Book Review

Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten by Lori Jamison Rog,
2001


Lori Jamison Rog’s book, Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten, gives a broad overview of a kindergarten literacy program in a developmentally appropriate classroom. I have read other books with similar content to this one so I was familiar with much of the material, but I did extract a few tips and it did affirm what I am currently doing in my kindergarten classroom.

The contents of Rog’s book is divided into two main sections: “The Exemplary Kindergarten Classroom” and “Strategies for an Effective Kindergarten Classroom.” The first section deals with building background: What do kindergarten children need to know? What does an exemplary kindergarten classroom look like and how do you set up effective learning centers in the classroom? Some teachers debate the meaning of the term “developmentally appropriate”; should a developmentally appropriate classroom include systematic literacy instruction? Rog asserts that “ . . .the question is not whether we should provide systematic literacy instruction . . . but what that literacy instruction should look like.”

The kindergarten curriculum should include an emphasis on oral language - knowledge of conventions, structures and function - and vocabulary development. Children should develop both their phonemic awareness (ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words) and phonological awareness (letter/sound correspondence).

The literacy rich classroom environment should have learning centers with materials to promote literacy play, environmental print such as labels and signs, books, experience charts, word banks and word walls. The single most important element in an effective classroom, according to Rog, is a teacher who “ . . . understands the developmental nature of learning to read and write, accepts individual differences, and adapts the instructional program to meet the needs of the students.”

Part II, Strategies for an Effective Kindergarten Classroom, deals with how to implement meaningful read-alouds, conduct shared reading and writing, guide the children toward independent reading and writing, play with language and honor diversity in the classroom.

Throughout the book there are some helpful tables and charts with titles such as:
What Developmentally Appropriate Is and Is Not - p. 12
Tips for Designing the Writing Spot - p. 42
What Leveled Texts Look Like - p. 67
Tips for Encouraging Writing in Kindergarten - p. 76
How to Help Children at Different Levels of Maturity - p. 80

One chart that I plan to adapt and use for planning purposes is on page 36 - Planning Template for Learning Centers. I can see that this planning tool could help me to zero in on my objectives when I plan a new learning center, and to help evaluate and improve their efficacy.

There are two other ideas in the book that I plan to try. One is a small nugget - using Wikki Stix (waxed yarn) during shared reading to stick on charts to circle words or highlight elements of print. Another idea is to have an extra set of kindergartners’ names on individual cards for children to sort in a variety of ways: by number of letters in names, initial letters (all names that start with A in the same category, for instance) or names that have “sinker letters” such as g,j, p, q and y.

Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten is geared especially to teachers new to teaching kindergarten, and to those who would like to include elements of a “developmentally appropriate” model of literacy instruction, such as the one that is described in this book.