OKLAHOMA EARLY READING FIRST What We Are Learning

1. OKLAHOMA EARLY READING FIRSTWhat We Are Learning Priscilla Griffith University of Oklahoma Go Sooners!

2. United States Department of Education Early Literacy First Grant • Focus: Pre-K 3 and 4 year olds • Purpose: • Create early childhood centers of excellence • Prepare young children to enter kindergarten with necessary skills to ensure school success

3. Oklahoma ERF • Sooner T.A.L.K • Oklahoma P.R.I.D.E. • Starting Right

4. GOALS • Create language and literacy rich classroom environments • Integrate curriculum, activities and materials into classrooms and family literacy practices • Assess literacy learning • Build partnerships to support the transition of all children into formal classroom instruction • Support family literacy • Provide research-based sustained professional development

5. COMPONENTS • Professional Development • Instruction • Child Assessment/Progress Monitoring • Literacy Mentors • Family Literacy Component • Family Literacy Nights • Family Literacy Resources • Home Visits • Project Evaluation

6. Project Development • Year One • Physical transformation of classrooms • Initiate literacy classes • Learn to mentor • Year Two • Implement spiral curriculum of literacy classes • Learn to develop portfolios • Year Three • Focus on examining student work to plan instruction

7. Three C’s of Professional Development • Community • Professional development classes • Examine student learning • Curriculum Content: Assessment and Instruction of Oklahoma ERF Benchmarks • Oral language • Phonological awareness • Print concepts • Alphabet knowledge and writing • Listening comprehension • Coaching • Implementing instructional strategies

8. Structure of Professional Development Classes • Two groups: certified and non-certified teachers • Classes off campus • Classes two times each month for 3 hours • Literacy instructor • Literacy mentors attend

9. OBSERVATION PLANNING REFLECTION STAFF DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT INSTRUCTION The Continuous, Recursive, and Interactive Process of Progress Monitoring

10. Oklahoma P.R.I.D.E. Progress-Monitoring Plan

11. Project Evaluation • Classrooms • Before and after photos • Teachers • Concept Maps • ELLCO: Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation • Focus Groups • Students • TELD: Test of Early Language Development • PALS: Phonological Assessment Literacy Screening • Parents • Literacy Activities Survey

12. Changing the Physical Environment

13. Transforming a disorganized environment

15. Setting up Centers Dramatic Play Writing Library

16. Concept Maps Early Literacy

17. Concept Maps • Voltz, 2004 (Action in Teacher Education, v. 27 # 3) • Rated maps for variation and quantity • Variation = number of categories represented in the map • Quantity = total number of ideas

19. Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation • Literacy Environment Checklist • Book Use and Availability - 20 points • Writing Materials and Display – 21 points • Classroom Observation Protocol • General Classroom Environment – 30 points • Language and Literacy Curriculum – 40 points • Literacy Activity Rating Scale • Book reading – 8 points • Writing – 5 points

20. ELLCO

21. Focus Groups • Accomplishments • Professional growth • Focus of the program on their roles as professionals – before the program Pre-K teachers were “considered by some to be babysitters but now they were using research-based teaching principles that can be measured and validated” • Provided roadmap for meeting state standards

22. Benefits • Access to resources/research-based, developmentally appropriate instructional strategies • Mentor support • Professional development classes • Progress of children • Credit towards CDA • Interact with other teachers • Peer support • Opportunity to attend professional conferences

23. Challenges/Concerns • Letting go of old curriculum and ways • Over-emphasizing literacy • Leaving their assistant alone with their class in order to attend professional development classes • Having resources to sustain parent activity component after the ERF grant ends • More modeling of different types of classroom instruction by their mentor

24. TELD • TELD: Test of Early Language Development • Administered in English only • Not normed on our population • Assesses English language learning children need for initial success in school

25. PALS/AMIGOS • Rhyme Awareness • Beginning Sound • Upper-Case Alphabet • Lower-Case Alphabet • Verbal memory • Print Knowledge • Concept of Word • Name Writing

26. PALS/AMIGOS Results • All scores for both groups (PRIDE and Comparison) were significantly different from pre-test to post-test. • There was a statistically significant difference between groups on rhyme awareness.

27. What Have We Learned • Childcare research is very messy. • It has taken three years to see differences in child outcomes. • Mentoring has to be learned. • Early childhood educators with a strong literacy background are difficult to find. • There is a tension among early childhood and literacy educators over DAP and purposeful instruction.

28. Thank you for attending this presentation.Questions? pgriffith@ou.edu