IST 605: The Stages of Literacy: Emergent through Advanced

The Developing Literacy stage can be alternatively referred to as Transitional or Intermediate (Carver, 2023; Richardson, 2016).  In Chall's (1983) stages of literacy development, this stage is called Confirmation and Fluency (IMSE, 2015; The Literacy Bug, n.d.).  Children enter this stage as early as the end of first grade or as late as third grade, depending on how precocious their literacy development has been leading up to that point (Carver, 2023; IMSE, 2015).  The previously discussed skills and competencies in the Emergent and Beginning Literacy phases form an important foundation for the development of skills and competencies in the Developing stage.  Typically, this stage lasts until the fourth or fifth grade (Carver, 2023; IMSE, 2015), but factors such as a child's ELL status (The Literacy Bug, 2017d), socioeconomic situation (Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State, 2020), racial or ethnic minority status (Byrnes & Wasik, 2019), and access to adequate nutrition (Feed the Children, 2023) also play a role in how rapidly a child enters this stage and how quickly they can progress through it.  

During this phase, reading and writing speed increases (Carver, 2023).  Children transition from needing to read out loud to comprehend to reading silently (Carver, 2023).  Children's vocabulary is expanding rapidly; they are learning new, more complex words with Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes (Carver, 2023); morphemes are becoming more noticeable (when words change form depending upon the part of speech that's being used) (Carver, 2023), and more sophisticated vocabulary is being introduced into the writing that they are now capable of understanding (Fountas & Pinnell, 2022; Richardson, 2016).  Their analytical skills are also developing in this phase.  They can summarize the main ideas of more elaborate texts that consider multiple points (Carver, 2023). 

Writing transitions from a laborious, intensively deliberate task into something more natural and fluid.  Children will be able to use their writing to support their learning in this phase, too, as they use it as a tool to communicate what they have learned, to reflect upon that learning, and to respond to it (Carver, 2023).  Additionally, children are able to produce their own stories at this stage, and original writing products can be composed, either in print or electronically.  

There are six key elements that go into the development of literacy fluency: oral language; phonological and phonemic awareness; phonics; fluency (prosody); vocabulary; and comprehension (Education Services Australia, n.d.).  These six elements all combine to influence the development and progression of literacy skills, so they are important because these are the elements that literacy educators need to pay attention to when they’re assessing which stage their students are in and how best to teach them (Education Services Australia, n.d.).  

(Maryville University, 2022)

There are a number of ways that parents, caregivers, and teachers can support their children/students in their literacy growth in the Developing Literacy stage.

• Encourage children to self-select whatever they want to read.
  • Increases children's motivation, interest, and investment in reading.
• Introduce children to numerous genres of reading to pique their interests (Fountas & Pinnell, 2022).
  • Fiction - realistic, fantasy, subgenres (mystery, adventure, sports) (Fountas & Pinnell, 2022)
  • Nonfiction - Biography/Autobiography/Memoir, hybrid fiction/nonfiction (Fountas & Pinnell, 2022)
• Continue to build vocabulary
  • Ask children what new and interesting words they've learned lately in school
  • Select texts that are one step above where children are in their reading development to encourage vocabulary acquisition 
• Ask your child to talk to you about what they're reading and learning
  • Develop their analytical skills by asking them to give opinions on topics based on what they're reading
  • Ask them to speculate on what motivates characters to act the way they do in stories
  • Have them repeat sequences of events in order as they appear in a text.  (First, next, then, so, finally)  
• Provide opportunities for your child to write in a variety of contexts
  • Journaling
  • Readers' Response (check out school or public library books to read and reflect on)
  • Lists
  • Storyboards and comics