CHARACTERISTICS OF AN

EMERGENT READER
 Emergent reading pertains to the first stage in
a child’s growth toward literacy. This stage
relates to the beginning experiences or the child’s
first experiences with print in the home and
continues through early years of formal
schooling.

 Harris and Hodges (1981) refer to this period of

acquiring the specific skills and abilities that
allow reading to take place as preparedness or
reading readiness.
 STAGES OF READING PROCESS
Marie Clay (1991) and Fountas and Pinnell (2001)
five main stages:

 STAGE 1- EMERGENT READERS

 The age generally ranges from 2 to 7 years old.

 Begin to familiarize themselves with concept of prints
related to directionality, one-to-one correspondence
between the spoken and written word, and value of
picture clues to the meaning of a story
 Also develop an understanding that the printed word
carries the main meaning of a story
 Begin to make a text-to-word connections and may be
able to extend on what is written on the page
 STAGE 2 - EARLY READERS

 Ages between 5 to 7
 Begin to rely more heavily on the printed text than
on the pictures in a book
 Begin to develop word recognition strategies such as
monitoring, searching, crosschecking, and self-
correction
 Begins to develop a data bank of sight words that
allows them read with increased speed as they are
read more often in phrases rather than single words
 STAGE 3- TRANSITIONAL READERS

 Able to read in meaningful phrases with

comfortable pace and appropriate voice
intonation
 Able to enumerate the four cueing systems into
their reading with little disruption to meaning
and flow
 Are able to read more lengthy texts with little
reliance on pictures for text meaning
 Range from 5 to 7 years
 STAGE 4 –SELF-EXTENDING READERS

 They often read a variety of textual genres and use reading as a tool
for gaining new knowledge or building upon existing knowledge
 Able to read more complex texts and begin to read for a variety of
purposes
 Range in age from 6 to 9 years of age

 STAGE 5 – ADVANCE READERS

 Those readers who have attained a level of mystery with reading

 They are generally over the age of 9 and have become proficient in
reading and in comprehending various text sources
 They enjoy reading and use reading as means of gaining knowledge
 Also read fluently and can interpret texts at both concrete and
inferential level
 Connect what they read to themselves to other texts and to the world
around them
 They have internalize a series of reading strategies that are used to
interchangeably as they read different text
 Table 5. Factors that influences the Development of An Emergent Reader
 Advanced
SELF-
Reader
Extending
Reader • Mastery in
reading
Transitional • Proficient
Reader • Independe
comprehens
nt reading
• Towards ion
• Reading
fluent • Reading for
EARLY READER various
reading information
texts
Emergent • Reading of • Reading for
• Word • Reading for
Reader lengthy texts pleasure
recognitio informatio
• Little • Inferential
n n
reliance in reading
• Beginning strategies • Interpretive
pictures
reader • Sight reading
• Basic words • Internalized
concepts of • Print reading
print reading strategies
• Picture- • Gradual
analysis speed in
• Sound- reading
letter
recognition
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EMERGENT WRITER

 Children have acquired considerable information about

writing before they enter formal instruction.
 They have learned to write naturally because (Gundlach,
et.al,1985) familiar writing situations and real-life writing
experiences are evident in the home environment as modeled
by the parents and even by other family members.
 Their emergent writing is characterized by playful markings
to communicate something, which signals their knowledge of
the uses of written language before learning the form
 This develops through constant invention and reinvention of
the forms of the written language (Dyson, 1986; Parker,
1983), which signal the simultaneous reconstruction of their
knowledge about written language
 Bissex (1980) and Read (1975) described writing as self-
initiated and self-directed or voluntary, by observing more
skilled others and by participating in literacy events, by
exploring and learned writing through interaction with
literate others
 Writing is always related to reading. Thus, reading is
always connected writing.
 The child’s experimentation with writing allows him to
reconstruct and refine the kind of knowledge about
written language that makes reading possible
 This illustrates that a child is an active constructor of
his/her writing and reading and that he/she uses
his/her previous knowledge to learn and discover new
information.
 He/she integrates the previous and existing knowledge
to create new knowledge.
 Thus, as the child writes, he/she integrates knowledge
of reading with knowledge of writing
 STAGES OF WRITING DEVELOPMENT

Based on the results of a longer study about

children’s early attempts to writing, Sulzby (1985), along
with Barnhart and Heisima identified six broad categories
of writing:
1. Writing via drawing

2. Writing via scribbling

3. Writing via making letter like forms

4. Writing via reproducing well-learned unit

5. Writing via invented spelling

6. Writing via conventional spelling

 Table 6. Factors Determining the Development of An Emergent Writer

Home
Physical Language Cognitive Affective Environme
nt

• Drawing • Writing-like • Practicing • Enjoys • Has

• Scribbling sound aspects of writing considera
from left to • Letter- writing for ble
right sequences • Constructi himself exposure
• Making • Writing his ng his own • Impresse to writing
letter- like own names writing s parents events of
forms • Invented • Integratin through adults
• Making spelling g his • Involveme
shapes that • Copying knowledge writing- nt in
resemble letters and of shapes like adult-
letters numbers and lines activities writing
• Producing • Copying logos to produce • Emulates • Social
letters in long and sign a letter or adult functions
or short a number writing writing
strings are
evident in
the home
Physical Language Cognitive Affective Home
Environment

• Producing • Labeling • Using • Finds • Appreciation

letters objects knowledge pleasure in for early
randomly drawn of shapes receiving attempts of
• Markings • Labeling or and lines to greeting writing
on papers, naming draw cards from • Supported
walls characters objects or adults interest in
• Moving drawn characters • Is writing by
pencil as • Not • Using encouraged providing
an adult properly knowledge to involve writing
does sequenced of lines and in adult- drawing
• Holding spelling strings to writing materials
crayons, produce a • Is
pens word appreciated
• Tracing • Recognizin for
• Copying g logos or accomplishi
• Invented labels ng a
spelling writing-like
task
• Is writing
to
communica
te his