Qualification: NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 3.5: Develop emergent literacy skills of children
Learning outcome: Be able to lead activities which support emergent literacy
Assessment criteria: Lead an activity to support and extend emergent literacy
In the previous sections, we looked at planning activities that support and extend children’s emergent literacy and some strategies that may be used.
In this section, you will be required to demonstrate to your assessor that you are able to lead activities in this area of development.
Leadership involves working in partnership with your colleagues to plan and implement an activity that is suitable for the children’s age and stage of development. This will include discussing the objectives of the activity with the team and clarifying their roles and responsibilities. everyone should know what is expected of them from setting up the room, through to running the activity and tidying up at the end.
You also need to look at the area of development that you will be focusing on. In this case, it will be related to literacy, so it could be reading, writing, speaking etc. You could also narrow it down even more – for example, working on the pincer grip with pre-school children or reading and discussing a storybook as a group.
It is also useful to consider the interests of the children or child. For example, if there seems to be a trend within the setting of children enjoying throwing and catching games, you might adapt the games to incorporate more language (e.g. the children stand in a circle and must say another child’s name before throwing the ball to them).
Inclusion is also something that will be important during the implementation. You may need to adapt an activity so that children with additional needs or preferences can be included. For example, if you are implementing an activity where children have the opportunity to taste different foods from different cultures, and one of the children has a peanut allergy, it is much better to ensure that none of the food contains peanuts than to tell the child that they are not allowed to taste some of the foods – this could make them feel excluded.
Similarly, it is important to be observant throughout the activity so all children can participate. For example, a child might be reluctant to join in with an activity because it will be a new experience for them, so the practitioner would provide encouragement and reassurance to support them to be involved.