Using Clicker 5 to Enhance Emergent Literacy in Young Learners

Best practices in emergent literacy instruction for y ung children acknowledge and facilitate the smoo th progression between children’s early engagement wit h print materials and subsequent fuller literacy mastery. In so doing, model programs target five ke y emergent literacy skills. The rapid rise in the b r adth and depth of educational technology, including comp uter software, is offering early childhood educatio n professionals new and powerful tools in teaching ea rly literacy. This paper offers a brief review of b est practices in emergent literacy, notes the growth of technology in this instruction, and examines the p otential contributions of one specific software program, Clicker 5, in helping diverse emergent literacy learners acquire and practice initial reading and writing sk ill . This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version o f this article. The final, definitive version of th is document can be found online on the Early Childhood Education Journal (doi: 10.1007 /s10643-008-0288-6 ) published by SpringerLink. Copyright restrictions may apply. 2 H. Parette, J. Hourcade, J. Dinelli, N. Boeckman n in Early Childhood Education Journal (2009) Over the past several decades professional interest in the development of emergent literacy skills in young children has grown markedly. The concept of emergen t lit racy emerged in the 1960s, and referred to th e behaviors used by young children as they interacted with books and print materials, even prior to the children actually reading and writing in the conven tio al sense (e.g., Teale & Sulzby, 1986). Whereas the earlier concept of “reading readiness” suggested th at there was a discrete maturational point in time wh n children were ready to learn to read and write, eme rgent literacy instead proposed that there was a sm ooth and continuous progression in children's literacy d evelopment between the early behaviors children displayed when interacting with print materials, an d those displayed later once children could read independently. The growing adoption of this philosophy has signifi cant implications for early childhood educators, including those working with atypical young learner s (e.g., those with disabilities or who are at risk ). Rather than waiting for some sort of ‘readiness’ to emerge in young learners before considering readin g instruction, contemporary early childhood professio nals instead seek to provide experiences along a li ter cy continuum, planning structuring student interaction s with text and pictures from an early point. It is hese experiences that form the foundation for subsequent reading skills. Contemporary understanding of emergent literacy inc orporates several fundamental concepts about readin g and writing skills with significant implications fo r educators. First, the skills of reading and writi ng develop both concurrently and interrelatedly in young child ren, rather than sequentially (e.g., Teale & Sulzby , 1986). Given this, effective emergent literacy inst ruc ion should seek to integrate reading and writin g. Second, emergent literacy development is facilitate d by experiences that permit and promote meaningful interaction with oral and written language (Morrow, 1993; National Reading Panel, 2000; Sulzby & Teale , 1991; Teale, 1982). In addition, best practices in emergent literacy in struction in early childhood settings includes prac tices that support skill development in five key emergent literacy areas: phonemic awareness, word recognition, concepts about print, alphabetic principle, and com prehension. (See Table 1 for additional details on these key skills.) Effective emergent literacy programs s eek to incorporate these concepts and practices. Atypical Young Learners and the Role of Computer Software When compared to typical learners, young children w ho are at-risk or have disabilities may require mor e intensive interventions to acquire emergent literac y skills (Cook, Klein, & Tessier, 2004; Katims, 199 1; Lerner, Lowenthal, & Egan, 2003; Phillips, Clancy-M enchetti, & Lonigan, 2008). For a variety of reason s, computer based emergent literacy activities may be especially effective with these challenged learners . Literacy activities on the computer may be more acc essible to these students, as new print displays ca n be accessed with a simple push of one computer key or button, rather than page turning. The text can have certain features highlighted on the computer screen ( .g., targeted words may blink or change colors) in ways that are not possible with traditional text. In addition, computer presentation of literacy mate ri ls can offer enhanced interactive features for s tudents with attention issues, including reading the materi l out loud for the student (e.g., Pierce, n.d.). I n short, a small but growing evidence base supports the use of a c mputer-based technologies to enhance the development of emergent literacy skills, especially in oung learners with disabilities or who are at risk (cf. Campbell, Milbourne, Dugan, & Wilcox, 2006; Dugan, Milbourne, Campbell, & Wilcox, 2004; Floyd, Jeffs, & Judge, in press; Judge, 2006). Grid Writing and Emergent Literacy As noted previously, emergent literacy emphasizes t h interrelatedness of reading and writing with bot h processes acquired concurrently. However, the proce ss of writing places a variety of unique demands on the beginning writer, including the difficult task of generating potential inherent word choice possib ilities at This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version o f this article. The final, definitive version of th is document can be found online on the Early Childhood Education Journal (doi: 10.1007 /s10643-008-0288-6 ) published by SpringerLink. Copyright restrictions may apply. 3 H. Parette, J. Hourcade, J. Dinelli, N. Boeckman n in Early Childhood Education Journal (2009) every step, and then selecting one of those possibi lities. When faced with these demands, too often emergent literacy learners find their progress inhi bited. To minimize these issue, many software writing prog rams can present preselected writing element choice options (either printed words or even pictures) in a grid format. For purposes of this paper, we will define ‘grid writing’ as a ‘software application that syst ematically visually or audibly presents groups of w rds or iconic symbols in a sequential manner on a computer screen from which students make writing choices.’ The writer then chooses ‘words” by clicking on the individual words or pictures from a screen that con tains a limited number of word (or picture) possibilities (the ‘grid’) that best say what the writer wishes to communicate. The ease of writing by selecting from a limited number of possible words enhances writin g ease and fluency. Clicker 5: An Important Grid Writing Tool to Support Emergent Literacy One grid writing program rapidly gaining in popular ity is Clicker 5, a writing support and multimedia tool designed by classroom teachers to support early lit eracy students, including those who are struggling with reading and writing and/or have disabilities. Clicker 5 currently is being used in over 90% of schools in the United Kingdom, and rapidly is being adopted throug hout the United States (Crick Software, Ltd., 2007) . Worldwide, earlier versions of Clicker are being used in over 40,000 schools (Closing the Gap, 2005). The basic Clicker 5 screen is divided into a top half and a bottom hal f. The top half of the screen displays the ‘Clicker Writer’ word processor, with a screen that looks and functions much like the screen in an y typical word processing program. The bottom half of the Clicker 5 screen contains the ‘Clicker Grid’, a point-and-click writing scaffold with a number of i ndividual ‘cells’ containing teacher-selected lette rs, pictures, words or phrases. In order to ‘write’, the user simply clicks on the d sired cells in Clicker's grid, sending the word(s ) to the Clicker Writer. This allows the user to build simpl e sentences, in essence “writing” without having to independently generate the desired words, or even u s the keyboard. The user may also click on associa ted pictures to illustrate words. The Clicker 5 software can also be operated with simple switches as an alternative to keyboard input, so that even student s with physical limitations that limit mouse and/or keyboard use can access and use the program. (See F igur 1.) Figure 1. Clicker 5 screen showing the ‘Clicker Writer’ and ‘Clicker G id’. This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version o f this article. The final, definitive version of th is document can be found online on the Early Childhood Education Journal (doi: 10.1007 /s10643-008-0288-6 ) published by SpringerLink. Copyright restrictions may apply. 4 H. Parette, J. Hourcade, J. Dinelli, N. Boeckman n in Early Childhood Education Journal (2009) Clicker 5 can read aloud any text while visually highlightin g each word when spoken so that students can follow along. This function allows students to (a) hear selected words spoken by realistic speech, and (b) hear the completed sentence(s) spoken back just as they were written. The provision of phonological an d semantic cues facilitates the development of litera cy skills in both typically developing children and children with specific language impairments (Gray, 2005). Clicker 5 also includes a ‘talking books’ function, in which omplete illustrated stories (either teacherdeveloped or prepackaged) can be displayed, and eve n r ad aloud by the computer upon clicking a speake r icon. Students also are able to record their own vo ices for the text on each page to further enhance t heir engagement with the text. Teachers can also visuall y highlight important information within these book s to facilitate comprehension (Crick Software, Ltd., 200 7). The research base for the efficacy of Clicker 5 in emergent literacy instruction to date is limite d. However, a number of completed reviews have str