Annotated Bibliography: Developmentally Appropriate Practices

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice ○ ○ ○ ○ © Terri Gonzalez Susan B. Neuman, EdD, is a professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Susan coauthored with Sue Bredekamp the 1998 International Reading Association and NAEYC joint position statement, “Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices.” Her research focuses on early literacy development for preschoolers who are at risk. Kathleen Roskos, PhD, is a professor of education at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research includes studies of early literacy development, early learning standards, and teacher professional development. Illustration © Sylvie Wickstrom. Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the…show more content…
Addressing the enormous achievement gap (Lee & Burkam 2002; NAEP 2004) that differentiates children from low-income circumstances and their more affluent peers, this instruction presumably helps children catch up by teaching about the alphabet and letter sounds and the conventions of print that distinguish print from other representational symbol systems, such as drawing. By attending, reciting, chanting, and reviewing these letters, sounds, and numbers—again and again—this type of instruction supposedly will help these children from low-income homes overcome the devastating effects of poverty on their long-term learning and development. With these key skills in hand, they will be ready to learn alongside their counterparts from more affluent circumstances as they enter the kindergarten doors. We beg to differ. In fact, we argue that this type of instruction may inevitably consign children to a narrow, limited view of reading that is antithetical to their long-term success not only in school but throughout their lifetime. In other words, we believe that such instruction might actually undermine, rather than promote, the very goals of improving literacy learning. In contrast to this trend, this article highlights the key principles of early literacy as defined in the 1998 International Reading Association (IRA) and NAEYC…show more content…
• Teachers need to regularly and systematically use multiple indicators to assess and monitor children’s progress in reading and writing. The research-based statement stresses that for children to become skilled readers, they need to develop a rich language and conceptual knowledge base, a broad and deep vocabulary, and verbal reasoning abilities to understand messages conveyed through print. At the same time, it recognizes that children also must develop code-related skills: an understanding that spoken words are composed of smaller elements of speech (phonological awareness), the idea that letters represent these sounds (the alphabetic principle), and the knowledge that there are systematic correspondences between sounds and spellings. But to attain a high level of skill, young children need many opportunities to develop these strands interactively, not in isolation. Meaning, not sounds or letters, drives children’s earliest experiences with print. Therefore, the position statement points out that although specific skills like alphabet knowledge are important to literacy development, children must acquire these skills in coordination and interaction with meaningful experiences (Neuman, Bredekamp, & Copple 2000). The position statement, formally adopted in 1998, won endorsement and support from 12 other major organizations, all

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