Bachelor in Early Years

This article discusses the effectiveness of dialogic reading approach and child's writing development in early years education. It includes observation notes of a child's writing and two learning activities to develop phonological awareness and emergent writing skills.

0Running head: BACHELOR IN EARLY YEARS
Bachelor in early years
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Part A:
Discuss how effectively engaged in the dialogic reading approach:
During the activity of dialogic reading approach, I took the step to read aloud the book
chosen with a 5 years old child. This activity was important to develop basic language skills of
the child such as vocabulary, sentence structure and make her ready for schools. By reading
aloud book called ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’’, the aim was to make sure that the
child first listens to what I was reading and then support her to become the teller of the story.
Hence, I wanted the child to get actively involved in the activity. I sat beside the child at her
home and started with showing the front of the book to child (Detailed conversation in appendix
2). The book was the ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’. I asked the child to read aloud the
title of the book. I read out the author’s name and then asked ‘Do you know what is an author?’.
The child responded and told that author is the person who writes the story. I also inquired her
about the pictures that were present in the front of the book. The approach taken was effective as
by doing this, I wanted the child to develop interest in the book and have basic knowledge
regarding what the book is all about. By asking the child to label the pictures on the book, I
could get an idea regarding how much awareness children have about basic animals and birds
(Ewing, Callow and Rushton 2016).
The next step was to start reading the story in each page. Each page had illustrative
pictures and I used the pictures to make the child engrossed in the content. For example, the
book had the picture of a farmer and I inquired the child about the expression of the man by
asking whether he was looking happy or sad. The child were able to understand he was sad as his

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face was upside down. While reading aloud the chapters, I also encouraged the child to make
prediction about the book by asking her what might happen after this. Hence, by taking aid of the
illustrative pictures, the dialogical reading activity proved to be effective for the child. The
effectiveness of the approach is also understood from the fact that it was an interactive strategy
that engaged the child in the story and encouraged her to talk and express her own understanding
while reading the story. It helped her to interact verbally with the text as well as the teacher
(Vukelich, Christie and Enz 2002).
Discussion on types of talk that took place:
By reading the book, I engaged in both immediate and non-immediate talk with the child.
Immediate talk is a type of conversation with preschoolers where the focus is on information that
is directly present in the text or available from the illustrations. By asking questions related to
direct information in the story, adequate information can be provided and the child can be
supported to make inference. For example, while reading the story ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows
That Type’, I used pictures to ask the child what is the story about and what are cows doing. In
this way, I received many types of explanation from children and connection between the book
world and child’s real world could be established (Vukelich, Christie and Enz 2002).
I engaged in non-immediate talk during reading by engaging in conversation that goes
beyond the information in the text or the picture illustration. For example, when cows used the
typewriter to request electric blankets from the farmer in the story Click, Clack and Moo Cows
That Type’, I paused in between and asked the child ‘What do you think the farmer will do now?
or ‘What else would you do with a typewriter’. This question helped me to get an idea about the
child’s experience with typewriter or her knowledge regarding typewriter and find out how their

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used words to make predictions. This was necessary to make connection to the child’s past
experience with basic things or make connections to the real world. In addition, while reading
the story I engaged in non-immediate talk by pausing in between and asking question that helped
children to learn counting. I asked ‘How many cows do you see,? Let’s count from the
beginning.. One, two three’. Non-immediate talk takes place during pause in between reading or
after closing the book. This approach can further help in story comprehension, understanding
child’s vocabulary and evaluate child’s ability to make predictions. The non-immediate talks
between reading was effective in actively engaging the child during shared book reading and
developing their literacy (DeTemple 2001).
Reflection on book suitability and its selection:
The book that I used for the dialogic book reading activity included the ‘Click, Clack and
Moo Cows That Type’, written by Doreen Cronin. The main rational for selecting this story is to
engage in shared reading with children was that it is an award winning book for children and it
has many colourful illustrations that can generate excitement of young children. Books with
large text and colourful illustration are necessary to develop children’s interest in reading.
Children have short concentration span and colourful pictures are elements in the book that can
maintain their interest in the story. Hence, illustrative pictures and graphics was the main reason
behind selecting the book dialogic reading. The Book shows expression of the farmer very
clearly by adding dramatic lines when the farmer is irritated and annoyed (Vukelich, Christie and
Enz 2002). Furthermore, the colours used in the picture are also an important reason behind
selecting the book. The colour portrayal has been done very well by the illustrator of the book.
For this reason, the book has been selected to provide a vivid and rich experience to children.

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The content of the book is also one vital aspect that attracts attention as it has lines that
are relevant to the interest of children. In some places, rhyming words has been used and in some
places it also provides opportunity to learn about new concepts like typewriters. The book
provides good opportunity for increasing intrinsic motivation of children and increasing their
curiosity level while reading the book. The language skills can increase and encouraging children
to talk during the story can support children to express their thoughts in words
Discussion on child’s writing with reference to the writing principles:
To complete the writing role-play, I asked a 5 year old boy to draw a house and write
something about the drawing. His drawing was collected and observed to understand his writing
skills. While observing the child’s role-play writing, it has been found that the child has used
both writing and drawing to express his ideas (Refer to appendix 1). At the top of the picture, the
child has written one or two sentences about his pictures and he was also labelled his picture.
The child wrote in the picture ‘I drawed a house and I draw people in the my house. I added
room bath’. By giving a title or writing few sentences about his picture, it is clear that the child
understand the difference between pictures and writing. The child’s writing also shows his good
understanding about spatial arrangement as he has used space between single words and started
from left to right direction. This is similar to the linearity principle. The child has good spatial
sense is understood from the fact that while maintaining the linearity principle (Hill 2006). He
has not messed up with his arrangement of words. He has good understanding regarding where
word ends and where another begins.
In the word ‘room’, the letter ‘o’ has been added by adding an arrow. This indicates that
the child took the step to review his writing and found out mistakes in spellings too. The child’s

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writing is congruent with the flexibility principle and this is understood from the fact that child
has used Capital letters where required and use small letters in the rest part. This implies that the
children has the understanding that same letter can be written in different ways. There are many
stages in children’s writing (Beginning writing, early-emergent writing, emergent writing, early
writing, transitional writing and extending writing) and the features that has been found in the
child’s role play writing is similar to that of the emergent writing phase (Hill 2006). This can be
said because the notes mentioned above the drawing reveals that the child is able to create more
letters like shapes. Spaces are present between the letters and he is using sequences of letter to
further explain his drawing. Beginning of the early writing phase is also seen as has used certain
words that he has acquired repeatedly. For example, the word ‘house’ and ‘drawed’ has been
used twice.
Another important observation is that through the writing in the drawing, the child shows
understanding about the concepts of words and shows awareness of his surroundings. The
drawing is also a vital element to assess spatial awareness and make connections with the real
world. In the drawing, the child has added elements like chair, door, kitchen, TV, bathroom,
makeup, windows, tables, flowers, people and trees. This gives the idea that while drawing the
picture, the child may be relating to his own world and the basic things that are presented in a
house A chimney with smoke going out was also drawn by the child depicting that the child has
good observation skills. Hence, on the whole it can be said that the child’s drawing provides
good insight into the social and intellectual development of the child. Children explore the world
through different methods and pencil and paper gives them the best means to convey their ideas
to people. By adding elements in the house, the child has used his own style to show what they
know and understand about home and its environment. Spatial awareness is also indicated by

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giving appropriate space between elements in the drawing and assigning things to their right
position (Hill 2006).
A child’s drawing can also give good insight regarding their knowledge and
understanding about spatial awareness and layout. They start by scribbling letters first, writing
strings of letters or few words. When their written language develops further, they can write few
sentences too (Schickedanz and Casbergue 2004). While engaging in the activity of child’s role-
play writing, it was found that his writing skill has developed well as he wrote few sentences
about his drawing. Phonemic awareness was not explored as it was mainly a writing activity and
phonemic awareness is explored through reading and listening.
2 learning activities for the child’s development:
To further develop the child’s phonological awareness and emergent writing skills, the
following two activities has been planned for the child.
1. This will be done by inquiring the child more about his drawings. For example,
through the pictures that the child has included in his drawing, he can be taught about
syllables in word. For example, he can be taught to clap once if the label in the
picture is single syllable word and he can be asked to clap twice if it is multi-syllable.
2. Secondly, as his writing is in the emergent stage, his emergent writing style can be
developed further by asking the child to write about the people in his house. This
would help to gain understanding regarding social relations and the child’s
understanding regarding different people in their house. It would be interesting to see
how the child would use his writing style to convey about the different members of
his family.

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Observation notes of the child writing:
During the drawing, the child commented that house should always have a bathroom,
dining table and make up room. He also made the comment that there should be fruits in the
dining table and flowers in the garden area. This suggests that while doing the drawing, he is
recalling his own home environment and incorporating those elements in the drawing. His
writing in the drawing is observed to be of the emergent writing style evidenced by the fact that
he is able to describe his drawing and write clear letters. All his letters are well recognizable and
no letters are reversed. However, some spelling errors have been detected.

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References:
DeTemple, J.M., 2001. Parents and children reading books together. Beginning literacy with
language, pp.31-51.
Ewing, R., Callow, J. and Rushton, K., 2016. Language and literacy development in early
childhood. Cambridge University Press.
Hill, S., 2006. Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching. Retrieved from:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/3958117
Schickedanz, J.A. and Casbergue, R.M., 2004. ‘The Development of Writing’ (Chapter-13),
Writing in preschool: Learning to orchestrate meaning and marks. International Reading
Association (NJ3).
Vukelich, C., Christie, J.F. and Enz, B., 2002. Helping young children learn language and
literacy. Allyn & Bacon.

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Appendix:
1. Drawing script of the child:
2. Conversation with the child:
Educator: Hi, I have chosen this book (Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type) to read today.
Can you see the title of the book? What is it?
Child: It’s Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’

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Educator: Yes, right ! What do you mean by that? Are you getting any idea from the picture
given on the book cover?
Child: Yes, it means cows that can type. The cow is typing something....
Educator: Oh, very well understood dear. Just below the title is the name of the author. Do you
know who is an author?
Child: Yeah, the one who has written the story.
Educator: Oh, you said it right. Let’s take a look at the picture again. What you can see?
Child: Yes, there are cows, and ducks (pauses) and a hen and a duck. Oh yes and a type writer
too
Educator: Well observed my child. Now can you tell me how many cows doe you see in the
picture
Child: Three.
Educator: Ok, Is it three? Lets count again together.... One.... Two...... Three
Child: One, two and three (Pointing her fingers to express)
Educator: Come, Let’s start reading the story now (Turning to the next page). The picture in this
page shows another character. Can you identify?
Child: Pause ... Yes, there’s one person standing with the cows
Educator: Yes, you are right. Do you know who he is?
Child: No

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Educator: Check his dress and hats. What does he looks like?
Child: Umm, don’t know
Educator: Well, he is a farmer. He has kept cows with him. Do you know what a farmer does?
Child: They give use food may be
Educator: Yes, my child, you are almost there... They grow crops in the field. Can you predict
why he is keeping the cows
Child: No
Educator: He has kept them to get some help in his work. Now, let’s observe the expression of
the farmer. Does he seem happy or sad?
Child: He is sad, see his face
Educator: (After reading few pages).... Can you say what might the farmer do now? Will he
fulfil the request of the cows.
Child: I think he will..
Educator: (Closing the book) Have you seen a typewriter or similar things in real
Child: Yes, my mum uses it when she goes to office
Educator: Ok, we will proceed with the next part of the story other day. You check how you can
use typewriter in real life till then. Bye