Page 46 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

• foremost, be a good listener, speaker, reader and writer, thus setting an example, and

support speech development with a variety of devices - rewording, mimicking, body
language, pictures, items, etc. The teacher should monitor children's responses to

speech, both verbal and non-verbal (e.g. looking aside, or fidgeting), and create as
many possibilities for all children for content-rich speaking, including the slower

thinkers and the ones with a mother tongue other than Estonian.

• the teacher should support the development of children’s metalanguage skills
(language awareness) – to notice and to let children search for the language’s

“building blocks“ during games, for example rhymes, words with the same first letter,

words that do or do not include certain sounds, tenses (what is now and which was
earlier?), words that sound similar (homophones), words with similar meaning

(synonyms), words with opposite meanings (antonyms), words unknown to children
(and to search for the meanings together) etc. The teacher should also ask children to

find and sort letters, words with a particular first letter, words with or without a
particular letter, names, adjectives, verbs, punctuation marks, numbers, maths

symbols, letters of another language (e.g. Cyrillic or logograms).

• planning of integrated and playful learning – materials and activities are linked to
content-rich and interesting topics in order to enhance integrated learning. Where

possible, children are offered games, ideas and tasks where they can make use of

literacy and numeracy which is integrated with other learning topics. The teacher’s
attitude to their role is what hugely impacts the learning process – the teacher should

not try to be the one only inputting knowledge, but rather an advisor and a fellow
student, the creator of the learning environment and a collaborator.

• Mapping and giving feedback on children’s literacy development – teachers set the
focus on what the child already knows, or has acquired and what the child is already

attempting to achieve. The focus never lies on mistakes or what a child is unable to

do yet. Assessment and feedback are based on conversations and discussions (e.g.
children’s work) and other methods of active learning, which show what the children

have been able to learn over a certain time period. The teacher makes time to

sincerely recognise and acknowledge development, encourage and stimulate.
• Collaborative support to literacy development – adults (teachers, assistants, parents,

support persons, speech therapists, language teachers etc.) all work in consultation,
they have shared values and the main focus lies in maintaining children’s motivation

and comprehensive development of literacy.