Stages of Literacy
This is the earliest stage of literacy, beginning in infancy and including exposure to sounds, books, and print.
What is pre-literacy?
Children begin to hold books correctly and turn pages during this stage.
What is emergent literacy?
This strategy involves reading aloud and thinking aloud to model comprehension processes.
What is a think-aloud?
Families can support early literacy by engaging in this nightly routine.
What is reading bedtime stories?
The ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds in spoken words.
What is phonemic awareness?
In this stage, children begin to recognize letters, understand that print carries meaning, and "read" familiar books from memory.
What is emergent literacy?
By preschool age, children can identify this important literacy unit—often the first phonological awareness skill to develop.
What are rhymes?
Talking to babies during diaper changes and routines helps build this foundation of literacy.
What is oral language development?
Teachers can support home literacy by providing books and materials in this, the child's strongest communicative mode.
What is the home language?
Understanding the relationship between letters and sounds is called this.
What is phonics?
This stage often begins in kindergarten or first grade, when children start decoding simple words and using phonics.
What is beginning reading?
This skill—blending and segmenting individual sounds in words—emerges toward kindergarten and is a strong predictor of later reading success.
What is phonemic awareness?
This interactive activity, often involving pointing and naming objects, supports vocabulary growth in toddlers.
What is shared book reading or dialogic reading?
Inviting families to contribute home-language books helps support this kind of literacy environment.
What is a culturally responsive literacy environment?
The understanding that print moves left to right, top to bottom, and carries meaning.
What is concepts of print?
In this stage, readers move from learning to read to reading to learn, often reading with greater fluency and comprehension.
What is transitional reading?
Around age five, children can usually name most upper- and lowercase letters, which is referred to as this.
What is alphabet knowledge?
A preschool teacher sets up a dramatic play center with menus and notepads. This promotes what kind of literacy activity?
What is emergent writing or print-rich play?
This model emphasizes two-way communication and viewing families as equal partners, rather than recipients of information.
What is family engagement? (or the partnership model)
A child pretending to read a book aloud using pictures is demonstrating this.
What is emergent reading behavior?
At this final stage, readers can read fluently and automatically, using advanced comprehension and writing skills.
What is fluent reading?
Fluent readers can do this complex task, which includes inferring meaning and evaluating text.
What is comprehension?
Teachers can encourage letter recognition in preschoolers through hands-on materials like sandpaper letters, puzzles, and name cards, which supports this skill.
What is alphabet knowledge?
These community resources provide access to books, technology, and literacy programs.
What are public libraries?
A child’s attempt at spelling using letter-sound knowledge (e.g., "KT" for "cat").
What is invented spelling?