Enduring Understandings

• Meaning-making is a constructive and creative process.
• We learn about ourselves, others, and the world through speaking and listening, reading, and writing.
• Effective readers, writers, speakers, and listeners use a variety of strategies and skills to share, construct, clarify, and confirm meaning.
• Spoken words can be written, and print carries a constant message.
• Oral, written, and visual communications have their own conventions. Awareness and use of these conventions make us better communicators.
• Playing and experimenting with language and creating original texts help us to appreciate the artistry of language.
• Successful learners reflect on their thinking and learning to find ways to improve.

Snapshot

Summary derived from the Prescribed Learning Outcomes for Kindergarten

• Participate in integrated language activities to share ideas, interact with others, and extend their thinking in the classroom
• Engage in discussions about what makes a good speaker and listener
• Use meaningful syntax and speak clearly
• Begin to acquire strategies to derive meaning from what is read, heard, and viewed
• Use some phonological awareness to increase sound, letter, and word discrimination
• Show emerging understanding and enjoyment of print, books, and visuals through a variety of reading, viewing, writing, and representing activities
• Communicate understanding of events, ideas, and information presented in short illustrated, patterned, and predictable books and classroom charts, as well as in read-alouds and shared reading and viewing
• Create messages that have meaning (using pictures, symbols, letters, and words)
• Begin to acquire strategies to develop ideas and share experiences through writing and representing
• Identify the sounds and print most of the letters of the alphabet, their own name, and a few simple words

Literacy Experiences

Kindergarten teachers need to provide a rich variety of literacy opportunities for their students that focus on:

• oral language activities that foster growth in listening, speaking, phonological awareness, vocabulary development and social interaction
• reading activities (including reading aloud, shared reading, book exploration and independent reading) that develop concepts about books, concepts about print, and beginning reading processes and skills
• writing activities (including modelled, shared, and independent writing) that develop student appreciation for written expression and their own emergent writing and spelling skills
• word-and-print directed activities that develop students’ understanding of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, basic sight vocabulary and printing skills
• rich and varied play and languaging experiences including interaction with a wide range of environmental print and texts to integrate and extend students’ uses of language and literacy for a variety of purposes. Examples of literacy experiences include:
  • engaging in informal conversations
  • playing
  • responding to photographs, pictures, stories, classroom experiences (e.g., cooking)
  • dramatic play
  • making constructions to represent a person or an object in a story, video, song, or play
  • performing or watching puppet plays
  • brief discussions/sharing led by the teacher
  • chanting, choral reading, singing
  • sharing own work
  • listening to instructions
  • listening to stories
  • looking at books/role play reading
  • viewing photographs and illustrations
  • talking about favourite books, personal experiences
  • participating in shared reading (e.g., short, simple, illustrated, patterned and predictable stories, rhymes, songs, and chants) which feature repetition and high frequency words
  • participating in shared reading of classroom charts and teacher-made books
  • participating in collaborative charts or stories scribed by the teacher
  • drawing pictures with labels or captions including information texts
  • beginning to convey ideas by writing
  • reading environmental print
  • representing responses (e.g., painting, drawing, plasticine models)

Criteria for a Good Thinker

A good thinker:

• bases judgments on evidence
• is honest with self
• listens to understand before drawing conclusions
• can tolerate ambiguity
• asks questions
• is open-minded and flexible
• is able to think independently
• identifies and explains personal points of view
• looks for connections among ideas
• extends personal thinking by assimilating new ideas and information
• is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitoring, and self-correcting

Criteria for a Good Speaker and Listener

A good speaker and listener:

• speaks and listens for a variety of purposes
• maintains concentration during listening and speaking
• listens carefully to understand and respond to others’ messages
• communicates ideas and information clearly
• organizes ideas and information so that the audience can understand and remember
• uses vocabulary and presentation style that are appropriate for the audience
• uses tone, pace, and volume that are appropriate for the situation
• sustains short conversations by encouraging the speaker and contributing ideas
• is attentive and respectful to others in conversation
• uses language effectively for a variety of purposes
• monitors presentation and is sensitive to audience response
• uses some strategies to overcome difficulties in communication(e.g., unfamiliar vocabulary, a noisy environment, distractions)
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement

Criteria for a Good Reader and Viewer

A good reader and viewer:

• accesses prior knowledge
• asks questions
• makes predictions
• uses three kinds of cues – meaning, sound, visual – to make sense of text. Asks "Does it make sense?" "Does it sound right?" "Does it look right?"
• self-monitors and recognizes when text is not making sense
• uses strategies to overcome problems during reading and viewing
• makes connections before, during, and after reading and viewing
• uses mental images to deepen and extend meaning
• identifies and summarizes main ideas
• interprets both literal and inferential meaning
• synthesizes and extends meaning
• evaluates the text or visual material
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement

Criteria for a Good Writer and Representer

A good writer and representer:

• generates ideas
• organizes information
• identifies a purpose
• defines an audience
• develops a "voice" and style suitable to the purpose, content, and audience
• uses a variety of vocabulary and sentence construction
• conveys meaning clearly
• demonstrates coherence among ideas
• recognizes the value of feedback
• revises and rewrites
• uses basic conventions of writing
• finds satisfaction in writing
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement