Week 14 - Reading and Writing in Different ContextsEffective Early Children Education Classrooms

B&M - Chapter 4 – Supporting language and literacy development in quality preschools

Overview

• ·      75% of young children age 4 and 50% at age 3 attend preschool
• ·      Children begin literacy learning long before entering preschool
• ·      Different experiences at home lead to different literacy outcomes 

The brain develops rapidly in early childhood and there is a “window of opportunity” that establishes certain capabilities. This development period makes a moderate to large effect on early literacy skills and later achievement. The absence of critical literacy experiences can have detrimental effects. So there is a definite relationship between preschool experiences and later achievement.

Not all interventions are the same and not all produce the same results. The quality of teaching, attitude toward children who have gaps in literacy, and the quality of intervention all make a difference in long-term literacy gains.

High-quality preschools include the following ideas:

Oral language is taught intentionally, where effective teachers engage children in meaningful conversations where they intentionally model communication skills. Teachers use explicit methods of vocabulary instruction. Teachers read aloud and discuss the stories or text with the children. This encourages retelling, summarizing, and overall comprehension.

Playing various games and singing songs can develop phonological awareness. For example, clapping out or stomping out syllables, separating and blending onsets and rimes, playing rhyming games, and singing songs all help develop phonological awareness.

Alphabetic knowledge should not be taught to preschool-aged children using a “skill and drill” approach. There should be a large literacy context where there are many opportunities to discuss letter names and sounds, beginning with children’s names. Teachers should use many forms of letters, like stamps, magnetic letters, and stencils.

Concepts of print refers to what emergent readers need to understand about how printed language works. How to hold a book, reading from left to right, and discerning the front from the back are all concepts of print. Shared reading experiences and discussion helps develop this skill. Also, teachers should place books of both narrative and informational text around the classroom, not just in one spot. Meaningful labels help children recognize print as well.

Writing development begins when preschool-aged (or younger) children put marks on a page and understand that those marks communicate a message. Teachers can provide opportunities to develop writing in writing centers, where children have many types of writing tools and papers to use. Dramatic play areas can incorporate writing as well, like creating signs and menus.

There is an excellent and comprehensive chart on pages 70 and 71 that summarizes the critical preschool language and literacy classroom content.

B&M – Chapter 14 – Strengthening play in early literacy teaching practice

Overview

• ·      Not much research on play and how it supports literacy
• ·      The play-literacy research that has been done supports literacy education
• ·      Play includes environment, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and teacher’s attitude/belief system 

Literacy-enriched play environment design

Not all early childhood classrooms implement play. There is Table 14.1 on page 253 that summarizes the basics of literacy-enriched play design. Some features of the physical environment in the classroom include: space, signage, books and writing supplies, storage, and appeal (both visual and physical).

Topic-oriented dramatic play

Topic- or theme-based dramatic play is helpful to developing an appropriate early childhood literacy area. This area can be modified to adapt to specific subjects, like social studies or science, and it should be aligned to curriculum goals. More research is needed on the efficacy of dramatic play areas as they relate to literacy gains. There is a process for topic-oriented play, which includes instruction (tapping into prior and background knowledge and introducing relevant vocabulary); choosing a setting; embedding props, roles, and language; and posing a problem for children to solve in that play environment.

Play-contingent literacy instruction

Play activity should be wedded to specific reading skills. One such type of play activity is called thematic fantasy play (TFP), which involves a repetitive plot and a small number of characters. Story drama is one way to use TFP. Story drama involves choosing a story for reenactment; reading and discussing it; selecting events from the story to practice as roles; to establish the setting; dividing the class into groups who act out characters from the story; and having a play where students read their parts of the story while reenacting it. This is one way to monitor reading comprehension (retelling).

Play planning activities develop children’s self-regulation abilities by having them draw/write play plans and follow through with their plans in play activity. Implementing play planning can be complex and may require professional development and/or training. The chapter provides a step-by-step guide how a preschool classroom can adopt play planning (pages 257-259).

Assessment of play maturity

Play is often overlooked by teachers in their observations and evaluations of students, but it shouldn’t be.  Pretend play provides insight into cognitive growth of preschool age children. Formative assessments reveal a child’s maturity, and when a teacher observes a child playing, she can use the information to encourage more participation. Play serves a vital role in preschool-age child development and should be taken into consideration by early childhood teachers when setting up their classrooms and creating lessons.

S&H – Chapter 10 – Implementing vocabulary instruction in prekindergarten through second-grade classrooms

Overview

This chapter provides four models of effective vocabulary instruction, beginning with prekindergarten through second grade. Vocabulary instruction changes as children grow and develop.

Prekindergarten

This classroom was an urban, English-only, predominantly African-American, low socioeconomic classroom.  Using the Inventory of Vocabulary Instruction (IVI), teachers can see what aspects of instruction they already use in their classrooms, and what areas they could improve upon. In this case, two teachers co-taught, following a thematic curriculum with related vocabulary words. They used whole-group, small group, and centers to help differentiate instruction. There were high expectations for all students. These two teachers used research-based instructional methods including continuously reviewing new concepts learned (spiraling), providing examples, defining and pronouncing words, and acting out to illustrate words.

Kindergarten

This classroom was in a semi-urban area with the majority of students Spanish-speaking ELLs.  In this scenario, the teacher prompted the children to recall target words and explicitly taught the words for a few minutes. Then, the teacher used multiple means of representation, like acting out and pictures, to get the children to understand the vocabulary words. Children were paired or in groups to create a buddy system for authenticity and accountability.

First grade

This first grade classroom was suburban, middle class, and ethnically diverse. The teacher wanted to develop vocabulary depth, breadth, and comprehension, and to do this, he used read-alouds, reading groups, content-area lessons, and home-school connection activities. He chose texts that paralleled the content-learning objectives and selected vocabulary words that required deeper investigation. He used explicit instruction, guided practice, and reading of rich and authentic text as ways to teach. In addition, he used graphic organizers, use of context clues, and small group work to help students understand vocabulary.

Second grade

This scenario occurred in a semi-urban school in a diverse neighborhood, with a disproportionate number of students from Hispanic and Asian backgrounds. There were two teachers (one who was and ELL teacher). The ELL teacher helped the ELL students by scaffolding their learning, explicit instruction, and nonverbal supports (like pictures) to help them make vocabulary connections. The two teachers met weekly to discuss student data and to plan lessons. They also met across grade levels. Homeroom teachers introduced a word of the week and students were rewarded for finding and using those words throughout the week. The target words were presented in a thematic way and small-group activities were stressed. Children were grouped strategically in order to provide differentiated instruction to all. Extended learning was addressed by sending home seeds for students to plant with their families, so the discussions and vocabulary use would continue at home.

The take-away

Children who have limited vocabulary and language skills will be limited academically. Effective instruction in the early grades can help atone for this deficit.

A few questions/wonders

1. What do teachers tells parents and administrators who aren't used to seeing children play as a way of learning? How do we teachers disspell old-fashioned notions that play is exclusive of learning and school --- that there's no place for it in school? Similarly, what do pre-service teachers do once they start work if their new school doesn't embrace this style of teaching? How do they rectify this disparity between what they've learned is reasearch-based practice and what is actually being done in the ECC (assuming play is not incorporated into the curriculum)?

2.  It seems to me there are some very common themes in what the ECC classroom looks like: direct, explicit instruction, teacher modeling, thematic units, communication with other teachers and parents, and group activities, to name a few. What other similarities do well-run, effective ECC classrooms have in common?

3. I like the idea of extending learning by sending home activities parents can do with their children. I wonder how much fun it would be to send home a journal and have children and their parents journal together as they do the extension activities. What great conversations those journals could generate.