Nurturing Knowledge
Susan B Neuman
University of Michigan
Canadian Language and Literacy Network
2007 Calgary, Alberta
Case Study #1: One Teacher’s
Experience
Why Begin Early?: The Opportunity
Hypothesis
• Learning to read and write:
Developmentally appropriate practice
– Begins at birth
– Reading and writing occur interchangeably
– Children need to understand the purposes
of using literacy
– Literacy practice must build on good early
childhood practice
Poverty…
• Interactions…
Hart and Risley…
The Need Hypothesis: Risk factors
• Stark, and triangulated differentials in
access to print for children who come
from middle- and lower-income
neighborhoods
• Resources, Language, Social
Networking
Beginning Kindergarten Students’ School
Readiness Skills by Socioeconomic Status
(SES
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))
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Lowest
Lowest SES
SES
Ability
Ability to
to recognize
recognize letters
letters of
of alphabet
alphabet 39%
39%
Ability
Ability to
to identify
identify beginning
beginning sounds
sounds
of
10%
of words
words
10%
Identifies
69%
Identifies primary
primary colors
colors
69%
Counts
48%
Counts to
to 20
20
48%
Writes
54%
Writes own
own name
name
54%
Amount
Amount of
of time
time having
having been
been read
read to
to
Prior
25
Prior to
to kindergarten
kindergarten
25 hours
hours
Accumulated
Accumulated experience
experience with
with words
words 13
13 million
million
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____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Highest
Highest SES
SES
85%
85%
51%
51%
90%
90%
68%
68%
76%
76%
1,000
1,000 hours
hours
45
45 million
million
What do we need to do?
• Better understand the mechanisms that
underlie risk factors
• Create better connections to effective
interventions
What is literacy?
•
•
•
Content knowledge
Procedural Knowledge
Dispositions
wonder
discovery
inquiry
building
curiosity
more curiosity
problem solving
creativity
sharing
joy
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5 essential practices
Links to content areas
Parents
The Five Essentials
– Supportive learning environment
– Songs, rhymes, and word play
– Storybook Reading
– Developmental writing
– Literacy and play
Supportive Learning Environment
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•
•
•
•
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Child-related displays
Functional print
Books plus cozy corner book areas
Orderly environment
Teacher talk and interaction
Lots of love and positive reinforcement
Environmental Features
• Space
– Effects of carved space
• Toys
– Cognitive toys that engage children minds
•
•
•
Clusters of objects
Authentic objects
Culturally specific objects
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
Child Related Displays
Setting up of a literacy play area
• Principles
– Definition
– Adaptation
– familiarity
• Types of props
– Appropriate
– Authentic
– Useful
Songs, rhymes and word play
• Rhyming helps children develop
phonological awareness
• Alliteration helps children develop a
sense of beginning sounds
• Segmenting and blending helps children
to hear the individual sounds in words
Interactive storybook reading
• Considerations
– Genre
– Purposes for reading
– Group size
– Questioning: What is it designed for—get cha’ or
are you paying attention? Or thinking?
– Open-ended responses: What are these for?
– How to extend learning: gingerbread man--
Interactive Reading
•
•
•
•
•
Format
Illustrations
Language
Text/features
Content
Developmental Writing
• Allows children to connect sounds and
letter names
• Focuses on phonological awareness –
the alphabetic principle
• Combines different types of symbolmaking numbers, letters, pictures
– Writing center
Literacy related Play
• A critical feature in early development
• Why is play important in early literacy?
– Language/vocabulary
– Developing narrative skills
– Zone of proximal development
– Development of abstract thinking
A content rich curriculum
Unit
Major Concepts
Materials Need
PreKindergarten
Guidelines
Magnetism
Magnetic force attracts
things made of iron and
steel
Magnets have many uses
and help us do many
things
Objects to test and sort
Books
Magnets
The child:
• uses one more sense to
observe phenomena
•analyzes patters and
relationships
Colors
There are many different
colors and they have
different names. Primary
colors are red, yellow and
blue
Books
Paint
Colored paper
Color swatches
Food colors
The child:
• uses different colors to
create meaning
• uses new vocabulary in
everyday communication
Sound
We can identify things by
their sounds
Sound is create dby
vibrations of objects
Sounds can be high/low,
loud/soft
Musical instruments
Records
Kitchen food
Containers
Chutes and marbles
Popcorn cooking
The child:
• Identifies similarities and
differences
• Begins to distinguish
among sounds of several
instruments.
Supportive learning environment
knowledge seekers