Preparation for teaching literacy to children of senior preschool age

Key principles for preparing for literacy

Before moving to secondary school, literacy learning is usually structured as follows: Preparing to learn to read and write (Preschool education) → Ready to learn reading and writing (Preschool education) → Learning to read and write (Primary education) → Developing reading and writing skills letters (Primary education). The basis for successfully developing readiness to become familiar with literacy is the study of sound analysis and the development of graphic skills.

What needs to be taught to a child in preparation for mastering reading and writing:

Identify sounds that occur frequently in words.
Name words according to a specific phonemic feature.
Carry out a sound analysis of words of 3-5 sounds during the modeling process.
Correlate the spoken word with the diagram of its sound composition.
In accordance with the game rules, change the sound composition of a word, name words with a certain sound, words of a given sound structure.
Select words that are similar and opposite in meaning.
When describing objects, use words that characterize their properties and qualities.
Compose short stories on topics close to children.
Compose a story based on a series of plot pictures.
Participate in a group conversation and ask questions.

You will learn about the features of teaching reading and writing to preschoolers in our materials:
“Let them teach reading at school!”

“Developing preschool children: preparing the hand for writing. Where to begin?"

Features of the educational complex “Paths” and “Pre-school time”

The Russian Textbook Corporation presents the courses “Paths” (for systemic preschool education) and “Pre-school time” (for short-term groups and for preparing children at schools). The projects have already earned high praise from teachers. The publications present a methodology for preparing for learning to read and write, developed by a well-known specialist in the field of preschool and primary education, Lidia Zhurova, based on the popular method of Daniil Elkonin. The method involves preparation through five stages:

The first stage (and the most important). Skill training:

intonationally highlight the sound in a word;
name words with a given sound;
highlight and name the first sound in a word;
distinguish between hard and soft paired consonants (without introducing terminology).

Second phase. Teaching children the action of the sound composition of a word. During the sound analysis of words, the sound composition of the word is modeled using chips.

Third stage. Introducing letters that represent vowel sounds.

Fourth stage. Acquaintance with letters denoting consonants and mastering the reading mechanism.

Fifth stage. Working out the reading mechanism using material from the entire alphabet.

Let's take a closer look at how to build a sound analysis.

Let's learn to speak correctly. 3-4 years. Child benefit

The manual presents tasks on speech development aimed at clarifying the content of classes with children in the 2nd junior group of a preschool educational organization. The manual complies with the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education (2014). The texts in the manual are intended to be read to children by adults.

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Sound Analysis Action Operations

Pronouncing a word while simultaneously moving the pointer along the sound pattern (the pronunciation and hand movement are being coordinated).
Pronouncing a word with intonation highlighting the first sound.
Pronunciation of the first sound is isolated, as it is heard in the word.
Designation of sound with a chip (the chip is placed in the first cell).
Continuation of work with subsequent sounds of the word in the indicated logic: the child points the pointer according to the diagram, pronounces the entire word, holds the pointer in the second cell, intonationally highlights the second sound, names the second sound in isolation and fixes it with a chip, then also highlights the third sound.
After marking the last sound with a chip, it is mandatory to read the entire word.

The first stage - familiarization with sounds - is very important.
If a new student appears in a group several months before the end of preschool education, then the teacher must make a choice: immediately teach such a child to read or start preparing him? The right decision would be to choose preparation, since knowledge of phonemes will be useful to the child at school. #ADVERTISING_INSERT#

Literacy and abstract-symbolic thinking

Speaking about literacy, we most likely do not think that behind the ability to read and write there is complex mental activity, namely abstract and symbolic thinking, which (in parallel with an interest in speech) is actively manifested in children from the age of 4. Success in mastering other knowledge largely depends on how well it is developed during this period. And literacy learning in this context plays an important role: for the first time learning, for example, to identify letters in a word, words in a sentence and their relationships, children understand what signs are and how they relate to reality. This is very important, because human communication, assimilation and transfer of knowledge are unthinkable without a correct understanding of signs and sign systems.

A little theory: sign and sign systems

Literacy is one of the sign (semiotic) systems that provide a uniform representation and interpretation of the signals and messages that people exchange in the process of transmitting information.

The formation and use of semiotic systems is a natural way for humans to structure experience, socialize and transfer knowledge from generation to generation. In fact, our entire existence is permeated with sign systems: phonetics, language, counting, ritual, art, etc. Social relations as a whole can also be considered as a sign system.

The unit and basis of any semiotic system is a sign - an abstract or material object, in relation to which it is accepted that it indicates a certain meaning. A sign has a plane of content—meaning—and a plane of expression—these are linguistic or material means by which the meaning is conveyed.

In cultural studies, the dual essence of the sign is well explained by the concept “Bonfire of Hell”. It is based on the Greek legend of how the young man Leander swam across the Bosphorus every night to meet his beloved. The sign of invitation to the beginning of his journey was the fire that the girl lit in her tower. Here the fire is the material expression of the sign. An invitation to a meeting – its meaning, content.

We can distinguish signs of personal use (for example, the fire from the above-mentioned legend) - they are understandable only to a few people, significant only in the context of their relationships - and signs of general and professional use (counting, language, ritual), with the help of which objects of nature and technology are included in culture. But in both cases, the creation of signs is a social activity that expresses the uniqueness of life, feelings, and mental activity of other people.

With the help of signs, we not only socialize, but also cognize reality: by constructing semiotic systems, we endow material and abstract objects with conventional meaning and establish connections between them. When these systems acquire a historical and social dimension (everyone distinguishes and interprets signs in the same way), they consolidate experience and serve to transmit it from generation to generation.

The transfer and assimilation of experience is facilitated by an important property of semiotic systems: the design of signs explains their content even if there is no special condition for understanding the meaning of an individual sign. A striking example of this is the phrase coined by Academician Shcherba: “The glokaya kuzdra shteko budlanula bokra and kurdyat bokrenok.” Despite the fact that we do not know the meaning of the words in this sentence, based on morphological features and their relationship to each other (which are given by the grammar system), we can understand the general meaning of the entire phrase: some feminine entity did something to another male entity , and then began (and still continues) to do something different with a smaller representative of the same species. This principle, for example, is indispensable in deciphering ancient writing.

It turns out that by understanding what a sign is, how it relates to reality (the plane of expression and the plane of content), and how at least one sign system is organized, it becomes easier to work with the others in the future. For example, learning the grammar of a foreign language can help you understand how programming languages function.

And if in order to theoretically study what signs and sign systems are (this is the science of semiotics) it takes considerable time and developed intelligence, then children begin to intuitively comprehend the practical side of the issue from an early age. And the task of preschool education is to help them with this in a timely manner.

Including children in significant activities

The child’s sign activity, in fact, begins with a gesture, an indication of the desired object or a call to action. According to Vygotsky, gesture gives rise to speech, drawing and play - symbolic activities of the first order, which directly reflect reality. It is during the process of play that the object and its function are separated: different toys receive different purposes (an airplane - to fly, a car - to drive). With the help of names, the child establishes connections between a sign (name) and a specific object: he says “car” and picks up a car, not a plane. Speech, play and drawing give rise to written speech, symbolic activity of the second order (it no longer reflects immediate reality, but drawing or play). All these external symbolic forms of activity are included in the system of higher mental functions, which are formed in the process of social communication.

Therefore, a prerequisite for mastering sign-symbolic reality is the child’s interaction with adults and peers: the pointing gesture - the beginning of all principles - arises precisely from addressing another. If there is no one to show it to, then there is no point in it. The same goes for more complex activities: reading is always addressed to an imaginary interlocutor, writing is always addressed to an imaginary addressee. Only in this way do they arise as cultural functions. Otherwise, at the beginning of mastering literacy, the child does not understand why he himself needs it.

Thus, from an early age, mastering sign activities, the child feels quite comfortable, being under the guidance of an adult and surrounded by peers. The question remains: when is it appropriate to move from mastering one sign system to another, for example, from phonetics to grammar? Representatives of the Russian school of psychology have interesting answers to this question.

From the nursery to the desk?

A logical question arises: how to teach literacy to young children so that it is interesting and not difficult for them?

Of course, there is no need to put them at desks in kindergarten; it is important to do this in preschool ways: come up with tasks related to what interests them, include literacy training in different types of work with children. For example, everyone should create name tables with names and dates of birth together, allow children to write down the rules of the group themselves, come up with calendars, sign their works, etc.

It is important that during classes the child can observe, explore, make connections, identify dependencies, generalize, compare, draw conclusions, actively play and manipulate the material and discuss what he is doing with his peers.

Learning to read and write in general can be based on all types of activities available to the child: singing, playing music, physical education, design, dramatization.
In these activities, children will also develop motor coordination, rhythmic, tempo, melodic, spatial, muscular and language skills. Where to get ideas Not many works are devoted to the practical side of teaching literacy to preschoolers, but there are textbook works and thematic resources where you can find many effective exercises and ideas: ✔ “Understanding Literacy” by Evgeniy Shulezhko is a fundamental scientific and pedagogical work, in which, in addition to theories, the author's methods of teaching writing, reading and mathematics are presented; ✔ “Always Together: A Methodological Guide for Parents of Children with Hearing Pathology” by Emilia Leongard - despite the fact that the book is focused on working with hearing-impaired children, you can find many useful exercises and approaches to how to arouse interest in speech;
Internet resources: ✔ The Open Lesson website contains a lot of information on teaching literacy to preschoolers. The above-mentioned books can also be found there; ✔ The “School for All” project is a useful online resource dedicated to working with schoolchildren and preschoolers. Affiliate material Subscribe to the channel University of Childhood

If everything is left to chance

If literacy is not given due attention in early childhood, then some children may experience a number of problems when entering school.

Thus, children aged 6-7 years often have difficulties with tasks that require the correlation of symbolic and real planes, with the analysis of symbolic means in form (graphics, gestures, sounds) and in the nature of the connection with the designated object (similarity or conditional connection), with the designation of some and the same objects in different ways.

This occurs because the level of generalization and abstraction of individual concepts may not entirely correspond to their level of development. Understanding the structure of the alphabet and the structure of mathematical expressions (2a = b, for example) is built precisely on abstract symbolic representations.

It is important that by the beginning of school the child has an idea of the alphabet - about vowels and consonants, about the structure of a syllable, about the natural series of numbers. Understanding these patterns creates a sense of cultural inclusion in the child.

In general, many mistakes that children make at school are the result of oversight by preschool workers. It is believed that if a child is simply healthy and emotionally preserved, this is enough for his education to continue to be successful. And if someone at school, for example, has problems with the Russian language, then they are often attributed to psychological development and are classified as speech therapy.

But to avoid such difficulties, you should simply start mastering complex sign systems earlier.