Introduction to CKLA for PreK: Session 3 – Starting the Day

Sequence of Sessions

Overarching Objectives of this February 2013 Network Team Institute

This session is the first training for CKLA-PreK. At the conclusion of this session,

1.All participants will be able to accurately identify the instructional and support materials (e.g., cards, posters) required for implementation of Preschool CKLA.

2.Participants will be able to identify areas of the daily routine employed by CKLA-PreK.

a. Preschool educators will be able to identify adjustments / shifts that can be made to their current practices, routines, and schedules to support Preschool CKLA.

b. Administrators will consider additional program level shift that will support classroom educators as they make adjustments / shifts at the classroom level.

3.All participants will learn and practice language stimulation and support strategies to support high-quality adult-child interactions within implementation of Preschool CKLA.

High-Level Purpose of this Session

  • The purpose of this session is to orient partcipants to the CKLA-PreK materials, portions of the day, and best practices for implementation.

Related Learning Experiences

  • This is the first PD for the CKLA-PreK program. Participants can prepare for this session by viewing the CKLA-PreK Overview Webinar.

Session Outcomes

What do we want participants to be able to do as a result of this session? / How will we know that they are able to do this?
In this session teachers will:
  1. Gain familiarity with the structure of the "Starting the Day" portion of the CKLA-Preschool daily routine (i.e., Routines and Nursery Rhymes).
  2. Compare CKLA-Preschool Starting the Day activities with their current practices and routines for planning purposes.
  3. Articulate the two primary literacy goals (print knowledge and phonological awareness) addressed during the Starting the Day routines.
  4. Gain familiarity with the general scope and sequence of Routines and specific familiarity with the scope and sequence of the Taking Attendance Routing.
  5. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day Routines.
  6. Gain general familiarity with the structure and purpose of the Nursery Rhyme portion of Starting the Day.
  7. Practice the Echo Technique for teaching students Nursery Rhymes.
  8. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day Nursery Rhymes.
  9. Consider how the Nursery Rhymes Routine targets Core Content and Language Arts Objectives.
  10. See examples of how Transition Cards can be used to move students between activities.
/ In-session activities.

Session Overview

Section / Time / Overview / Prepared Resources / Facilitator Preparation
Parts of the CKLA-Preschool Day Review and Comparison / 10 / This session will orient participants to the parts of the preschool day, and allow them to compare the parts of their current day to those involved in implementing CKLA-Preschool. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Classroom Routines / 10 / This session will demonstrate how Classroom Routines support development of Print Knowledge in the preschool classroom. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Applying Language Stimulation and Support Techniques / 5 / Participants will apply knowledge of Language Stimulation and Support Techniques (Session 2) to hypothetical situations from the Classroom Routines portion of the CKLA-Preschool day. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Nursery Rhyme Routine / 15 / This session will demonstrate how Nursery Rhymes support development of Print Knowledge in the preschool classroom. Participants will practice the Echo Technique, the method used to teach students rhymes in CKLA-Preschool. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Applying Language Stimulation and Support Techniques / 5 / Participants will apply knowledge of Language Stimulation and Support Techniques (Session 2) to hypothetical situations from the Nursery Rhymes portion of the CKLA-Preschool day. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Reflecting on Objectives / 5 / Participants will reflect on the relationship between the Nursery Rhymes Routine and the Core Content and Language Arts Objectives addressed in one sample rhyme. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Transition Cards / --- / Facilitator will model the use of Transition Cards as participants are dismissed to lunch. / Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Session Roadmap

Section 1: Parts of the CKLA-Preschool Day Review and Comparison / Time: 10 minutes
[10 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Gain familiarity with the structure of the "Starting the Day" portion of the CKLA-Preschool daily routine (i.e., Routines and Nursery Rhymes).
  2. Compare CKLA-Preschool Starting the Day activities with their current practices and routines for planning purposes.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP

/ Key Points:
  1. Many teachers and schools include the same kinds of activities in their preschool daily schedule.
  2. What are some typical activities in the preschool day? [ask teachers to respond by labeling activities occurring in these pictures]
  3. Teachers support language and literacy throughout the day in all of these different activities.

/ / Key Points:
  1. Consider the parts of the day depicted on the previous slides.
  2. Consider these areas of language and emergent literacy.
  3. When do you currently support these areas of language and emergent literacy during your preschool day? [at their tables, participants discuss these goals in relationship to the parts of the preschool day]

Section 2: Classroom Routines / Time: 10 minutes
[10 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Articulate the two primary literacy goals (print knowledge and phonological awareness) addressed during the Starting the Day routines.
  2. Gain familiarity with the general scope and sequence of Routines and specific familiarity with the scope and sequence of the Taking Attendance Routing.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ Key Points:
  1. Classroom Routines are activities that are conducted every day that help with classroom management and provide opportunities for students to practice language and literacy skills.
  2. Teachers likely include a variety of other routines in their morning circles, and they can continue to do what works in their classrooms.
  3. CKLA-Preschool routines include: Taking Attendance, Learning Center Labels, Center Sign-in, Daily Schedule, Classroom Jobs, Learning Center Materials Labels, and Writing Name to Indicate a Choice.
  4. These routines are specific to meeting the goals/objectives outlined in CKLA-Preschool.
  5. These are gradually introduced and modified throughout the school year.

/ Key Points:
  1. Attendance is an example of a routine that is conducted every day, builds print knowledge, and is modified throughout the year.
  2. At the beginning of the year, students names are paired with their photos.
  3. By the end of the year, students are writing their own names.
  4. Routine shifts throughout year as students acquire fine motor skills, letter knowledge, more experience recognizing their own names.

/ Key Points:
  1. Students interact daily with their own names and the letters in their own names.
  2. Students learn skills in small group that help them as they learn to write their names.
  3. Students practice fine motor skills, writing strokes, writing letters, and writing their names in small groups and then generalize to writing their names independently.
  4. Attendance is one example of how this interplay between development across time, instruction in small group, and generalization in routines plays out—this same design principle applies to the other routines as well.

/ Key Points:
  1. Starting the Day—daily routines that occur during morning circle
  2. Small Groups—groups of five to ten students led by one adult that are held every day
  3. Listening and Learning—whole-group read-alouds (story time).

/ / Key Points:
  1. CKLA-Preschool supports language and literacy in these three parts of the preschool day
  2. We will talk about each of these three parts of the day and how language and literacy are supported through developmentally appropriate activities:
•Starting the Day—rhyme, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, print knowledge;
•Small Groups—environmental noises, rhyme, phonological awareness, print knowledge, alphabetic principle, handwriting, narrative;
•Listening and Learning—vocabulary, content knowledge, narrative, print knowledge.
  1. Where do you see overlap between what you just discussed (i.e., the parts of your day relative to these skills) and the CKLA-Preschool day? [teachers discuss at their tables]

Section 3: Applying Language Stimulation and Support Techniques / Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day Routines.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ Key Points:
  1. Malik is a shy four-year-old who arrives at school. He takes off his backpack and gets ready to sign in. His teacher greets him and facilitates the sign-in process.
  2. Notice how Malik’s teacher uses a question to start the conversation. Sometimes, questions really get kids talking, especially open-ended questions. In this case, a question does not help continue the conversation.
  3. This is the conversation that transpires between Malik and his teacher.
  4. Malik doesn’t have the knowledge to answer the question yet, so the conversation STOPS.

/ Key Points:
  1. So, Malik’s teacher decided to follow up her question with a comment.
  2. Malik responds to the teacher’s comment, and the teacher comments again.
  3. Notice the differences: the amount of information the teacher provides/richness of language (capital, lowercase, letter names), the number of conversational turns, the information Malik is able to provide, pride/satisfaction/engagement of Malik?
Malik: [Arrives in the classroom and gets a marker to sign into school]
Teacher: Malik, what letters are in your name?
Malik: Don’t know.
Teacher: You chose a red marker to write your name. You are writing the capital letter ‘M.’ Now, you are writing the lowercase letter ‘a.’
Malik: Then I’m going to write the stick letter.
Teacher: You are writing the letter ‘l’. You are making it nice and tall and straight.
Malik: I remember the name of the letter with the dot! Letter ‘i’.
Comments
Often, a teacher’s inclination is to ask questions to get a conversation
started. Effective teachers recognize that a comment can be just as
effective or more effective at getting a conversation going. Consider the
following examples: Shauna enters class one morning wearing a new
pair of shiny red shoes. Teacher A says, “Shauna, I like your new shoes.
Where did you get them?” Teacher B says, “Wow! Look at your new shiny
redshoes!” Shauna’s response to Teacher A will likely be a one-word
answer or short sentence answering the teacher’s question, “Where did
you get them?” Shauna’s response to Teacher B may very well be a story
about going to get the new shoes. Teacher B’s use of an open-ended
comment provides Shauna the opportunity to answer following her own
interests and excitement. Likewise, the use of a comment removes the
pressure of Shauna’s having to respond. Using comments provides
children with an opening to initiate conversation and the freedom to talk
about their own interests.
/ / Key Points:
  1. Lottie is a student in Malik’s class. She also arrives and is greeted by her teacher. Lottie has trouble finding her Name Card.
  2. What comment might Lottie’s teacher make to her? How might Lottie respond? [participants share their responses with the group]

Section 4: Nursery Rhyme Routines / Time: 15 minutes
[15 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Gain general familiarity with the structure and purpose of the Nursery Rhyme portion of Starting the Day.
  2. Practice the Echo Technique for teaching students Nursery Rhymes.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ Key Points:
  1. Which rhymes are taught?
•Old favorites that many teachers already know
•Rhymes with motions that students enjoy doing
•Simple, short rhymes early in the year, then longer as year progresses
  1. Rhymes usually have a content connection.
•All About Me: Students are learning to identify body parts both inside and outside their bodies.
•Animals: Students learn about ways to group animals, including the group called insects. Bees are insects.
•Plants: Vegetables are a type of plant. Peppers are a kind of vegetable.
  1. Rhymes highlight a particular emergent literacy skill.
•Head and Shoulders: reciting a rhyme using motions to cue words, rhyme awareness as they start to hear and enjoy rhyming words
•Here is the beehive: identifying rhyming words bees/sees, hive/five. Students are learning to identify and producing words in rhyming families. Teacher asks students for other rhyming words in those families.
•Peter piper: identifying initial sound. Teacher asks students to listen for sound that many of these words start with. Then, students list other words that start with /p/
/ / Key Points:
  1. The echo technique is a way to familiarize students with nursery rhymes.
  2. First, the teacher reads the entire poem.
  3. Then, the teacher reads a line, and students repeat.
  4. Have participants stand and be the “students”
Today we are going to learn the song “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Listen to hear the names of some of the parts of your body as we sing. You are going to hear about our heads, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.”
Point to each of your body parts as you name them.
Now, I’m going to help you learn “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” I am going to say a part and then I will stop and give you a chance to echo the words. That means you will say the exact words that I said. When it is your turn to talk, I will point to you. We will keep doing this for each part of the nursery rhyme.”
Section 5: Applying Language Stimulation and Support Techniques / Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day Nursery Rhymes.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ Key Points:
  1. Mikey’s class has just finished the Nursery Rhyme ‘Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.
  2. Mikey makes a comment, and his teacher acknowledges his comment, which is makes Mikey happy.
  3. However, Mikey does not continue the conversation.
  4. So, the teacher decides to expand Mikey’s comment.

/ Key Points:
  1. The teacher expands Mikey’s utterance.
  2. Mikey is able to use the teacher’s expansion as a cue to start singing the song again.
  3. Mikey gains more practice in learning the nursery rhyme and more exposure to rhyming words.
Expansion
Using the expansion technique, effective teachers expand on what
children say by repeating the child’s words in a more grown-up manner.
The following examples demonstrate how effective teachers might use
expansion throughout the daily routine:
• Child: “Zip.” Teacher: “Zipper up!” (helping child zip coat)
• Child: “I’m going home to Kara’s house.” Teacher: “You’re going to
Kara’s house after school?”
• Child: “Go home time.” Teacher: “It’s time to go home!”
• Child: “My turn.” Teacher “It’s your turn.”
• Child: “Red car.” Teacher: “You want the red car?”
Effective teachers consider a child’s language ability and respond by
modeling an expansion just beyond the child’s capabilities. Note in the
examples above that the teachers’ responses are only slightly longer and
only slightly more complex than the children’s own words. The teachers’
responses maintain the children’s thoughts, yet model how an adult
might express them.
/ Key Points:
  1. Imagine a variation of the previous conversation in which the teacher uses expansion plus.
  2. The teacher expands Mikey’s utterance and also adds additional information.
  3. Mikey generalizes the information the teacher provides and makes a comment about other body parts, thereby reinforcing content knowledge from the domain.
Expansion Plus
Using the expansion plus technique, effective teachers expand on what
children say by adding another sentence and more information to what
the children say.
/ / Key Points:
  1. Jamir is also in Mikey’s class and has enjoyed singing the same rhyme.
  2. Jamir says, “Nose, toes, bose.”
  3. How might Jamir’s teacher expand that comment? How might she add more information (expansion plus)? [participants share their responses with the group]

Section 6: Reflecting on Objectives / Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. Consider how the Nursery Rhymes Routine targets Core Content and Language Arts Objectives.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ / Key Points:
  1. Nursery Rhymes address or build towards specific Core Content and Language Arts Objectives.
  2. Students will not master every objective listed, and objectives will reappear across the year.
  3. These objectives are listed at the beginning of each day and are intended to guide instruction.
  4. At your table, reflect on two things:
A)How CKLA-Preschool activities/materials teach these objectives
B)Tweaks they might make to enhance students’ uptake of these objectives as they lead the activities
Section 7: Transition Cards / Time: --
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
  1. See examples of how Transition Cards can be used to move students between activities.
/ Materials used include:
  1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT

Time / Slide #/ Pic of Slide / Script/ Activity directions / GROUP
/ / Key Points:
  1. Throughout the presentation, we will be modeling the use of Transition Cards.
  2. Transition Cards are included in the comprehensive domains and are used to move students from one activity to another.
  3. We will show a variety of ways the cards can be used, and encourage teachers to think of other ways they might use them.

/ Key Points:
  1. What body part is this?

/ / Key Points:
  1. Which of your five senses uses this body part?

/ / Key Points:
  1. Tell me something you can taste.

/ / Key Points:
  1. I’m thinking of a body part. You have two of them. They are on the sides of your head. You use them to hear. What is it?

/ / Key Points:
  1. Show me how you smell with your nose.

Use the following icons in the script to indicate different learning modes.