Early Literacy

1. Early Literacy T/TAC at VCU

2. Goals for Today • We will provide an overview of the components of a quality early childhood program • We will discuss the evidence-based research within the domains of language and literacy • We will share developmentally appropriate practices and activities for the preschool classroom

3. “Excellence Makes the Difference”Activity

4. Quality Early Childhood Programs • Environment • Regular routine • Parent/Teacher Communication • Teaching methods • Varied curriculum • Language experiences • Literacy experiences

5. Language Development

6. Receptive Language(Listening and Understanding) Children are: • attending to and understanding different forms of spoken language • progressing in understanding directions • understanding an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary

7. Expressive Language(Speaking and Communicating) Children are: • developing the ability to understand and use language to communicate • progressing in their ability to initiate and respond to conversation • using complex and varied spoken vocabulary • progressing in spoken clarity and length

9. How Do You Assess Language? • Observations • Anecdotal records • Samples of children’s work • Student responses and interactions

10. Classroom Activities • Listening to stories, poems, and expository text • Telling and retelling stories and nursery rhymes • Singing and chanting • Making predictions • Discussing text • Discussing experiences and past events • Specific instruction in language concepts

11. Literacy

12. Assessing Literacy • Phonological Awareness Screening (PALS) • Observations • Anecdotal records • Samples of children’s work • Student responses and interactions

13. Phonological awareness is… • Working with individual sounds in words, called phonemes. • Understanding sounds work together to form words.

14. The research • Phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge account for more of the variation in early reading and spelling success. (National Reading Panel, 2000) • Studies show that a reader’s ability to remember, imitate, recall, manipulate, and articulate sounds is essential to early reading.(NICHD)

15. The ability to process sounds that are heard (phonological processing) differentiates good readers from poor readers. It’s a predictor of future reading performance and achievement.

16. Preschoolers show a growing awareness of: • Rhyme • Beginning sounds • Ending sounds • Separating sounds/syllables • Associating sounds with written words

17. Guidelines for Phonological Awareness Activities Fun and developmentally appropriate Done in groups Encourage curiosity about language Address individual differences Provide useful information about students Include visual clues Yopp, 1992

18. Activities • Group activities • Nursery Rhymes • Literature • Songs • Software • PALS web site

19. (http://pals.virginia.edu/Instructional-Resources/)

20. Print Awareness • Left to right, top to bottom, front to back • Letters, words and spaces • Functions of print • Matching spoken and written words • Print carries a message • Illustrations carry meaning

21. How do we do this? • Classroom full of print • Repeated readings of literature • Predictable text patterns • Poems and songs • Environmental print • Displaying children’s work

22. Book Knowledge and Appreciation • Recognizes favorite books • Understands that books and other print resources are handled in specific ways • Imitates the special language in books and story dialogue • Enjoys listening to and discussing books read aloud • Retells and acts out stories, makes predictions

23. To foster appreciation and book knowledge • Read storybooks to children • Read informational books to children • Create a print rich environment • Reading related activities

24. Alphabet Letters and Sounds • Children begin to associate the names of letters with their shapes • They begin to notice beginning letters in familiar words • They make some letter/sound matches • Students may begin to identify some of the letters of the alphabet

25. How do we do this? • Familiarize students with the names and shapes of letters • Begin with letters in names • Use letter/keyword/picture displays when introducing (Adams, 1990)

26. Early Writing • Begins to understand writing is a way to communicate • Represents stories and experiences through pictures and dictation • Experiments with a variety of writing tools and materials • Progresses through developmental continuum

27. What to do? • Provide experiences for writing • Have a print rich environment • Include writing opportunities in play

28. Points to remember… • Young children develop vocabulary, extended language skills and knowledge of the world when given opportunities to interact with children and adults in language and print-rich environments. • Activities should be integrated across the different developmental areas. • On-going assessment assists planning and evaluation.

29. For additional information please visit our website at: http://www.vcu.edu/ttac or participate in our online community at http://ttacoline.org