Abstract
Literacy involves the ability to produce and interpret texts. This chapter describes how preschool children can learn to create narratives and expository texts by combining oral and written language with various forms of nonverbal graphic representations such as drawings and tables. As children use different meaning-making resources in the texts they produce, they experience their different affordances and thus broaden and enrich their text production toolkit. The theoretical framework of the chapter is the constructivist ecological approach. We argue that human learning develops in the context of social and cultural activities. Through such activities, educators can expand children’s exposure to a broader vocabulary, to various text genres, writing skills, and world knowledge. The more such activities are repeated in diverse ways, the more children will be able to understand and effectively produce texts, and thus the more they will be empowered. These arguments are illustrated through examples of children’s production of creative narratives and of two types of expository texts: records of biological observations and a comparison table presenting the characteristics of countries.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
This and other examples in the chapter are translated from the Hebrew.
References
Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). The problem of speech genres. In C. Emerson & M. Holquist (Eds.), Speech genres and other late essays (pp. 60–102). University of Texas Press.
Bazerman, C. (2009). Genre and cognitive development: Beyond writing to learn. In C. Bazerman, C. Bonini, & D. Figueiredo (Eds.), Genre in a changing world (pp. 279–294). The WAC Clearinghouse.
Berman, R. A., & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2007). Comparing narrative and expository text construction across adolescence: A developmental paradox. Discourse Processes, 43(2), 79–120.
Berman, R., & Slobin, D. (Eds.). (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bezemer, J., & Kress, G. (2016). Multimodality, learning and communication. Routledge.
Blum-Kulka, S., & Hamo, M. (2011). Discourse pragmatics. Discourse Studies, 2(1), 143–164.
Blum-Kulka, S., Huck-Taglicht, D., & Avni, H. (2004). The social and discursive spectrum of peer talk. Discourse Studies, 6(3), 307–328.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.
Brooks, M. (2003, September 1–6). Drawing to learn. Beyond the Journal – Young Children on the Web. http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200309/DrawingtoLearn.pdf
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Harvard University Press.
Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51.
Cekaite, A., Blum-Kulka, S., Grøver, V., & Teubal, E. (Eds.). (2014). Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other. Cambridge University Press.
Chall, J. S., Jacobs, V. A., & Baldwin, L. E. (1990). The reading crisis: Why poor children fall behind. Harvard University Press.
Cheng, S. C., & Lai, C. L. (2020). Facilitating learning for students with special needs: A review of technology-supported special education studies. Journal of Computers in Education, 7(2), 131–153.
Dexter, D. D., & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Graphic organizers and students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34(1), 51–72.
Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. Harvard University Press.
Donaldson, M. (1978). Children’s minds. Fontana/Collins.
Duke, N. K., & Block, M. K. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. The Future of Children, 22(2), 55–72.
Elsahar, Y., Hu, S., Bouazza-Marouf, K., Kerr, D., & Mansor, A. (2019). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) advances: A review of configurations for individuals with a speech disability. Sensors, 19(8), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19081911
Fox, M. (2008). Reading magic: Why reading aloud to our children will change their lives forever. Harvest Books.
Gee, J. P. (2012). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. Routledge.
Guberman, A. (2020). Introducing young children to expository texts through nonverbal representations. Cuaderno del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación, 98, 91–112.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Martin, J. R. (1993). Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. University of Pittsburgh Press.
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review, 26, 55–88.
Jewitt, C., Kress, G., Ogborn, J., & Tsatsarelis, C. (2001). Exploring learning through visual, actional and linguistic communication: The multimodal environment of a science classroom. Educational Review, 53(1), 5–18.
Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2007). Graphic organizers in reading instruction: Research findings and issues. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(1), 34–55.
Kress, G. (2015). Semiotic work: Applied linguistics and a social semiotic account of multimodality. AILA Review, 28, 49–71.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). University of Washington Press.
Livnat, Z. (2012). Dialogue, science and academic writing. John Benjamins.
McCabe, A. (2013). A comprehensive approach to building oral language in preschool: Prerequisites for literacy. In D. M. Barone & M. H. Mallette (Eds.), Best practices in early literacy instruction (pp. 26–41). The Guilford Press.
McCabe, A., & Peterson, C. (1991). Getting the story: A longitudinal study of parental styles in eliciting narratives and decoding narrative skill. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 217–253). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Mikel, G. (2007). What is scientific illustration? Retrieved from: http://www.scientificillustrator.com/scientific-illustration-faq.html
Mitchelmore, M. (1998). Young students’ concepts of turning and angle. Cognition and Instruction, 16(3), 265–284.
Murnane, R., Sawhill, I., & Snow, C. (2012). Literacy challenges for the twenty-first century: Introducing the issue. The Future of Children, 22(2), 3–15.
Nicolopoulou, A. (1996). Narrative development in social context. In D. Slobin, J. Gerhardt, J. Guo, & A. Kyratzis (Eds.), Social interaction, social context, and language: Essays in honor of Susan Ervin-Tripp (pp. 369–390). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Nicolopoulou, A. (2002). Peer-group culture and narrative development. In S. Blum-Kulka & C. E. Snow (Eds.), Talking to adults: The contribution of multiparty discourse to language acquisition (pp. 117–152). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ntelioglou, B. Y., Fannin, J., Montanera, M., & Cummins, J. (2014). A multilingual and multimodal approach to literacy teaching and learning in urban education: A collaborative inquiry project in an inner city elementary school. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(Article 533), 1–10. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00533
O’Neill, T., Light, J., & Pope, L. (2018). Effects of interventions that include aided augmentative and alternative communication input on the communication of individuals with complex communication needs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(7), 1743–1765.
Oakhill, J., Cain, K., & Elbro, C. (2019). Reading comprehension and reading comprehension difficulties. In D. Kilpatrick, R. Joshi, & R. Wagner (Eds.), Reading development and difficulties. Springer.
Ochs, E. (1996). Linguistic resources for socializing humanity. Cambridge University Press.
Olson, D. (1994). The world on paper: The conceptual and cognitive implications of writing and reading. Cambridge University Press.
Pacheco, M. B., & Miller, M. E. (2016). Making meaning through translanguaging in the literacy classroom. The Reading Teacher, 69(5), 533–537.
Prince, G. (2003). A dictionary of narratology (Rev. ed.). University of Nebraska Press.
Rijlaarsdam, G., Braaksma, M., Couzijn, M., Janssen, T., Raedts, M., Van Steendam, E., Toorenaar, A., & Van den Bergh, H. (2008). Observation of peers in learning to write, practice and research. Journal of Writing Research, 1(1), 53–83.
Rimmon-Keynan, S. (1983). Narrative fiction: Contemporary poetics. Methuen.
Scarborough, H. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory and practice. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 97–110). The Guilford Press.
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2001). Linguistic features of the language of schooling. Linguistics and Education, 12(4), 431–459.
Schola Europaea. (2018). Key competences for lifelong learning in the European schools (Ref. No. 2018-09-D-69-en-1). Schola Europaea, Office of the Secretary-General. https://www.eursc.eu/BasicTexts/2018-09-D-69-en-1.pdf
Smith, F. (1987). Joining the literacy club: Further essays in education. Heinemann.
Snow, C. E. (2017). The role of vocabulary versus knowledge in children’s language learning: A fifty-year perspective. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 40(1), 1–18.
Snow, C. E., & Uccelli, P. (2009). The challenge of academic language. In D. R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literacy (pp. 112–133). Cambridge University Press.
Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. National Academy Press.
Spaull, N., & Pretorius, E. (2019). Still falling at the first hurdle: Examining early grade reading in South Africa. In N. Spaull & J. D. Jansen (Eds.), South African schooling: The enigma of inequality (pp. 147–168). Springer.
Sweet, A. P., & Snow, C. E. (Eds.). (2003). Rethinking reading comprehension. The Guilford Press.
Teubal, E. (2003). The image of the child as scientist. Hed Hagan, 68(1), 42–53. (In Hebrew).
Teubal, E., & Guberman, A. (2014). Graphic texts: Literacy enhancing tools in early childhood. Sense.
Tversky, B. (2001). Spatial schemas in depictions. In M. Gattis (Ed.), Spatial schemas and abstract thought (pp. 79–112). MIT Press.
UNESCO Institute of Statistics. (n.d.). Glossary: Literacy definition. http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary
Unsworth, L. (2006). Towards a metalanguage for multiliteracies education: Describing the meaning-making resources of language-image interaction. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 5, 55–76.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Harvard University Press.
Wainer, H. (1992). Understanding graphs and tables. Educational Researcher, 21(1), 14–23.
Wells, G. (1981). Learning through interaction: The study of language development. Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, E. O. (2003). Pheidole in the new world: A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus. Harvard University Press.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Eva Teubal whose lifelong work shaped the theoretical framework of this chapter. The examples provided in the expository text section were produced during a professional development course for preschool teachers led by Professor Teubal. Dr. Talia Habib wrote the section on narratives production.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Guberman, A. (2023). Nurturing Writing of Narrative and Expository Texts at the Preschool Level. In: Spinillo, A.G., Sotomayor, C. (eds) Development of Writing Skills in Children in Diverse Cultural Contexts. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29286-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29286-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-29285-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29286-6
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)