Journal of Early Childhood Literacy current issue

Acknowledgment

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

Emergent comprehension: Understanding comprehension development among young literacy learners

McMunn Dooley, C., Matthews, M. W. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

This article hones what is meant by ‘emergent comprehension’. The authors define emergent comprehension as the period when young children, prior to conventional reading, engage in meaningful experiences that stimulate the development and use of meaning-making strategies with potential to affect later reading comprehension. The construct ‘emergent comprehension’ reflects the theoretical line the authors drew from meaning making, viewed primarily via theories of child development, to reading comprehension as conceived by the RAND model, a commonly accepted conception of comprehension. A vignette from a three year longitudinal study of very young children’s literacy learning, illustrates the authors’ conceptions. The vignette, one of more than 100 collected in the first year of the study, is interpreted via the three dimensions of the RAND model as well as relevant research and theories from the child development literature. This new model contributes to a life-long theory of reading development (Alexander, 2006) as well as theories of emergent literacy (Clay, 1966).

Social contexts of development: Parent-child interactions during reading and play

Vandermaas-Peeler, M., Nelson, J., Bumpass, C., Sassine, B. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

The study purpose was to describe parent—child engagement and parental guidance of children’s participation in literacy-related activities at home. Of the 37 families who participated in a home-based multimethod assessment of storybook reading and play activities, 13 were considered low income. The children’s mean age was 60 months. Parents read two storybooks with their child and engaged in a 15-minute play session with toys related to the stories. Results indicated that the overall amount of guidance provided did not differ due to income level of the families. Certain findings indicated that middle income parents provided greater support for early literacy learning, in that they engaged in more teaching during reading, made more connections between the book and the play episode, and reported reading to their children daily. However, regardless of income or education, parents provided high levels of support to sustain the children’s interest and engagement in both activities, using social connections such as humor and personal references. The extent to which both teaching-oriented guidance and socio-emotional involvement in early home-based literacy activities may be linked to enjoyment, motivation and success in subsequent school-based literacy experiences warrants further investigation among economically diverse families.

Redesigning and transforming: A case study of the role of semiotic import in early composing processes

Ranker, J. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

In this article, I explore the role of semiotic import (Van Leeuwen, 2005) in the composing processes of three bilingual students (six to seven years old) emerging as writers of English. Using social semiotic (Van Leeuwen, 2005) and design (New London Group, 2000) frameworks, I trace a qualitative ‘micro-history’ of how the students imported multimodal composing resources from multiple, previous writing contexts during a focal writing event (part of a larger study of multimodality and semiosis and additional language literacies). By comparing the writing practices with how they were used during previous events, I demonstrate how the students transformed, or redesigned, these practices as they imported them. This study has implications for how curricular contexts can support student redesign processes as part of written composition, providing examples of how to conceptualize the pedagogical importance of semiotic import and transformation in early composition classrooms.

Book Review: Book reviews

Simpson, A. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

Book Review: P. Connolly, J. Hayden with D. Levin, From Conflict to Peace Building: The Power of Early Childhood Initiatives. Lessons from around the world. Redmond, WA: World Forum Foundation, Redmond WA & NIPPA, 2007. 141 pp. ISBN 13: 978--0--94270--244--6 (Exchange Press); ISBN 13: 978--0--95425--226--7 (NIPPA -- The Early Years Organisation)

Devereux, L. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

Book Reviews: L. Arthur, B. Beecher, E. Death, S. Dockett and S. Farmer, Programming and Planning in Early Childhood, 4th edn. South Melbourne, Australia: Thompson, 2008. 434 pp. ISBN 13: 978 0 17013 387 6; ISBN 10: 0 17013 387 7

Thomas, P. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

Book Reviews: G. Robinson, U. Eickelkamp, J. Goodnow and I. Katz (eds), Contexts of Child Development: Culture, Policy and Intervention. Darwin, NT: Charles Darwin University Press, 2008. 266 pp. ISBN 13: 978--0--98038--468--0

Torr, J. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST

Call for Papers for a special issue of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy on The Geo-semiotics of early childhood literacy

Nichols, S., Nixon, H., Rowsell, J. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:11:01 PST