
The message can also be written on the computer, and individual copies can be printed out for each child.

Adaptations
Messages can be translated into braille for children with visual impairments or into a sequence of drawings or pictures for children who have hearing impairments and who are not able to read yet.

Home Link
Parent Activities: Diaries; Scribbling; Writing Messages

(Notari-Skyverson, A., O'Connor, R.E., & Vadasy, P.F. (1998). Ladders to Literacy: A Preschool Activity Book. (pp. 72-75). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (#3173; $49.95); toll-free telephone: 1-800-638-3775; fax: 410-337-8539; web site: www.brookespublishing.com)