Prekindergarten Building on Patterns: Lesson Learned

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Prekindergarten Building on Patterns: Lesson Learned

Getting In Touch With Literacy

Presented by: Luanne Blaylock, Jo Ellen Croft, Kate Dilworth, Kay Ferrell, Cay Holbrook, Cathy Senft-Graves, Susan Spicknall, Anna Swenson, Robin Wingell

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Agenda

·  Introductions

·  Plans and Support for the Revision of the Building on Patterns (BOP) Curriculum

·  Research that guides decision-making on BOP

·  Program Components and Lesson Examples from BOP Pre-K

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Building on Patterns

·  Only “basal reading series” for teaching braille reading and writing

·  Building on Patterns Team

o  External Writing Teams from Arkansas, California, and Oregon (All members of the writing teams are experienced teachers of students with visual impairments.)

o  APH Staff

o  Consultants to the program

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Building on Patterns Revision

·  2nd Revision began immediately after completion of BOP 2nd Grade (original Patterns went through 3rd grade)

·  Original intent to begin revising BOP Kindergarten

·  Writers and consultants determined a need for Prekindergarten BOP to lead into Kindergarten based on state standards and checklists for Kindergarten entry

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Building on Patterns UEB Teacher Supplements and Updated Student Materials

·  Student textbooks and worksheets in UEB

·  Posttest materials for First Grade and Second Grade in UEB

·  Free, downloadable supplements for the existing teacher’s editions with information on what changes need to be marked in the teachers manual to comply with UEB

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Current BOP-K Survey

·  Online survey conducted 11/14/12–12/20/12

·  75 respondents from 22 states and the US Virgin Islands

·  97% of respondents TVIs

·  Participants were asked:

o  What is taught in BOP-K that should be taught in a pre-kindergarten early literacy program?

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BOP-K Survey Results: Teach Before Kindergarten

·  When asked what is taught in BOP-K that should be taught in a Pre-K emergent literacy program, the top three responses were:

o  phonemic awareness and phonics

o  the alphabet, or an introduction to the alphabet contractions

o  at least the first 12 lessons of BOP-K should be taught earlier.

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BOP-K Survey Results: Teach Before Kindergarten

Other specific skills that received multiple mentions:

·  Tracking, reading with both hands

·  Rhyming

·  Introduction of braille cell

·  Capital sign

·  Period

·  Vocabulary

·  Spatial awareness/ directionality: left to right; top, bottom, middle

·  Concepts/concept development

·  Tactile identification as fun activities

·  Listening comprehension

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The “New” Kindergarten

·  Standards have pushed skills needed at kindergarten entry

(Illustration of flowers "pushing" kids higher)

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Supporting Research

·  National Early Literacy Panel Report

·  Common Core and Pre-K State Standards

·  National Association for the Education of Young

·  Children (NAEYC) Early Learning Standards

·  Quality Literacy Instruction Study

·  Current BOP-K Survey

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NELP Variables for Literacy Development

·  Alphabet knowledge

·  Phonological awareness

·  Rapid Automatic Naming of letters or digits

·  Rapid Automatic Naming of objects or colors

·  Writing or writing name

·  Phonological memory

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Kindergarten Entry Standards

·  Language: Understands and expresses needs and ideas; engages with a variety of texts (e.g., stories, informational text, poems)

·  Print/Braille concepts: Understands how text relates to speech; demonstrates book handling skills; understands print/braille conventions.

·  Phonological awareness: Identifies rhyming words; discriminates same/different sounds; blends onsets & rimes

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Kindergarten Entry Standards (continued)

·  Letter/word recognition: Recognizes some or most letters of the alphabet; recognizes name

·  Phonics: Begins to understand the alphabetic principle; matches name and sound of some consonants to their written letter

·  Writing: Writes most or all of first name; participates in developmentally appropriate writing using letter-like shapes, letters, and/or words to convey meaning; begins to match initial sounds with letters in writing.

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Quality Literacy Instruction Study

Skill Areas / Consistency / Total Time/Day / Time Span / Duration
Emergent Braille Literacy Skills / 1 to 5 days/week / 1/2 to
1 hour / Infancy to Preschool / At least one school year
Early Formal Literacy Skills ("prebraille") / Daily / 1/2 to
1 hour / Preschool- K / At least one school year
Beginning Braille Literacy Skills / Daily / 1-2 hours per day / K-Grade 3 / At least one school year
Beginning Literacy Skills in Dual Media (Print and Braille) / Daily / 1-2 hours per day / K-
Grade 3 / At least one school year

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Need for BOP Pre-K

·  BOP-K survey confirmed a need for Pre-K braille literacy material

·  Pre-K will be a separate curriculum as is available in general education programs

·  Maryland Common Core State Curriculum Frameworks for Braille includes Pre-K skills

·  Keeping pace with peers: many entering kindergarteners recognize letters & numbers, read and write their names

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Selected BOP Principles

·  BOP will be a part of a comprehensive program

·  Importance of consistent literacy instruction from qualified TVI

·  Service delivery is diverse

·  Literacy instruction should be evidence-grounded and on-going research should be conducted

·  Value of authentic literature

·  Concept development through literacy instruction

·  Connections to the ECC

·  Students have individual needs, likes and dislikes

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Components of BOP Pre-K

·  Reading and Writing Braille Letters, Numbers and Some UEB Math Symbols

·  Reading and Writing Simple Continuous Text

·  Interactive Read-Alouds with Authentic Literature

·  Comprehension and Vocabulary

·  Phonological Awareness and Phonics

·  Knowledge and Concept Development

·  Tactile Skills, including Graphics

·  Fun, engaging activities

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Pilot Field Test

·  Feedback from Pre-K teachers on Lessons 2, 3, and 4

·  Video examples of Pre-K children working through parts of lessons

·  Length of lessons and activities within lessons

·  Information about service delivery impact on completion of lessons

·  Sites in KY, NM, & FL; Center based and itinerant, 7 teachers and 7+ children

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Key Observations

·  Stories (trade books) are interesting but some are a little long; children responded more (and better) to the second reading of the book

·  Vocabulary words—good balance between simple and challenging words

·  Comprehension—these young children had some difficulty with “open ended” questions and questions that asked children to “personalize” something in the story

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Key Observations (continued)

·  Children have difficulty producing written work on the braille writer (Perkins) but teachers saw value in ongoing practice to encourage finger strength, finger isolation and span [writers are including consistent practice in lessons]

·  Largest issue was lesson length and consistency. Writers have made major changes to plans for the lessons that addresses these concerns

·  Children liked songs and other enrichment activities (The Wheels on the Bus; art projects)

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Key Observations (continued)

·  Children liked the Tactile Storybooks

·  Issues were discovered that needed to be addressed in some way:

o  Rhyming Words

o  Comprehension Questions

o  Introduction of the Swing Cell

o  Enjoyment of tactile graphics symbols

·  Teachers reported that even if their student has trouble with some things (e.g., finger strength) it is good to work on them

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Pre-K Changes Based on Field Testing

·  BOP Pre-K writers have reviewed results of the pilot field test and have worked to:

o  Shorten and/or reduce the number of activities within the lesson

o  Decrease the length of the curriculum by shortening the length of review and assessment lessons

o  Attend to needed practice in areas of concern to teachers

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In Every Lesson

·  Read-aloud of authentic literature story or informational text

·  Knowledge and concept development

·  Listening comprehension and vocabulary development

·  Tactile storybook

·  Phonological awareness and phonics

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In Every Lesson (continued)

·  Letter recognition

·  Recognition of common alphabetic wordsigns and high frequency words

·  Number recognition

·  Reading continuous text

·  Writing letters, words, and numbers using practice exercises and a modeled/interactive technique

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Benefits of Interactive Read-Alouds Using Authentic Literature

·  Children engage with the same books as their peers, which promotes social interaction through shared interests.

·  Children learn concepts and vocabulary that cannot be experienced directly.

·  Children become familiar with the "book language" they will be reading themselves later on.

·  Children learn to use different strategies (e.g., recall, predicting, inference) to think about the text as they discuss it with an adult reader.

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Benefits of Authentic Literature (continued)

·  Children develop an understanding of how fluent reading sounds.

·  Children learn that books contain appealing stories and interesting information, which contributes to a positive attitude towards literacy.

·  Parents, teachers, and children gain the understanding that reading braille is equivalent to reading print.

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Background Knowledge

·  Types of background knowledge (Pearson & Liben)

o  General world knowledge

o  Knowledge of relations among people

o  Disciplinary (Informational) knowledge

o  Knowledge of language (vocabulary; idioms; grammatical structures)

·  Young children acquire background knowledge through:

o  Hands-on exploration with verbal explanation

o  Oral language

o  Social situations and role-playing

o  Play (exploration, inquiry, & reinforcement of concepts,)

o  Read-alouds

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·  Background Knowledge for You Be You (BOP Pre-K Lesson 4)

·  Examination of real fish, model fish, & tactile graphic

·  Activities relating fish body and movements to child‘s own body

·  I'm a Little Fishy (Tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little fishy, watch me swim. (Fishy Hands)

Here is my tail, here is my fin. (Point to where tail and fin would be.)

When I want to have fun with my friends, (Point to others.)

I wiggle my tail and dive right in! (Wiggle and jump forward.)

·  Fish puppet art; puppet used to practice opposites. ("Swim up/down, left/right, over/under.").

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Background Knowledge Developed with Paired Literary and Informational Books

·  Lessons 7-8

o  The Very Hungry Caterpillar

o  What's it like to be … a Butterfly?

·  Lessons 19-20

o  The Very Busy Spider

o  What's it like to be … a Spider?

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Additional Lesson Features

·  Daily reading of alphabet

·  Regular reading of numbers 1-10

·  Enrichment: Music

·  Other enrichment activities such as art, movement, or sensory activities

·  Parent Letter

·  Letter Bank

·  Integral to the content of each lesson is the concept of play

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Sample Lesson

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

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Vocabulary

groovy: really cool; great; awesome

favorite: the one he liked best

popped: came off or fell off

buttonless: without buttons, no buttons

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Tactile Storybook Cover: Pete’s Buttons

(Image of Tactile Storybook cover)

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Tactile Storybook Page

(Image of braille on a Tactile Storybook page)

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Fun Learning Activities!

(Image of tactile graphic with two shirts. The left has three buttons and the right has four)

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Questions?

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Please Consider Field Testing!

·  APH uses the comments and recommendations gathered from experts in the field to refine and improve products before actual production.

·  Complete form available at: http://www.aph.org/edresearch/

·  Contact Laura Zierer, Research Assistant,