Welcome! I’m Janet Kierstead — here to describe a more natural, child-friendly approach to reading than usual. It allows the child to learn to read and write with the same pleasure and ease they learned to speak. It does this by using the child’s own words about things they’re particularly interested in. (See more about my background here.)
I began developing this approach in my K-2 classroom, where half the students were the children of migrant farmworkers. Later, working with preschoolers, I found even children as young as three enjoyed the fundamental activity. After I adapted parts of it for them, it now works beautifully for children 3 – 7 years old.
Key Words
The approach begins by having a child describe something they find very interesting. After talking with them about it, we help them decide which word they’ve said best describes their thinking. Then we write that word while the child watches. The word the child has asked for that day is their new Key Word.
When a child sees their own “talk” written down, it captures their interest and imagination, and they want to do it, too. So, as we’re writing their word for them, we slow way down to demonstrate what we’re doing. First, we show them how we’re listening for the sounds in the word. Then we say the names or the sounds of the letters as we write.
Once we’ve finished writing the entire word, we have them trace over each letter with the index finger of their writing hand. Repeating this with the child’s new Key Word each day, they gradually absorb the connections between the letters and sounds and begin seeing and feeling how to form the letters.
With these Key Words, they begin developing literacy skills. But we don’t stop there. We give them something to do with their new Key Word. What they do depends on whether they’re able to draw. If not yet able, they play with the word. But if they can draw, they go directly into The Steps.
We’ll examine The Steps in a moment. But first, we’ll look at how a very young child might play with their Key Word.
The Pure Absorption Phase: Playing with The Key Word
A very young child who isn’t yet drawing — say three years old — will play with Key Words. With that, they’ll begin to absorb the concept of print and to notice which letters we use to make the sounds in their word. (This happens effortlessly and not by trying to memorize those phonetic connections. Instead, the child absorbs them as they see how the adult uses them to spell their word.)
In writing the word for the child, we use sturdy chart paper (or at home a recipe card). We need it to be sturdy enough to be kept on a metal ring and carried around by the child. Playing with their word might be placing it near the object it represents or showing it to the person or animal it names. Or if the word is “cookie,” for instance, they might pretend to eat it or feed it to a doll or teddy bear.
Once a child starts drawing blobs and sticks, claiming they’re people, objects, etc., we give them a writing book. With this, they begin moving through The Steps.
Absorption & Skill Development: Using The Steps To Guide Practice
The Steps are a series of increasingly complex follow-up activities for Key Words. With them, we gently guide a child to independent writing and reading. For example, at the first Step, the child gets a duplicate of their Key Word, glues it into their book, and draws a picture about it. As they grow into this, we also have them dictate a sentence with their new word. That allows us to model punctuation, capitalization, and more.
As a child moves through The Steps, they’ll be cutting up the sentence we write, reassembling it, gluing it into their book, and illustrating it. Later, they begin copying their words and sentences directly into their book. Then finally — they’re writing on their own.
Thus, a child gradually absorbs and learns to use basic writing skills. Regardless of any lack of experience with print at home, they learn to write their thoughts. It just takes the child with no prior experience with print longer than a child from a print-rich environment. Once these writing skills develop, they transfer to reading. In fact, the transfer can happen so spontaneously that some children I’ve worked with claimed they “just happened” to learn to read.
This process is very similar to how we help a child learn to speak — but with one significant difference. So, we’ll look at that next.
The Difference Between This Approach And Learning To Speak
Studies of speech acquisition show we help a child learn to speak by emphasizing words with significant meaning to them. Then with speech, that’s all we do. For we trust the child has some mysterious built-in way to absorb and copy and practice the words we emphasize. So, we stand back and wait. And that’s the difference between speech and what we’re doing here with print.
Here, we use The Steps to guide the child’s attempts to practice writing and reading. We do this by having them create 5-page books of their Key Words. (First dictating, then writing them on their own.) Children enjoy creating and take pride in reading these books to others — first to children in the classroom, then to others at home.
Doing this, they’re creating their own series of pre-primers. With them, they come to recognize the many “sight words” they frequently use, as well as how to sound out unfamiliar words. Thus, The Steps ensure skill development. And those skills readily transfer to reading.
Advantages Of Starting with Writing And Using A Child’s Own Words
Starting with writing, using Key Words has many advantages. First, because the child is choosing words about things of intense interest, they learn that print has meaning and is another way to communicate. Also, creating their own books is very motivating. For it gives their work a “real life” purpose.
This approach also allows children speaking different languages to work on the same type of activity. That means a child doesn’t have to wait until they can speak English to work on literacy skills. Also, there’s no stigma attached to those not yet speaking English, for they’re not singled out and separated from the rest for special treatment. And, as they work their way through The Steps, they make the transition to English themselves, simply by dictating in English, once they’re ready.
Further, this approach takes advantage of what I’ve come to see as A Child’s Natural Learning Strategy — the way nature has equipped them to learn. So, allowing them to proceed through Key Words and The Steps at their own pace, there’s no resistance, no struggle, no chance of failure.
Finally, children NOT coming from a print-rich environment have a wide gap between speech and reading. This approach gives them a dependable and enjoyable way to fill that gap. As a result, they ultimately show us — and more importantly, themselves — that they can flourish.
Having done this repeatedly with children coming to me with no idea of print, and seeing them blossom, is why I’m spending my retirement years sharing this approach. Every child deserves this chance.
My Purpose
Now retired, I’ve created this website as part of a volunteer project to share what I learned from these experiences.
Since I know from experience that helping any child avoid struggle and failure is surprisingly easy to do, I want to share that. If you’re interested in joining me and others in this effort, please use the button below to join the Facebook Group, Helping ALL Kids Write To Read.
Next —> More About How This Approach Was Developed