Adapting a Transdisciplinary,
Literacy-Based Curriculum for
Preschoolers with Language
Delays
Julie Garrity
Krista Gorman
Kimberly Hales
Christine Sullivan
Learner Outcomes
• How to use literature to target goals in a
classroom
• How to collaborate with transdisciplinary team
members to develop goals for a literacy based
curriculum
• Define the role of SLP in selecting appropriate
literature and topics within a curriculum
Manhattan Center for Early Learning,
New York, NY
• A special education preschool on Manhattan’s
Upper East Side
• Student Population
– 60% English as a Second Language
– Majority from low-income families
– Urban, apartment dwelling families
– 95% have speech/language delays/disorders
– 100% have cognitive impairments
Curriculum at MCEL Prior to 2004
• No cohesive school-wide curriculum
• Classroom curriculum developed by individual
teachers, usually focused on holidays, seasons
• Difficult to target discipline-specific goals while
reinforcing classroom themes
• Curriculum did not specifically target literacy
skills in language delayed/ disordered and ESL
population
Literacy-Based Curriculum
• Focuses on using children’s books as the center
of all instruction
• Targets all areas of classroom instruction within
one cohesive theme (Linder, 1999)
– cognition
– language and communication
– fine and gross motor
– social/emotional development
• Enables children to act out story in play
• Allows children to learn in a natural way
Review of the Literature
• ESL students and those with language delays at
higher risk for difficulty with emergent literacy
fundamentals (Justice & Pullen, 2003)
• Storytelling is the single greatest predictor of
literacy [Engel (1997), as cited in Novick, 1998]
• Pretend play & storytelling require similar
competencies (e.g., language skills)
[McLane & McNamee (1991), as cited in Novick, 1998]
Review of the Literature
•
Repeated readings of stories:
– enables children to reenact the story (Sulzby,
1985)
– increases children’s comments and
questions about stories (Yaden, 1985)
– improves children’s ability to interpret and
evaluate stories
(as cited in Gambell, Morrow, & Pennington, 2000)
Review of the Literature
• Reading books aloud to ESL students and
providing them opportunities to reenact the story
allows them to:
– Listen and speak in target language in a
meaningful setting
– Interact socially and communicate in a low
risk environment
(Gambell, Morrow, & Pennington, 2000)
Read, Play, & Learn (RP&L)
• Transdisciplinary and play-based program
designed by Toni Linder
– Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the
College of Education at the University of
Denver.
• Designed for use primarily with children
ages 3-6 years
• Provided suggestions for adjusting activities for
children developmental age ranges 1-6
Read, Play, & Learn
• Sensorimotor (0-18 months)
• Learning through physical environment
• Functional (18-36 months)
• Learning through listening, watching,
imitating
• Beginning to sequence actions and ideas
• Symbolic (36-60 months)
• Represent their learning through symbolic
means (e.g., fantasy play, storytelling,
drawing, music)
(Linder, 1999)
Read, Play, & Learn
• Each module revolves around a specific story
that is read regularly
• Curriculum module used for the classroom for
approximately 1 month
• Team meets to choose themes and concepts to
target from curriculum book
• Concepts are reinforced across several domains
Read, Play, & Learn
•
•
Curriculum activities broken down into 12
possible learning centers, such as:
– Sensory Area
– Dramatic Play
– Art Area
– Snack Area
Complexity of centers increases throughout
month
Challenges of Applying RP&L to
Language Delayed Population:
• Varying language levels in the classroom
• High language levels of books
• Difficulty attending to group stories and activities
• Children’s difficulty focusing and attending to
abstract/language based activities
• Complex and abstract concepts, themes, and
activities
Adaptation of Curriculum
Year 1: Adapting the Curriculum
• Curriculum books adapted to make them simpler
• Language levels brought down to the 2-3 year
language level (average linguistic level of the
children)
• Simple narrative with dialogue maintained so
that story could be learned and re-enacted in
classroom centers
• Books translated into Spanish at similar linguistic
levels
• Learning center activities simplified
Year 1: Adapting the Text
“Friends” – The Curriculum Book
• Content focused on 3 animal friends who spend
the day together
• Average sentence length = 10.7 words
• Story difficult to reenact due to minimal dialogue
and disjointed activities
• Complex vocabulary and concepts:
– “They sailed out on the open water, and as
the day went on, they felt very brave and bold.
They conquered the village pond!” (Helme,
1982, p. 10)
Year 1: Adapting the Text
• Original text:
– “Then fat Percy invited them to spend the
night with him; but Johnny Mouse said he
didn’t want to sleep in a pigsty.” (Helme, 1982,
p. 23)
• Adapted text:
– “’Come sleep in my bed,’ says Pig. ‘I can’t
sleep here,’ Mouse says. ‘It’s too dirty.’”
Adapting the Learning Centers
• Choose activities at appropriate level
• Use modified activities from the curriculum
• Adapt activities to functional level of children
Year 1: Positive Results
• Children learned language structures and used
dialogue
• Teams more unified in goals
• Classrooms more structured and focused
Year 1: Lessons Learned
• Themes and concepts in books too complex and
abstract despite simplified language
• Vocabulary and concepts not familiar to
culturally diverse/urban population
• Simplifying learning centers activities from
original curriculum difficult
• Books not read the same way each time making
it more difficult for children to learn dialogue
Year 2: Adapting the Curriculum
• Team collaborated to choose more appropriate
books (e.g., “Little Quack’s New Friend”)
• Objectives of original book maintained
• New books had:
– Reduced sentence length
– Simpler concepts and dialogue
– Concepts more relevant to population and
functional level
Year 2: Reading the Book
• Reasons for reading the book consistently:
– Language levels maintained with each
reading
– Continuity of story maintained with fewer
interjections
– Children learn dialogue and use the language
from the story in play
Year 2: Adapted Curriculum
“Little Quack’s New Friend”
• Goals based on original curriculum module
(“Friends”)
• Centers designed to target:
– Social/emotional development
– Gross motor, fine motor, and sensory skills
– Cognitive development
– Language/Communication Skills
Year 2: Learning Centers
“Little Quack’s New Friend”
• Original Dramatic Play Area (“Friends”)
• 6 distinct sections in area
• Dramatization of story included:
– long sequences of events
– complex syntactic structures
• Adapted Dramatic Play Area (“Little Quack”)
• 1-2 sections in area with few props
• Dramatization of story included:
– shorter sequences of events
– simpler sentences
– repetitive dialogue
Year 2: Learning Centers:
Dramatic Play
• Language Goals supported by Dramatic Play:
• Vocabulary—duck, frog, tiny, green, wet,
mud
• Actions—play, bounce, splash, dunk
• Conversational Turn-taking
• Language Structures:
–Questions: Can I splash with you?
–Verb Phrases: I love to splash.
–Imperative Forms: Let’s splash.
–Negative Forms: You can’t quack.
Year 2: Learning Centers:
Sensory Area
• Language Goals supported by Sensory Area:
• Vocabulary—truck, mud, wet, dirty, push,
build, in
• Language Structures:
–Questions: Can I have a truck?
–Verb Phrases: I want to squish.
–Imperative Forms: Let’s play.
–Negative Forms: You can’t have it.
SLPs Working in the Classroom
• Reinforce dialogue in learning centers
• Help children act out roles from stories
• Use vocabulary, syntax from story as basis for
therapy goals
• Model use of book in centers for classroom staff
• Generalize language goals from story to daily
routine in classroom
Using Curriculum in Pull-out
Sessions
• Create activities related to the book
• Use characters or events from the book to
reinforce language goals
• Generalize concepts learned to other situations
• Apply concepts from curriculum to child specific
goals
Suggestions for Implementation of
Transdisciplinary Literacy-Based
Curriculum
• Teams choose books that are:
– Culturally and linguistically appropriate
• Staff training regarding:
– Typical language development
– Facilitating language with delayed/disordered
preschoolers
– Read to language delayed/disordered
preschoolers
• Provide adequate time for teams to plan and
collaborate
Critical Elements
• Read story daily
• Make concepts consistent with language levels
• Incorporate goals into learning centers
• Model targeted language structures in all areas
of classroom
Conclusions
• Transdisciplinary literacy-based curriculum is
effective
• Choose appropriate literature
• Remain goal focused throughout adaptations
Bibliography
•
Gambrell, L., Morrow, L., Pennington, C. (2000). Early childhood and
elementary literature-based instruction: Current perspectives and special
issues. In Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, & Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading
Research: Volume III (pp.1-16). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
•
Heine, H. (1982). Friends. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.
•
Justice, L.M., & Pullen, P.C. (2003). Promising interventions for promoting
emergent literacy skills: Three evidence-based approaches. Topics in Early
Childhood Special Education, 23(3), 99-113.
•
Linder, T. (1999). Read, play, and learn! Storybook activities for young
children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc.
•
Novick, R. (1998). Supporting early literacy: The preschool years. Learning
to Read & Write. Retrieved September 22, 2006 from
http://www.nwrel.org/cfc/publications/pdf/preschool.pdf
•
Thompson, L. (2006). Little Quack’s new friend. New York: Simon &
Schuster.