I can't read - I can't write

"I can't read"  "I can't write". These were two statements on consecutive days from a new student in Foundation Years in response to me asking them to read and write.   They had come from another school.  11 months at school.

The 'I can't' stood out because I don't remember hearing those two words in any student in Foundation. I have heard "No" or "I won't"  but these are matters of will that sometimes get expressed when I ask students to come and read to me, mainly because they are involved in their own play and I am disturbing them.  Completely different to this child who sounded demoralised and as if they really believed they could not read or write.  It made me feel very sad.
There are students who are at similar levels academically in Foundation, but they believe they are learners.  They believe in "I can".

Developing the atmosphere for "I Can" is what developmental learning is really great at supporting.  Two students stand out for me when I think of "I Can".  They are both a little older and have had difficulty learning to read and write.  The literacy skills do not come easily to them.  Late last year as I shared with whanau (family) where their child was using National Standards measurements.  I think  whanau understood their children were not being naughty or dumb, they just needed some extra help and extra time.  I arranged for some books to go home and showed the parents how to support the teaching of sounds for the students.  This term, I have seen the benefits of this.  Both students have begun to make real progress.

I first picked up on this progress in play.  One boy started to draw.  I had couldn't remember seeing him draw before by choice.  He didn't draw just one picture but five.  This term, most days I see him drawing and writing.  He also started to have 'light bulb' moments, where before he wasn't hearing the connections between letters and sounds, now he was. He can shout out the answer in our reading sessions with delight on his face. This week he wrote a sentence by hearing sounds and recording them.  The other student started to pick up books and read them, again by choice.  Both students are integrating literacy into play.  This self determined motivation acts like a wind blown on to the seeds of academic skill to produce further progress.  Both these students in National Standards Terms are 'Well Below' students but I have protected them from any knowledge of this.  How can 5 and 6 year olds be 'well below' when they are just at the start of a life of learning? Both students are creative, kind, compassionate, full of life, beautiful learners.  It is just that the literacy side of learning is taking a bit longer than other adults who have decided on a measurement would like.

We flood the learning environment with words and numbers.  Teachers expertly support play sessions with words, both oral and written and with numbers in context, helping to solve problems. Once the child's face has turned to see the numbers and the words, then the time is right to start to teach them formally.  If they haven't noticed the numbers and the words, then we need to wait to see real progress.  Meaningful progress will happen when the child sees where literacy fits in to their world.  It is like a dance, knowing when to add in the skills and when to support the real world context through play.  This part of teaching is something I am still developing, but it is the part I most enjoy.

I think it is important to grow the 'I can' and have students who are real learners as a foundation on which to build literacy and not the other way around.