Early Childhood Education Students’ Emergent Skills in Literacy Scaffolding

Abstract

This study examined how four early childhood education students applied their knowledge of emergent literacy in their practicum settings. Literacy research has shown that in order for young children to become effective readers, they must develop 1) a vocabulary-rich knowledge base, 2) the ability to reason about story messages, and 3) the code-related skills of phonological awareness and print awareness. The students’ college instruction focused on ways to promote emergent literacy by scaffolding children’s skill development in these three early literacy areas, particularly during story reading. At the conclusion of their practicum, the students were asked to identify the specific ways in which they had promoted emergent literacy skills. The resulting data suggested students were sometimes confused about the code-related skills of phonological awareness and print awareness. Students reported they seldom had conversations with the children that focused on coderelated skills as part of their story reading activities. Furthermore, their application of discussion techniques in support of children’s vocabulary development and the ability to reason about story messages were of questionable quality. This data suggests that early childhood educators require significant modeling and practice to develop the complex skills needed for effective instructional scaffolding during story book reading.