Assessment of the Physical Literacy Environment in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

This study aims to assess the physical literacy environment in 30 early childhood classrooms servicing 4- to 6-year-old children. A high-quality literacy environment that includes a variety of materials and resources is an important part of children’s emergent literacy, as research shows their use supports oral and written language development (Dynia et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2023). Observations were conducted using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation Pre-K (ELLCO Pre-K; Smith et al., 2008) and the Literacy Environment Checklist (Smith et al., 2002), along with qualitative observational data and photographs of the classrooms. Overall, results show a low or basic level of quality of the physical literacy environment. Classrooms lack quality features such as a wide variety of books, writing materials in learning centers, accessible environmental prints, and representations of children’s diversity in reading materials. This level of quality is not considered sufficient to adequately support the language development of 4- to 6-year-old children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds (Cunningham, 2010). These findings underline the importance of teachers’ professional development to better support emergent literacy through the physical environment of early childhood classrooms.