Group items tagged

(Week 7: Ruchel and Beth) This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This journal article discuss practical strategies to help with teaching the alphabet. The importance of the alphabet for early literacy skills is discussed in the article. The article stresses the flaw with the popular "letter of the week" way of teaching the alphabet including the fact that this method takes 26 weeks just to cover the alphabet as well as the fact that if students know a number of letters those weeks are a waste of valuable class time. Teachers can use this article to further their instructional practices in the early childhood classroom by focusing on EAK (Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge Instruction) which "emphasizes identifying the letter name and sound, recognizing the letter in text, and producing the letter form, through flexible, distributed cycles of review based on factors that influence acquisition of alphabet knowledge" (Jones, Clark & Reutzel, 2013). "Rather than the traditional method of one cycle of massed instruction, EAK instruction advocates teaching letters through multiple, distributed instructional cycles which allows for letters to be introduced, practiced, and revisited several times, as needed, during the school year" (Jones et al., 2013). References Jones, C., Clark, S., & Reutzel, D. (2013). Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge Instruction: Research Implications and Practical Strategies for Early Childhood Educators. Early Childhood Education Journal, 41(2), 81-89. doi:10.1007/s10643-012-0534-9

This is the position statement developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children related to mathematics in early childhood education. This document outlines 10 strategies for high quality math instruction in the early childhood classroom, as well as, 4 strategies for educational institutions, program developers and policy makers. I found the 10 strategies for teachers to be particularly beneficial in my own reflective practice.

(Week Nine: Ruchel and Beth) This article is accessible through the UMUC library via Document Express. This journal article is about differentiated instruction when it comes to teaching students the alphabet. The article highlights the fact that "Early literacy experiences vary widely... and children show substantial differences in their alphabet knowledge development. Thus, children in the same early childhood classroom may exhibit differing levels of alphabet knowledge" (Piasta, 2014). Teachers can use this article to further their instructional practice by using the strategies and assessments discussed in the article to work with students in ways that will help the individual child learn all the letters verses a whole class approach to teaching the alphabet. The article discuses how, "The familiarity of children with letters included in their own first names, for example, has long been observed" (Piasta, 2014). But when it comes to teaching the alphabet in a whole class approach teachers are not acknowledging "differences across letters, often providing the same amount and types of instructional activities for each of the 26 letters irrespective of the ease or difficulty of learning a particular letter (Piasta, 2014). The article provides an idea that all "Early childhood educators may wish to assess all the children in their classrooms or may first use established alphabet screening assessments" (Piasta, 2014). It is also helpful for educators "To conduct a diagnostic alphabet assessment, an educator presents a child with each of the 26 letters and asks the child to supply the name and/or sound for each letter. The educator marks whether the child supplied a correct name and/or sound. Although the assessment can be scored in terms of the total number of correct letter names or sounds (i.e., 0 to 26), most important for diagnostic purposes are which letter names and sounds the child knows (Piasta, 2014)...

...The article finds that small group learning "has been demonstrated to be more effective than whole-class or even one-to-one instruction in supporting young children's early literacy development (Piasta, 2014). The article also stresses the fact that educators should "plan and use effective teaching practices to deliver alphabet instruction on the selected letters. Alphabet instruction can take place in many fun, engaging, and authentic contexts" (Piasta, 2014). In closing, "Outside of planned alphabet instruction, educators may also take advantage of additional "teachable moments" to review and reinforce children's alphabet learning whenever these occur" (Piasta, 2014). References Piasta, S. B. (2014). Moving to Assessment-Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge. Reading Teacher, 68(3), 202-211. doi:10.1002/trtr.1316

This article provides a variety of ELL terminology and instructional guidance for early childhood educators who are looking to support children who are ELL's. The articles focus is on language and literacy content approaches and best practices that should be included in ELL educational practice programs. Along with instructional practices, this article offers essential materials, The Early English Language Development Standards, and developmentally appropriate academic language all in guidance for supporting early ELL's.

Many schools struggle when it comes to promoting adequate parental involvement in furnishing early literacy and the emergent reading skills of their youngest students. This is especially the case in many Title I schools, in which much of the student population represents portions of both the low-income and at-risk demographic. In order to help bridge this gap, the San Antonio Public School System has enacted their own Title I "Even Start" initiative, in which parents are better prepared to help instill and cultivate early literacy in their children, through their own education. Through this initiative, the school system is providing parents and students with joint: adult education, early childhood education, parent education, and literacy activities. By strengthening the literacy, parenting, and reading skills of parents, San Antonio is wagering that their student population will soon positively reflect this greater emphasis on emergent reading, early literacy, and family involvement.

This is an excellent guide for early childhood teachers on one strategy to differentiate math instruction. This article outlines how to develop high quality math games related to children's literature, as well as, examples of activities that relate to specific books. I found this particularly helpful in developing math engaging math activities for my students.

This article provides developmentally appropriate strategies for supporting math instruction in the early childhood classroom. Strategies include how to set up a math rich classroom, as well as, how to children to engage in mathematical play.

The purpose of this study is to explore how a Pre-Kindergarten teacher makes pedagogical decisions that are known as emotional scaffolding for ELL children. The study describes a teacher who through implementing an optimal environment for her ELL students, was able to fully engage them in Pre-Kindergarten content. The study offers a variety of strategies of what a teacher can do to have a successful ELL early childhood school environment.

This article offers strategies to early childhood educators as they are instructing English Language Learners in language and literacy development. Highlights in this article include instructional strategies, explicit vocabulary activities, exposing students to multiple opportunities to speak with both peers and adults, and encouraging language development inside and outside of the classroom. These strategies are helpful in thinking about guiding my ELL students to improve their oral language skills.

This website is a great resource for the early childhood classroom. The "picture pairs game" helps with letter recognition.

PebbleGo is an early childhood research base for young children learning to read. Information is child friendly and includes many pictures and videos to enrich student learning. PebbleGo has a read aloud feature that allows text to be read to the audience, if necessary. It also has online games relating to topics on PebbleGo and printable resources. This resource requires login information and can be purchased as a subscription by an entire school.

Pebble Go is an excellent online resource for student reserach. This site is divided up by category of science, social studies, and biographies. Students use this interactive website to learn about different academic content areas. For each topic, readings, videos, games, and audio recordings are provided. This allows students of all ability levels to be able to access the information and understand the content. My students love this site as it is a great starting point for any reserach project!

The achievement gap can be lowered if children are engaged in high quality play and learning before beginning kindergarten.

Caryn, I really enjoyed this article. It thoughtfully portrayed the fact that the achievement gap often starts long before students ever have their first day of kindergarten. For students who are not read to as young children, or engaged in meaningful play and projects, the first few school years are dramatically more difficult. Victoria

(Week 8: Jennifer and Ashleigh) This article is accessible through the link above using the UMUC library database. This article analyzes data from an early childhood survey to determine how various instructional strategies in math impact students of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and varying readiness levels. The results of the study indicate differing exposure to instructional strategies to support students in math. For example, the study shows that students with high socioeconomic status and higher readiness levels have more exposure to the use of manipulatives, while students with lower socioeconomic statuses and lower readiness level have more exposure to music and movement to learn math. Additionally, the study found that only some instructional strategies have an impact on student achievement in math. This study is beneficial for teachers as they reflect on their current instructional practices in relation to student achievement. The results of the study express the need for differentiated math instruction for various communities of learners within the classroom. This is useful as we examine Ashleigh's Data Action Plan and how the use of manipulatives for measurement may or may not support achievement for all students. As strategies are implemented, Ashleigh can take note of which strategies are most beneficial for different subgroups within her classroom. References Bottia, M. C., Moller, S., Mickelson, R. A., & Stearns, E. (2014). Foundations of mathematics achievement: instructional practices and diverse kindergarten students. The Elementary School Journal, 115(1), 124-150.