Page 53 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

The internationally used Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation Tool
(ELLCO) Pre-K describes environments in pre-school which largely resemble the

criteria of the Reading Nest as ‘excellent’. It particularly points out that the room has

on display many examples of written text (children’s works, posters, books made by
children), which clearly present different aims of writing, for example children's ideas

regarding the weekly theme and that stories told by children are in the book centre, etc.

The ELLCO Pre-K instrument has been used by Denise Cunningham (2009) from
Missouri State University, who has studied the classroom, physical environment and

modes of study to find out the extent to which classrooms support the development of

literacy. Her results showed a strong correlation between the quality of the literacy
environment and the children’s level of literacy.

Our teachers assert that they deem the environment to be important or very important.

Observation results, however, revealed that many kindergarten groups are text-poor.
Most frequently letters and numbers are displayed, sometimes also days of the week,

seasons and months. In some places one can see duty rotas and group rules. Children’s

names appear on cupboards and towel hooks and in some groups, on chairs and beds.
However, teachers are unable to value the importance of displaying child-originated

texts, and other texts written within creative games and first writing attempts (Laamann,

2014).