How do I teach learners at the PreK3 levels?

How do I teach learners at the PreK3 levels?Emergent and Beginning Literacy Learners17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education1

Literacy learners: Who are they?While emergent and beginning literacy learners are present in various age groups, early literacy skills are most often learned from birth through to second-grade. Thus, students literacy learning begins long before they enter school. Each child will enter school with different levels of exposure to language, print materials, writing, and the literacy process. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education2

Who are they? (Contd)Despite these variations, teachers need to create literacy environments that enhance learning and engagement. Literacy educators have the responsibility to scaffold all children through valuable reading and writing processes as described in the literacy framework for reading and writing development (Walden University, n.d) to achieve fluency. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education3

The DifferencesEmergent LearnersEmergent and beginning literacy learners display different learning behaviors. While some differences may be minute, others are more noticeable. Emergent literacy learners require highly structured, intensive instruction to develop oral language, picture reading skills, phonemic awareness and their ability to associate text with speech. Students can identify a few words in isolation. I. Cherrington MS in Education417/02/2016

Emergent Learners (Contd)Books are primarily fictional and directly connected to content area skills and knowledge and students cultures. These books almost always have a picture on each page with one or two sentences. Writing takes the form of pupils names, an illustration and one or two accompanying phrases/sentences (Laureate Education, 2014a). Teachers lead the activities most of the time and students develop their language skills and fluency as they give oral descriptions of their work. I. Cherrington MS in Education517/02/2016

Beginning LearnersBeginning literacy learners can call out individual sounds in words. They can segment and blend sounds with inconsistency. Students do choral and guided reading activities as they explore books with a greater volume of text and concepts. Writing becomes more purposeful and extends to a few sentences. As students write, they engage in invented spelling and, touch words as they read. Beginning learners read aloud to themselves and can recognize patterns in words as their vocabulary broadens. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education6

Beginning learners (contd)Beginning literacy learners can work more independently than emergent learners. Thus, teachers can group them to complete reading and writing tasks then move around to observe and encourage thinking. Wei-fan and chung-pei (2011) indicate that small group reading exercises, allow students to learn from each others prior knowledge. These activities allow teachers the opportunity to observe students preferences and interests and encourage engagement with the material (Laureate Education, 2014b).17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education7

What teachers can do?Reutzel and Cooter (2016), suggest that teachers use assessment data to determine students level of literacy development before they begin instruction. Teachers should use this data to design instruction to fill learning gaps and provide the skills that should come next. Teachers may also incorporate students experiences, culture, interest and learning styles into instructional design. Research suggests that educators get to know their students as a whole as they work together to cover the curriculum (Laureate, 2014c).17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education8

What teachers can do? (Contd)As teachers work to meet students needs and help them to become independent learners, they need to make students earliest experiences with reading and writing enjoyable and exciting because they tend to become less interested in writing as they move up through the grades (Kear, Coffman, Mckenna, & Ambrosio, 2000). 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education9

What teachers can do? (Contd)Through reading, teachers can increase students world knowledge and integrate skills and knowledge of the various content area through theme teaching. Neuman and Roskos (2012) purports that it is not sufficient for students to read a few books within a year. Rather, children need to read a broad range of books from different genres to expand their knowledge and understanding of the reading process.17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education10

What teachers can do? (Contd)Teachers may utilize a wide variety of strategies and approaches to help both emergent and beginning readers to develop proficiency in the various strands of literacy whether they are native speakers of English or English as second language learners. Some of these include modelled-reading/writing, direct vocabulary instruction, guided reading and writers workshop. Additionally, the physical environment should permit countless opportunities for direct and indirect engagement with resources that have a strong focus on meeting students literacy needs. Resources may be printed text or digital media. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education11

Through modelled-reading and read-alouds, students can learn to make connections between print and spoken language, develop an understanding that letters make sounds, that form words which are used to compose sentences. Through guided reading, students get the opportunity control their reading pace and independently use strategies that they have learned. Teachers observe as students practice and enhance their ability make predictions, decode words, and draw conclusions. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education12Effective Strategies

Teachers need to encourage comprehension through questioning. Davoudi and Sadeghi (2015) state that, asking children higher-level questions, positively influences their critical thinking ability and encourages them to ask higher-level questions in turn. As students respond to questions, teachers can determine students level of listening and reading comprehension, their ability to use context to derive meaning from words and to make connections with prior knowledge. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education13Effective Strategies (Contd)

Reutzel and Cooter (2016) state that listening comprehension influences children's level of success in reading comprehension as they grow older. Therefore, teachers need to check if students are making meaning of what they hear and see regularly throughout the day especially in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms to aid students understanding. According to Chung (2012), teachers need to teach vocabulary directly and indirectly to all learners especially to English language learners (ells) who acquire fewer words incidentally than their native English-speaking counterparts.17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education14Effective Strategies (Contd)

Through writers workshop, students can strengthen their reading comprehension by retelling stories using illustrations and captions. These descriptions will provide opportunities for students to practice using new words learned. Brown (2010) purports that students authentic writing in the early stages of writing development help them to develop a love for reading and provide essential information for educators to use in designing instruction. Graham and Herbert (2010) indicate that writing can improve reading as pupils develop an understanding of both as being communication processes.17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education15Effective Strategies (Contd)

ConclusionCiampa (2012) notes that when children learn to read proficiently in their early primary years, they are more equipped to handle academic and recreational reading later in life. Therefore, literacy educators need to create an environment where students feel safe and encouraged to explore and learn new skills and develop existing skills. Literacy activities must allow students lots of opportunities to publish their writing, and evaluate each others work. 17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education16

ConclusionCertainly, as students engage in the reading and writing processes, teachers need to monitor students progress and the effectiveness of instruction. Reutzel and Cooter (2016) state that effective teachers have a repertoire of proven assessment and instructional strategies that they use to assess students prior knowledge and increase engagement.17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education17

ReferencesBrown, K. M. (2010). Young authors: Writing workshop in kindergarten. Young Children, 65(1), 24-28.Chung, S. F. (2012). Research-based vocabulary instruction for English language learners. Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 12(2), 105-120.Ciampa, K. (2012). Reading in the digital age: Using electronic books as a teaching tool for beginning readers. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ981797.pdfDavoudi, M., & Sadeghi, N. A. (2015). A systematic review of research on questioning as a high-level cognitive strategy. English Language Teaching, 8(10), 76-90.Graham, S., & Herbert, M. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. Retrieved from https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/9d/e2/9de20604-a055-42da-bc00-77da949b29d7/ccny_report_2010_writing.pdfKear, D. J., Coffman, G. A., McKenna, M. C., & Ambrosio, A. L. (2000). Measuring attitude toward writing: A new tool for teachers. Reading Teacher, 54(1), 1023.17/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education18

References (Contd)Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Reading and writing in the pre-k classroom [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.Laureate Education (Producer). (2014b). Assessing word knowledge [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.Laureate Education (Producer). (2014c). Getting to know your students [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.Neuman, S. B., & Roskos, K. (2012). Helping children become more knowledgeable through text. Reading Teacher, 66(3), 207210.Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Wei-Fan, C., & Chung-Pei, C. (2011). Effect of varied types of collaborative learning strategies on young children: an experimental study. International Journal Of Instructional Media, 38(4), 351-358.Walden University. (n. d). Reading and writing development. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_13726377_1&content_id=_31959986_117/02/2016I. Cherrington MS in Education19