Finnish Kindergartners' Literacy Development in Contextualized Literacy Episodes: A Focus on Spelling

Abstract

This study focused on children's spelling development in a Finnish kindergarten. We examined how and when spelling begins when children are provided guided and meaningful literacy opportunities. Field notes, children's writing samples, and four dictations, as well as pre- and postinstruction assessment of literacy-related tasks were analyzed to describe children's progress and strategies. At the start of the study, some children did not know any letters, while others who knew some letters did not necessarily use them in the first dictation, drawing instead. Classroom activities offered children opportunities to increase letter knowledge and demonstrated how to apply that knowledge. The assessment at the end of the study in Phase 1 demonstrated a substantial growth in children's spelling: some children spelled almost all the dictated words correctly, most of the children used invented spelling, and only one child used random letter strings for a few words. In addition, children's reading developedso that several children were alphabetic-phase readers. In Phase 2, all the children used alphabetic strategies.