Early Childhood Learning: Comparing Literacy Programs Essay

This essay provides a comparative analysis of holistic and stand-alone literacy programs within the context of early childhood education. The paper begins by establishing the significance of early childhood learning and its impact on a child's future success. It then proceeds to compare and contrast two distinct literacy programs: SRA FLEX Literacy, a holistic approach, and direct instruction, a stand-alone methodology. The essay delves into the reading and writing strategies employed by each program, emphasizing their relation to the early primary childhood curriculum. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each program, focusing on factors such as flexibility, digital interventions, and the ability to address the diverse needs of young learners. The essay also includes a review of relevant literature, including studies on classroom behavior and the effectiveness of different literacy approaches. Ultimately, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the key differences and similarities between holistic and stand-alone literacy programs and their implications for early childhood education.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
In the discipline of sociology, early childhood learning is an essential part and phase
because early childhood years are important time in children’s lives because it is the time when
they first learn how to interact with each other and the society, which includes peers, teachers
and parents. It is the time when they start developing interests that actually stays with them
throughout their lives. Therefore, early childhood learning is a significant part of a child’s life
and if properly provided, children have maximum possibility to be successful in later adulthood
(Department of Education, Western Australia., 2018). The respective paper is a comparison and
contrast of a holistic or integrated literacy program with that of stand- alone literacy program
with an in- depth review of both the programs that have been taken for comparison and contrast.
The paper also reviews the reading and writing strategies which are included in the respective
literary programs taken into consideration by emphasizing their relation with the context of early
primary childhood and learning. Different government owned sources and documents have been
utilized for reference purpose in the respective essay.
All children are entitled to receive literacy programs that include clear adaptations for
children with special needs. However, it also has to be remembered that early literacy curriculum
and teaching practices need to be evidence based, more practical and pragmatic than theoretical,
integrated holistically with all domains of learning and also should be understandable by the
supporting and assistant staff in the pedagogical department. The holistic literacy program that
has been taken into consideration in the respective essay from “literacy programs in the early
years I” is “Improving Classroom Behavior through Effective Instruction: an illustrative program
example using SRA FLEX Literacy”. The respective SRA FLEX Literacy program has been
compared and contrasted with direct instruction and the gold standard, which is a stand- alone
methodology of literacy program which is taken from “literacy programs in the early years II”.

2SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
Literacy programs in the settings of early childhood learning can be broadly defined as
professional pedagogy that deals with a child’s development in language and all the domains of a
child which is directly linked with the outstanding academic achievement of the children,
reduced grade retention, higher education rates and enhanced productivity in adult life.
Therefore, literacy programs are of dire importance while providing children pedagogical
teachings in their early and pre primary childhood. The key areas that literacy programs teach the
children are oral language, alphabetical code and print language. If a child is not provided with
proper literacy programs in her early childhood days, it is more likely that she will develop
disturbances and issues in the path of learning and reading. There are different kinds of literacy
programs, from integrated to holistic, that adds up to the curriculum of the early childhood
educational settings. All domains of a child’s development, physical, social, socio- emotional,
cognitive and psychosomatic, all have an interdependent relation between a child’s exposure to
literacy programs (Department of Education, Western Australia., 2018).
The two literacy programs, namely, SRA FLEX Literacy and direct instruction and goal
standard have similarities and differences between each other. The SRA FLEX Literacy focuses
on improving classroom behavior through effective instruction through three learning
experiences, which are: digital, print and project. The SRA FLEX literacy program is a holistic
and all encompassing literacy program that focuses on all over, multidimensional and
multifaceted development of a child or children. Holistic learning is 'concerned with the whole
child, allowing various areas of learning to occur together rather than in separate parts' (Fellowes
& Oakely, 2014). The respective literary program tries to find out strong positive correlation
between behavioral problem and academic achievement (Cohen & Waite-Stupiansky,
2013).Online teaching tool called FLEXWorks connects the three learning experiences (digital,

3SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
print and project) for planning, instruction, assessment and progress monitoring purpose
(DeCarli, 2016). Keeping in mind certain factors such as the child’s family, culture and linguistic
background, the respective literacy program has been build with a diversified and inclusive
atmosphere. The digital experience provides computer based learning, the print experience
provides shared, interactive reading opportunities that allows the pupils to navigate complex
texts for 32 weeks. The project experience builds high order thinking skills among the students
as it includes research, presentation, collaboration, reflection and evaluation. On the other hand,
the stand alone direct instruction method of literacy program is based largely on the behaviorist
learning theory (Martella & Marchand-Martella, 2015). The direct instruction literary program
breaks each learning tasks down into the smallest components and also requires the skills of
mastery before proceeding to more difficult skills. In the respective literacy program, students
are grouped according to their achievements; teachers are provided with closely scripted lesson
plans. In such programs, the students are instructed to respond to the teachers orally and also as a
group. The group does not move on until everyone understands the materials that are being
taught or explained inside the class. Direct Instruction is a Stand Alone literacy program that
addresses different layers of literacy ability levels of children with a typical classroom setting.
However, there are certain advantages and disadvantages of SRA FLEX Literacy program and
direct instruction method of literacy program. The main advantage of the former literacy
program is that it is quite flexible than the direct instruction method. The former literacy program
has more diversity and variations in terms of digital interventions than that of the latter literacy
program. The digital learning experience of former literacy program with the usage of
FLEXWorks as digital tool attends the progress of pupils in the department of phonetics and
pronunciation of alphabets, words and sentences. Therefore, it is a holistic process of learning

4SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
that utilizes eyes, ear and mouth of the pupils to learn pronunciations and phonetics through
computer based experience. On the other hand, the latter literacy program, which is direct
instruction method of literary program provides the pupils with “direct” and “one- sided”
instruction to follow in the class, with less opportunities of any kind of deviation or variation.
The mentioned literacy program provides more emphasis on the phonetics of the words and
sentences while teaching the toddler pupils with special reference to understanding of the “letter-
sound” relationship in written texts, and reinforcement of these components in the context of
book reading (Louden, 2014). However, it also has to be remembered that “direct instruction
method” is generally carried out by the tutors to the children with learning difficulties, therefore,
it is less complicated and more simple and straight forward to avoid any kind of unnecessary
digressions (Botts et al., 2014).
Literature review
Classroom behavior and literacy programs
In the respective article by Martella & Marchand-Martella (2015), the authors have talked
about how proper classroom behavior is brought up by a proper SRA FLEX literacy program
which instructs the students how to exhibit proper behavior that is expected from him or her. The
article talks in details about the student misbehavior which is rampant in the schools of the
contemporary times. With the help of proper SRA FLEX literacy programs at the beginning of
the early childhood education, the students can be given instructions and lessons of proper
management of their behavior. SRA FLEX literacy programs try to tackle and control the
disruptive behavior shown by the toddlers in their early years of growth. With such programs, a
child can be transformed into a virtuous and responsible individual as he/ she grows up and turns

5SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
into an adult. .On the other hand, in the article written by Goble (2014), the author has explicitly
talked about the credibility of the child centered approach of direct instruction method literacy
program. The author, in the respective article, tries to understand the significance, influence and
importance of child centered approach and direct instruction method as literacy program for the
early childhood pupils. Both of the articles have talked about the influence and changes in the
classroom behavior that is brought about by both of the literacy programs in order to bring in
significant progression and improvement in early childhood learning among the toddlers and
children.
Effect of the literacy programs
Stockard et al. (2018), in their respective article “The effectiveness of direct instruction
curricula: a meta analysis of a half century of research” is a quantitative analysis of the effects of
direct instruction method of literacy program on the pupils and children who have been provided
with the respective literacy program in their early childhood and academic development period.
The result of the research shows that the effects of such literary programs were grater and
students performed exceptionally well in academic subjects when such literacy programs were
given more to them and vice versa. On the other hand, the article by Nasrul, Alberth & Ino
(2019) has talked about the efficiency and effect of the literacy programs such as SRA FLEX
literacy that depends on various factors such as the background knowledge of the student,
competence of vocabulary and motivation as predicators of reading comprehension which also
directly and indirectly affects the credibility of the respective literacy program.
In the respective literacy program named SRA FLEX Literacy program, technology and
digital device driven reading and learning strategies have been emphasized. The respective

6SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
literacy program has stressed about how the motivation of the students and the pupils have
increased at a tremendous way whenever an integration of digital, print and project experience of
learning is placed in the class, which means that students do respond well when they are
provided a holistic experience of digital, print and project in their monotonous curriculum of
academics and lessons. Secondly, the incorporation and collaboration of different interesting
themes in the digital experience, such as amusement parks and cartoons while teaching a
particular chapter, subject or discipline has proven to be beneficial for the children in terms of
their outlook towards studies and academics. The digital experience provides computer based
learning, the print experience provides shared, interactive reading opportunities that allows the
pupils to navigate complex texts for 32 weeks. The project experience builds high order thinking
skills among the students as it includes research, presentation, collaboration, reflection and
evaluation. (Martella & Marchand-Martella, 2015). On the other hand, In the respective literacy
program of direct instruction method, students are grouped according to their achievements;
teachers are provided with closely scripted lesson plans. In such programs, the students are
instructed to respond to the teachers orally and also as a group. The group does not move on until
everyone understands the materials that are being taught or explained inside the class. However,
it also has to be remembered that “direct instruction method” is generally carried out by the
tutors to the children with learning difficulties; therefore, strategies in the respective case is less
complicated and more simple and straight forward to avoid any kind of unnecessary digressions
and complication (Botts et al., 2014).
The respective paper concludes to be a comparison and contrast of a holistic or integrated
literacy program with that of stand- alone literacy program with an in- depth review of both the
programs that have been taken for comparison and contrast. The paper also has also reviewed the

7SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
reading and writing strategies which are included in the respective literary programs taken into
consideration by emphasizing their relation with the context of early primary childhood and
learning. Different government owned sources and documents have been utilized for reference
purpose in the respective essay.

8SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
References:
Botts, D. C., Losardo, A. S., Tillery, C. Y., & Werts, M. G. (2014). A comparison of activity-based
intervention and embedded direct instruction when teaching emergent literacy skills. The
Journal of Special Education, 48(2), 120-134.
Cohen, L. E. & Waite-Stupiansky, S. (2013). Learning Across the Early Childhood Curriculum.
Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
DeCarli, J. (2016). Teaching a Holistic Approach to Writing. Retrieved
from https://www.victoryprd.com/blog/?p=3551.
Department of Education, Western Australia. (2018). First Steps Literacy. Retrieved
from http://det.wa.edu.au/stepsresources/detcms/navigation/first-steps-literacy/.
Goble, P. (2014). Examining Child-Centered and Direct Instruction Approaches to Early
Education (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).
Louden, B. (2014). Direct Instruction and the teaching of reading. The conversation. Retrieved
from https://theconversation.com/direct-instruction-and-the-teaching-of-reading-29157.
Martella, R. C., & Marchand-Martella, N. (2015). Improving classroom behavior through
effective instruction: An illustrative program example using SRA FLEX
literacy. Education & Treatment of Children, 38(2), 241-271. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/docview/1687611469?
accountid=14205.

9SOCIOLOGY: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
Martella, R. C., & Marchand-Martella, N. E. (2015). Improving classroom behavior through
effective instruction: An illustrative program example using SRA FLEX literacy.
Education and Treatment of Children, 38(2), 241-271.
Nasrul, E. S., Alberth, A., & Ino, L. (2019). Students’ Background Knowledge, Vocabulary
Competence, And Motivation As Predictors Of Reading Comprehension at Grade 11 Of
SMA Kartika Kendari. Journal of Language Education and Educational Technology
(JLEET), 4(1).
Stockard, J., Wood, T. W., Coughlin, C., & Rasplica Khoury, C. (2018). The effectiveness of
direct instruction curricula: A meta-analysis of a half century of research. Review of
Educational Research, 88(4), 479-507.