Workshop 14
Early Childhood Educators
Speaker:
Toni Bickart, Teaching Strategies Inc., Washington, D.C.
Moderator:
C. Kent McGuire, Assistant Secretary, Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education
Abstract:
Preschool teachers are an important and largely underutilized resource in promoting literacy through the creation of classroom environments that use rich language and allow for children to play in ways that build literacy skills. A preschool teacher’s knowledge base, experience and support system are central to achieving the goal of preventing reading difficulties in young children. As with training primary-grade teachers, a critical component in the training of early childhood teachers is supervised, relevant, classroom experience in which they receive ongoing guidance and feedback. Collaboration between the teacher preparation institution and the field placement is essential. Good programs require teachers to: (1) create activities that help children develop the abilities to name assorted objects; (2) provide a range of rich experiences that build large vocabularies and foster reasoning; (3) encourage skills to help young children develop the ability to name assorted objects and learn abstract terms and the meaning of words; (4) nurture children’s listening comprehension skills; (5) make children aware of print and written language; and, (6) motivate children to like to read.
Participants will go through demonstration activities that preschool teachers can use to build young children’s language and literacy skills.
Notes
Toni Bickart introduced herself as a Senior Associate with Teaching Strategies, Inc. who prepared the Summary of Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children for the Reading Summit. She is the co-author (with Diane Dodge) of Preschool for Parents, (and with Diane Dodge and Judy Jablon) of What Every Parent Needs to Know about 1st, 2nd and 3rd Grades, and Constructing Curriculum for the Primary Grades.
Participants were asked to brainstorm about the important ideas they took from the Report and the morning's discussions. Ideas included: the importance of fun or active, engaged learning as part of instruction, the importance of parent involvement and partnerships that involve them, and having research influence policy. Currently, many policymakers are acting counter to research. People working for appropriate education practice can now sight research with strong names. We know what teachers need to know, now we must work with professors to get them to teach it. So, we must work with colleges of education. The Report criticizes NCATE for not moving to higher standards for accrediting. Colleges are beginning partnerships so that they can train teachers as part of school partnerships.
Participants commented about problems with policymakers in their states. In Georgia, for example, problems originally led to actions that were not appropriate. Work by educators to inform policymakers helped lead to much better decisions later. Illinois started to awaken policymakers to real needs. Teacher preparation is the next big step there.
Ms. Bickart organized her talk around three big ideas that that impressed her from the Report.
1) Stages of Writing - Using Invented Spelling in Ongoing Assessment
The Report stressed the importance of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, and the need to help children understand letter-symbol and letter-sound correspondence. Invented spelling or phonetic spelling is a key milestone in children's development of these understandings. Participants discussed the fact that the term, however, is unfortunate, and can be misunderstood. It is important that people understand that in invented spelling, children are using phonetic spelling, showing an understanding of phonemes, and the alphabet, and they know that each letter equals a sound, and that letter sounds can translate into language.
Ms. Bickart introduced samples of children's writing and led a discussion about each. At each level the group discussed what someone could conclude the child understands, knows or can do, according to their work. In the work of the two-year-old the group recognized that the child has seen people write and wants to imitate writing, has reached intentionally, learned to use a marker as a tool, has some control, can make closed shapes, patterns, and different sizes and shapes. In the example called scribble writing the group identified that the child is aware that we write from left to right, from top to bottom, is aware of margins, periods became flowers, and there were some letters included. In the sample marked letter like forms there is a story with pictures, a sense of spacing, straight lines and circles equal letters, letters face several directions (which is a natural stage and not much of a problem, perhaps related to hand dominance), there is a sense of story and some characters. If the teacher begins a conversation with the child, they can talk about the story. In the scribble writing sample, the group saw alphabetical order, plus numbers, a title on the page, writing from left to right and top to bottom. The group agreed that teachers need to point out this kind of information to parents and explain the learning that it represents.
Additional examples revealed children using letters combined to mean specific words, not just long lists of letters strung together. Another example demonstrated a child who is aware that there is a right way of writing. Finally, examples showed children who used invented spelling to write their ideas and at the same time show clearly what they know about sounds and spelling.
The group discussed ways to respond to questions about progress. When teachers are knowledgeable about the progression of skills, they can explain what children know and can do based on their writing and then the teacher can indicate what she plans to teach next.
This is where they are, and learning how to read is like learning how to write. They hear sounds, know sounds and letters, and have difficulty learning when to use silent letters.
Remind parents that learning to talk included many steps. We also need to communicate that by the end of the first grade they are expected to learn certain words used in their writing and that each month they will be expected to spell more words correctly.
Participants discussed the issue of when does work have to be corrected and perfect and when it does not. The group agreed that when talking about kindergarten students they can be helped to distinguish between published and non-published work. Teachers can begin to explain the process of correcting errors, and use different standards over time. Other suggestions included individualizing spelling instruction to match what children need to learn. State guidelines should reflect what is appropriate at each age and stage of development.
2) Oral Language Development
Ms. Bickart indicated that the most significant idea she took from the Report was about the importance of oral language development. She stressed the importance of talking with children, not just talking to them. Classrooms should not be silent. We must fight the image of quiet = good for elementary school students. Vocabulary development is crucial for development good reading skills and we grow our vocabularies when we engage in interesting, word rich conversations.
3) Developing Reading Skills Through Interesting Activities
Ms. Bickart demonstrated through a reading activity that although we could all read the words on the page, we did not have a very good idea of the meaning of the story. Reading is about getting meaning and sounding out words without comprehension is not likely to motivate children to be readers. The group discussed the need to teach skills but in engaging ways, rather than through drill and practice worksheets or letter of the week activities.
The group generated some additional ideas such as inviting parents to play with their children. Teachers can model for the parents ways to play with children and teach them at the same time. Parents can be encouraged to give children a chance to talk. One participant suggested a family night of fun can work where parents can play with playdough and learn with modeling by teachers.
The session ended with some what ifs, yes buts, and I cannot because ofs. . . . We need to explain how the best instruction is targeted to children and is developmentally appropriate.
Policy advocacy should take into account where we are as states, and relate to accountability and assessment.
We must go back and explain the need for changes in instruction. The hardest problem is that everyone agreed that staff dev elopment and teacher training instruction must change, but how?