Oral Language & Literacy
Forms & Functions of Literacy
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Lay the groundwork
Practices to whakaritea te pārekereke prepare the seedbed for all children.
Start by working with all the children in your setting. Create an environment that can support children to build skills related to Forms & Functions of Literacy.
- Consider your current environment and how you could make it better.
- Talk to others about what you are already doing.
- Select practices that will be meaningful in your setting.
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Why is this practice important?
Through cultural literacies (oral, visual, gestural textural, spatial), mokopuna learn how meaning specific to a culture or group is understood and represented. This also helps foster mokopuna empathy and appreciation of diversity. Learner identity is enhanced when the home languages and cultures of mokopuna are valued and when kaiako are responsive to their cultural ways of knowing and being.How to apply this practice in your setting:
Take time to learn about and respect cultural knowledge, in particular, knowledge associated with literacies. This may require a willingness to see literacy more broadly than usual, including communication and meaning making in its many forms, not only words and print.
As a team, discuss where and how you will find knowledge about specific cultural literacies. What people, places and things could help you? What needs to happen in terms of relationships, reciprocity, and authenticity so that people who share their knowledge also maintain their mana? Work closely with whānau and mokopuna to better understand the cultural literacy forms and functions that are important to them and appropriate to integrate within your setting.
Invite whānau and community members to share cultural literacies such as pūrakau, tivaevae, and dance with mokopuna, through visits, events, and excursions. Highlight the meaning and stories that sit within these.
Review cultural literacies within your setting’s physical environment and resources. How well do they represent the diverse cultures attending your service? Consider all modes including print, oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile, and spatial. Provide plenty of opportunities for mokopuna to engage in open-ended exploration of these resources.
Draw mokopuna attention to cultural literacies, describing and discussing features and their meanings. Discuss how mokopuna can meaningfully participate in these practices.
Why is this practice important?
Exposure to various types of literacy used in everyday society helps mokopuna understand that literacy comes in many forms and serves many functions in our lives. This includes the ways literacy is used to communicate and create meaning, such as traffic signs, videos, emails, advertising, and various kinds of print. When mokopuna experience what literacy can do for them from an early age, they're more likely to develop the positive dispositions important to literacy learning success.How to apply this practice in your setting:
As a team, reflect on the ways that you use literacy in your everyday lives. Partner with whānau to better understand the range of social literacy forms and functions encountered within their home or community.
Review the physical environment and resources in your setting to identify forms of social literacy available to mokopuna, such as movable STOP and GIVE WAY signs, food packaging, digital devices, recipe books, maps, greeting cards. Consider how these resources are accessible for all mokopuna.
Model the use of social literacy forms and functions. Describe and discuss what you are doing and why, e.g. recordings, reminder notes or observations, reading road signs during an excursion, reading a recipe. Encourage mokopuna to explore these literacy forms with you.
Foster mokopuna motivation for, and interest in, literacy through open-ended explorations of social literacy forms and their purposes. Observe what mokopuna are doing and support their deeper understanding and engagement with strategies such as commenting, listening, exploring plans and goals of mokopuna and highlighting connections to past experiences.
Why is this practice important?
Connecting and communicating through storytelling is part of being human. Retelling and creating stories enables children to learn and express their identity, language, and culture. Discovering the joy of storytelling also has important cognitive, social, and emotional benefits, such as learning about their wider world, sparking imagination, curiosity, and creative expression, developing reasoning and the ability to focus. These benefits are best established at a young age.How to apply this practice in your setting:
Be curious and open to learning from whānau about the stories shared and enjoyed at home (including in their home language).
Invite whānau and community members to visit your setting and share stories using a range of modes, including telling or reading stories using books, props, puppet shows, drama, songs, dance, and music. Encourage the sharing of stories in the languages found in children’s home community, including in te reo Māori.
Share stories with children often (every day). Include pūrākau (ancient legends, stories), pakiwaitara (fiction, fable), familiar favourites as well as invented, co-constructed stories.
Promote storytelling using language, sound, movement, art, drama, and props.
Prompt children to think about key elements of the story, including plot, character motives, sequence of events, and underlying messages using comments and questions such as, “I wonder why Māui did that?”, “What do you think will happen next?" Make connections to their own experiences as in, “What would you do if you were Māui?” Leave time for children to respond and share their own ideas and perspectives.
Why is this practice important?
Developing dispositions, knowledge, and skills to critically examine and transform texts fosters an appreciation of diverse perspectives and a sense of social justice, supporting the development of thoughtful and informed citizens. Critical literacies encourage mokopuna to question and reflect on the content in texts, fostering a habit of critical thinking. In times of exponential growth and accessibility to information, the need to learn and apply critical thinking has never been greater.How to apply this practice in your setting:
Discuss with colleagues and whānau how ideas of social justice, fairness, and equity are reflected within your setting’s philosophy. Consider how you might draw on these ideas to inform conversations with mokopuna when exploring texts together.
Review the range of literacy forms within the setting (including books, stories, images, videos, waiata, and related resources) and consider how well they reflect the diversity of people, places, and things evident in the centre, local community, and wider society.
Ensure that all mokopuna have regular access to a range of texts that positively reflect them and their whānau.
Model reflective strategies such as commenting, questioning, and wondering about perspectives and world views. Explore alternatives with mokopuna when sharing stories or different kinds of texts such as product labels, advertising, and images.
Model strategies for querying and checking the reliability of information, e.g. wondering aloud how we know if information is from a reliable source or discussing the meaning and use of healthy star ratings on food packaging.
Encourage mokopuna to express their own ideas and opinions about the various texts they engage with, including transforming and creating alternative versions.