Early Literacies Course

ONLINE COURSE | START ANY TIME

This course explores the development of literacies in the early years and how teachers can support young children to understand and express themselves in multiple ways. It will provide participants with the tools to reflect upon and apply practices and strategies in their own unique local early childhood education contexts.

Learning objectives:

  • To understand key principles relating to literacy in early childhood education (ECE) contexts
  • To identify multiple ways that young children engage with literacies within everyday interactions in ECE settings
  • To relate and apply course content to teachers’ own practices around supporting and extending early literacies in local ECE contexts
  • Outcomes:

    Throughout the course, you will be supported to put your learning into action in your own context of practice through undertaking a case study of a particular child.

    This course includes interviews with:
    Professor Mary Kalantzis
    Professor Bill Cope
    Professor Claire McLachlan
    Speech-language therapist Hana Tuwhare

    Case studies of practice:
    Elim International Kids Early Childhood Centre
    Stokes Valley Kindergarten

    Already enrolled? Access the course from your Account

    What you'll learn on this course

    Part 1: Core principles of early literacies

    Explore the multiple forms of literacy in early childhood education settings, including embodied, spoken, and written literacies, including:
    - The importance of teachers partnering with families to understand and build on home literacy practices
    - How literacies are situated in cultural practices and the importance of affirming indigenous parenting practices and giving children a sense of connection, identity, and belonging

    Part 2: Embodied, nonverbal literacies

    This part explores some of the ways that children learn to understand and express their meaning in embodied, nonverbal ways. This includes:
    - Connections between embodied literacies and everyday play and social interactions
    - Ways that early childhood teachers can encourage children to develop embodied literacies
    The role of digital technologies in supporting children to make and share meaning

    Part 3: Spoken and written literacies

    This part focuses on ways that early childhood teachers can encourage children to develop spoken and written literacies through everyday interactions. This includes:
    - Oral languages, including speaking and listening, vocabulary and comprehension
    - Phonological awareness, or building awareness of sounds in words by playing with rhythm, syllables, rhyme, and phonemes (sounds)
    - Print awareness, or building awareness that written symbols carry meaning, and that sounds correspond with letters

    Part 4: The power of stories

    This part examines why stories are such an important aspect of literacy for young children. This includes:
    - Different ways that children might experience stories in ECE settings in oral, written, and embodied ways, including their role as storytellers
    - How ECE teachers can support children’s learning about and through stories

    Enrol in course

    Enrol yourself

    NZ$ 132.00
    GST not included

    Lifetime access*

    Personalised certificate

    Enrol others AND yourself

    From NZ$ 99.00 per person
    GST not included

    Group discounts of 15-25%

    Lifetime access*

    Personalised certificates

    Enrol others NOT yourself

    From NZ$ 99.00 per person
    GST not included

    Group discounts of 15-25%

    Lifetime access*

    Personalised certificates

    Please note, all our courses are best completed on a desktop/laptop computer or tablet. Because of the amount of content, we do not recommend using a phone. 

    * Lifetime access means for as long as the course is hosted on The Education Hub

    Group discounts apply to the full price, and can only be applied in one transaction, not retrospectively, or on the addition of more enrolments.

    Our standard terms and conditions are available here

    Close popup