Designing Early Literacy Programs: Strategies for At-Risk Preschool and Kindergarten Children

Abstract

Designing Early Literacy Programs: Strategies for At-Risk Preschool and Kindergarten Children, by Lea McGee & Donald J. Richgels. New York: Guilford Press, 2003. 207 pp. $ 28.00, paperback. Literacy development of at-risk students is an increasingly popular line of inquiry that reflects the growing concern that a number of school-age students enter school with limited literacy skills and remain behind their counterparts as they move through the grades. According to McGee and Richgels (2003), there are three factors that are highly correlated to limited performance in literacy. These accumulative factors are minority status, speaking limited English, and being a member of a low-income home. Of the three factors, growing up in a low socioeconomic home is one of the highest predictors. In Designing Early Literacy Programs: Strategies for At-Risk Preschool and Kindergarten Children, McGee and Richgels explore the type of literacy programs that are appropriate for students identified as at-risk. The ten chapters cover a wide range of topics including is at risk of reading difficulties, literacy development, language development and literacy, and literacy instruction in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. According to the authors the book serves two purposes. First the book is to a prevention program designed for young children prior to receiving formal instruction in reading in first grade (p. 4). Second, the book is to describe elements of effective early literacy programs for all 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds, including those who are in groups that have been identified as having higher incidences of reading failures (p. 5). In general, the authors did an exceptional job explaining the terminology and concepts associated with early literacy. They provide the reader with a good discussion of what we used to believe about reading development, and what is currently embraced in the literacy field. Educators interested in early literacy instruction will find this book quite informative. Although the text, as the title suggests, is on literacy programs for at-risk preschool and kindergarten children, much of the book is focused on quality traditional instruction. Although the text does recommend that parents participate in certain school-like literacy activities at home, the primary focus is on what educators need to know and do. The unstated premise seems to be that if teachers were to provide good quality instruction for low-income, minority and second-language students, they would perform better. A troubling aspect of the text is the unexamined assumptions that undergird the current view of low-income, minority, and limited-English-speaking children. For example, one of the risk factors for identifying students who may be at-risk is language development. Under this category the authors highlight mean length utterance (the average number of phonemes-that is meaning units such as root and prefixes and suffixes-in a speaking turn), syntactic complexity of utterance, and number of different vocabulary words (Scarborough, 1991; Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994, p. …