ECE 230: Language and Literacy Development in Early Childhood Analysis

This homework assignment, completed for ECE 230, examines a child's language and literacy development through the lens of a dialogue reading approach using "The Giving Tree." The assignment details the effectiveness of the reading session, analyzing the child's engagement, attentiveness, and questioning behavior. Part A focuses on the impact of the story, the child's interaction, and the strategies used to foster understanding and imagination. It discusses immediate and non-immediate talks, the selection of books, and strategies for future reading sessions. Part B delves into the child's writing and drawing, exploring cognitive abilities, the influence of media, and the principles of linear and flexibility in learning. It examines the child's development of word concepts, phonemic awareness, and the ability to identify symbols and sounds. The assignment highlights the child's progress in literacy and the strategies employed to enhance learning through storytelling and interactive engagement.

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ECE 230 language and literacy development in Early childhood
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Contents
Part-A..........................................................................................................................................................3
Part-B..........................................................................................................................................................5
Transcript....................................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................................10

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Part-A
In the case of engaging with the children through dialogue reading approach, I had chosen the
book for children “The Giving Tree” which proved to be a very interesting book for the children.
I can consider my success in having an effective dialogue reading session with the children as I
was able to identify and observe to behavior of the child during the story reading. On the basis of
Vukelic, Christie & Enz research, I could understand the level of engagement that the child had
with the entire story by the way he was making sounds even before speaking as if he was
imitating my voice (Cortes, 2013). I could very well engage with the child during the entire story
telling session (As shown in Appendix). This can be concluded by the way the child was
attentive towards me and the way he was listening to the story. The child was actively engaged
throughout the reading which was very much visible through his expressions. The child was
observed to be slapping at the book at regular intervals very frequently as the story was
progressing (Biddulph, 2002). He seemed to look at me and the book alternatively as the story
proceeded.
I could assess my success in delivering effective dialogue reading which was completely evident
from the fact that the child was constantly asking me questions in between the reading which is
a good sign denoting the engagement level of the child. I could further assess my engagement
and ability to be a successful children story reader by the way I could introduce the text of the
story effectively by talking to the child regarding the relevant experience at their age. I was
able to provide the child with space and scope of talking, reading and thinking about his way of
imagination throughout the session. I was able to make the child predict about the story which
gave scope for the development of his imagination. I was also successful in delivering the story
and reading it out to the child along with making expressions which were very effective in the
delivery of the story. There was proper interaction between the child and me which was one of
the strategies that had to be taken care of during the entire delivery of the dialogue approach
(Bredekamp, 2016).
Throughput the entire depiction of the story, there were ‘immediate talks’ most of the time. The
child was frequently asking questions throughout the session of storytelling. As per DeTemple,
The immediate talk was oriented in the direction of answering the literal questions that were
asked by the child to me. This also included the labeling of the pictures that were present in the

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story book (DeTemple, 2001). Further, there were many instances present throughout the entire
session of dialogue delivery approach of the story telling to the child where the child had
multiple opportunities of engaging in non-immediate talk. It could be observed that the
engagement of the child throughout the story telling session was reflecting the receptive
knowledge of the child through both the immediate talk and non-immediate talk. He seemed to
be interested in the pictures that were present in the bold throughout the story (Bus & Neuman,
2014). He kept on asking questions that were associated with the various types of pictures and
images which are considered to be in the immediate talk section. The child was very enthusiastic
and interested in getting to know about the characters, colors, letters present in the images.
The non-immediate talk extended beyond the textual content of the story book. It involved the
dialogue and conversations between the child and me about the meanings of the word, making of
the interferences and predictions. It also included the association of the meanings, interference
and predictions with the textual content of the entire story book to the personal experiences of
the child (Ewing, Callow & Rushton, 2016). The child, through the immediate and non-
immediate talks was able to actively engage in learning the story and the moral behind the story.
The immediate and non-immediate talks included the words like “what”, “how”, “when”, “how”,
etc. these questions were followed by the answers for the questions, continuous repetition of the
what the child kept on speaking, along with providing praise and help (Greenwood et al., 2014).
These immediate and non-immediate talks created more space for active engagement of the child
in the entire session of the story telling.
The story reading session with the dialogue reading approach facilitated an enjoyment time for
the child through the story which was filled with many opportunities for understand and
imagine the story with visual clues. The child was not made to read the text form the story form
the story book (Ewing, Callow & Rushton, 2016). The activity, expression and the behavior of
the child was observed throughout the entire session. The child was matching and resonating
with the delivery of the story.
The child was prompted in the entire story telling session which was based on the dialogue
reading approach. Selection of the books for children is a very crucial aspect and infact, it is the
first step of the entire dialogue reading approach of storytelling to the children. One of the ways
for beginning the selection of the books for the children is to seek for the award winning authors

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and the books. This method should be preferred as the books that are award-wining are selected
by the committees which are made up of the selected individuals who have expertise in the
literature for children (Greenwood et al., 2014). Another source for selecting the books for the
children is the Internet which would provide many options and choices of books for the children
with information regarding the date of application, publisher, and cost of the books.
The strategies that I shall adopt while reading next time would include previewing which would
include the aspect of learning a text before actually reading it. It will enable me to get an idea
about what the text is all about (Genishi & Dyson, 2015). The next strategy that I shall adopt is
the contextualization that would include placing the text in biographical, cultural and historical
contexts. The next strategy that I would inculcate is questioning for understanding and
remembering what the children would think of asking.
Part-B
The role of the child in writing back could reflect the development of the cognitive abilities,
verbal communication of the child with adults and other children along with the narratives of the
child. The psychological aspect and conditioning of the child could also be reflected in the
writings of the child. The assessment of the writing skills along with the drawings had major
links to literacy. It can be stated that there has been tremendous effect of ,media on the cognitive
behavior of the child as the child could write and draw things out of his imagination which was
majorly influenced by the entertainment media (Hammer et al., 2014).
As per Schickedanz & Casbergue, the writing style and pattern reflected the gain of control of
the child regarding the development and implementation of the hand and eye coordination along
with motor strength. The speed and fluency of the child could be analyses (Schickedanz &
Casbergue, 2004). The drawings of the child were much in coordination with the writings which
were primarily implemented according to the imagination of the child. The most driving force
for the child was the exploration of ideas along with visualization which is oriented to the child
though the dialogue reading session (Ziol‐Guest & McKenna, 2014).

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Linear learning principle denotes to the aspect of being in resonance with the old, obsolete and
contemporary way of learning that includes the textbooks, curriculum, schedules and classrooms.
This linear learning system works like a delivery model which acts like a conveyor belt. The
delivery of the writing cannot be expected form a child to be in a linear format (Jung et al.,
2016). The linear principle would include the correct usage of tense, grammar and
synchronicities in the sentences which cannot be done by a small child. The flexibility principle
would denote to the way the child created a wide variety of symbols by decorating or
repositioning the conventional forms that enabled him to explore the constraints and limits
within which every form of the letter varied and was different from each other. However, it still
retained its identification.
The flexibility writing principle in this case could be analyzed as that child could discover what
is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the writing. He could understand the fact that he had
to write and draw according to the story that he was presented with. He produced certain kind of
shapes of letters that were recognizable. He also included patterns and numbers in his writing.
He did not have any idea regarding the limits of et writing system. The child was still getting
confused with the reversal letters like “b” and “d” in his writing (Lane & Wright, 2007). This can
straight way denote to the fact that he was much more resonating to be adapting flexibility
writing. The writings and drawings by the sign principle would denote to the extent to which the
sense of the numbers is comprehended and what the child has learned out of it.
As per Hill, Jones & Schillin, the cognitive ability of the child to be able to perceive the numbers
and symbols in the surroundings is reflected through the writings and drawings of the child. It
could be analyzed that the child was very much prompt in being close to accurately
understanding small numbers and symbols (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). The child was able to
discriminate between various types of objects (Xu et al., 2014). The development of the word
concept in the child is observed to emerge in a very gradual manner and is relevant in this case
(Lederberg, Schick & Spencer, 2013). At this age, the child is learning to read and write. The
learning of the child includes the lessons including the use of syllable, word and phoneme.
The order of the word emergence has placed the syllable to be in the first factors that the child
was giving attention to. The selection of words had to be taught to the child at this age which was
getting reflected in his writings. The child was very prompt at identifying the symbols, names

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and words by sight. Throughout his conversations, I could identify that the child was very fast in
learning from the symbols and had the assumption that any whole symbol was representing the
entire word. It could also be perceived that the child could identify and adopt various strategies
of seeking various features from any word. It was also observed that the child used such features
for the identification of any word. The child has the natural tendency for memorizing the entire
word. He could also memorize some of one the salient features of the words. He, however, had
difficulty in reading the authentic contents that was not composed primarily as sight words.
Phonemic awareness of the child could be associated with the ability of the child to identify, hear
and manipulate the sounds in the words which he spoke (Otto, 2015). Throughout the story
reading session, the child was very carefully identifying and categorizing sounds and was giving
efforts in blending sounds from forming words (Wallach, 2016).
The child was giving attention to sight word through which he was able to the read simply by
having a look at the words without him saying much to sound it alphabet by alphabet. He was
able to create sight word as he was naturally able to encounter various words that were outside
the sight word. He was sounding out the words by pronunciation it aloud. It helped in enhancing
the ability of the child in differentiating between what he expected to hear and what he actually
heard. The session also helped the child in separating the sound of the words from their actual
meaning (Piasta et al., 2015).
The child was also identifying and was able to separate the phoneme. He was recognizing the
words that rhymed with each other. He was. However, having a very enjoyable time while
getting to identify the phoneme and getting aware of the way every word should be pronounced.
He was able to recognize single words in every sentence. He was paying attention to the
matching of the identically sounding words at every beginning of the words.

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Transcript
LineSpeakerUtterance Comment
1 Teacher I chose the story book named “The Giving Tree” for us
to read.
What do you think his book might be about?
Seated side by side on a
couch and sharing the book
with the child.
Looking at the front cover.
2 Child Is it about a tree, a boy and a fruit which gives
something?
Pointing at the front cover
having the picture of a tree.
3 Teacher Yes, the book is about a tree. How do you know that it
is about a tree?
4 Child There is a picture of a tree on the cover of the book.
But there is also a boy. He is there to eat anything.
Pointing out to the picture
of the boy on the cover of
the book. The child points
to the image of the fruit in
the cover page of the book.
5 Teacher Very good. What fruit is it?
6 Child That is an apple. It is a strawberry! No! It is not a
strawberry. It is an apple.
7 Teacher How can you say that the fruit is an apple? Why not a
strawberry?
8 Child Because the fruit is too big. Strawberry that I ate in my
breakfast is a small fruit.
9 Teacher Yes, it is an apple which is bigger than strawberry. Can
we start reading now?
10 Child Mm, hmm. Turn the page. He opened the cover and
we went to the first page.
11 Teacher This book is called, The Giving Tree. It is written by
Mr. Silverstein
I pointed to the words as I
read.
The child was watching
intently.
12 Teacher Once upon a time, there was a tree. The tree kept
growing as she saw the little boy who looked just like
you. The tree also loved the little boy a lot. The boy
went up the hill and climbed into the tree.
Both look at the picture.

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13 Child He could climb a tree! Child pointing
14 Teacher Yes, he could. Looking at the child.
15 Child Was he not scared??
16 Teacher No he wasn’t! Every day the boy would come and take
up the leaves with his hands to gather the leaves. He
used to make crowns out of the leaves. He pretended to
be the forest’s king and play the game of king of the
forest.
17 Child I am the king of the forest. Raising one hand
18 Teacher He would climb up the trunk of the tree and pick the
apples and eat them. He would also play hide and seek
around the tree.
19 Child Wow! Okay!
20 Teacher When he was tired, he would sleep in the shade of the
tree.
21 Child then
22 Teacher As 20 years passed by, while the tree was mostly
alone, it used to be very sad. Then one day the boy
came to the tree. Then the tree said,” Boy, come on!
Climb up my branches and swing. The boy who had
grown up to a big man replied,” No, I cannot do that
anymore. I am too grownup and big to play and climb
on you.”
23 Child Oh!! Putting palms on his
cheeks
24 Teacher The young man told,” I want to buy many things and
have fun. I want to make a lot of money. Do you have
a lot of money Giving Tree?”
25 Child
Then what happened?
26 Teacher The tree helped the boy in making money by giving
her apples and branches as time passes by. The greed
of the young man kept on growing. The tree kept on
giving whatever she could from her own trunk,
branches, etc.
25 Child Then?
26 Teacher The tree, through her entire lifetime helped the by
giving him whatever was possible out of love but the
man could not return back anything. At the end of his
lifetime, the young man was too tired and wanted to
rest in peace with the left over trunk of the tree. Can
you tell me what you learned out of the story?
25 Child The tree loved the boy a lot and she was her best friend
till the end.
26 Teacher Yes, absolutely correct!

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References
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Reading: A professional development course for grades, 3.
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Boston: Pearson.
Bus, A.G. and Neuman, S.B., 2014. Multimedia and literacy development: Improving
Achievement for young learners. Routledge.
Cortes, C., 2013. Designing Literacy Rich Classroom Environments for Young Children: A Study
of Teachers' Design Processes and Tools. Arizona State University.
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.
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2014. The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood: Developing evidence-based
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Early Intervention, 36(4), pp.246-262.

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Genishi, C. and Dyson, A.H., 2015. Children, language, and literacy: Diverse learners in
diverse times. Teachers College Press.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
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Schickedanz, J.A. and Casbergue, R.M., 2004. Writing in Preschool: Learning to Orchestrate
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