Final pre k

Bronwen Morgan, Vania Silva, Anastasia Smirnova

Pre-K English

Pre-K CultureAS Early Childhood Education Center - Philosophy

We believe that children are natural researchers who are innately curious and intrinsically motivated to search for meaning by wondering, exploring and interacting with the world around them and engaging in relationships with others. We view children as authentic and competent beings full of unique gifts and potential. They are capable of constructing and representing their own understandings by questioning and problem-solving, and through creative expression.

We believe children learn best as part of a collaborative learning community of families, peers and educators. We recognize that when given the gifts of time to play, appropriate support and challenges, and a provocative environment rich in materials and possibilities, children can reach their full potential.

ASI Early Childhood Education Center Parent Handbook

Mission Head Start

Ensures a safe, nurturing, fun and secure learning environment.

Provides experiences that support the continuum of children’s growth and development, which includes the physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development of each child.

Family centered care.

San Francisco Head Start Student Intern Handbook

AS ECEC Pre K Rules

Keep your body safe.

Keep your friends safe.

Keep your school safe/clean.

Language Style

Every school has its own language.

Important to ask teachers and observe what language style is used.

AS ECEC Language Style Examples

Commands:

“Bring your body down,” rather than “Come down”.

Lots of language surrounding expression of feelings.

Language around projects/accomplishments.

Teaching Style

Guidance based on philosophy of John Dewey

When using guidance, teachers are firm when needed, but firm and friendly, not firm and harsh.

Teachers who use guidance do well to think of a child’s age in terms of months rather than years. They understand that young children are just beginning to learn difficult life skills that may take a lifetime to master.

A partnership between the teacher, the child, and the family is necessary for guidance to be effective.

Teaching Young Children Vol 4 No 3

Appendix, Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1California Department of EducationJanuary 2008

“Preschool children need a vault filled with common words at the start of their journey into language and literacy. That journey begins when they learn the conventional names of familiar objects, actions, and attributes.”

Preschool Learning Foundations, Vol. 1

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

HOW DOES THE WAY ONE PRESENTS A LINGUISTIC SIGNAL INFLUENCE THE PROCESSING AND ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE?

What kinds of prosodic/gestural cues do you use to help a child learn the meaning of a word?

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

PROSODIC/GESTURAL CUES• Reduced speaking rate• Increased pause length• Exaggerated stress• Positioning of target word at beginning or

end of utterance• Pointing

What do these cues do to support the learning of new words?

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

Reduce processing demands, ease constraints in children with SLI in various ways

Segmentation of auditory signal Increase amount of time child has to

process information Focus attention on new words May boost discovery of linguistic patterns May help with word memory

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

CUES COMP. NL PROD. NL COMP. SLI PROD. SLI

SPEAKING RATE

No effect No effect Accuracy increases with slowed speaking rate

Accuracy increases with slowed speaking rate

EMPHATIC STRESS

Counter-productive!Confusion regarding new info

No effect No effect Trend to more correct production with emphatic stress

GESTURE Better with accompanying gestures

No effect Better with accompanying gestures

Effective for a few students

Ellis Weismer, S.E.; Hesketh, L.J. (1993). The influence of prosodic and gestural cues on novel word acquisition by children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 1013-25.

The amount of time children with SLI require for sensory information processing is orders of magnitude greater than that required by NL children. Slowed speaking rate seems to be generally effective.

BUT: Children respond to cues in very different ways. They need to be tailored to the needs of the individual.

When might cueing be counter-productive?

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

In the Weismer Hesketh study, NL children were confused by emphatic stress, because it contradicted their expectation of what the important word in the sentence was.

Dual processing of visual cues and auditory information may detract from learning in some children.

Pre-K ITP: Word Acquisition

Ellis Weismer, S.E.; Hesketh, L.J. (1993). The influence of prosodic and gestural cues on novel word acquisition by children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 1013-25.

Kan, P. F., and Windsor, J. (2010).Word learning in children with primary language impairment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53: 739-756.

Wallach, G.P. (2008). Language Intervention for School-Age Students. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier

Preschool Learning Foundations, Vol. 1: a description of “the knowledge, skills, and competencies that children typically attain at around 48 and 60 months of age when they participate in a high-quality preschool program and with adequate support. “

http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/psfoundations.asp

http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/ -

REFERENCES

LANGUAGE Listening and Speaking1.0 Language use and conventions2.0 Vocabulary3.0 Grammar

Summary of the strands and substrands

LITERACY Reading1.0 Concept about Print2.0 Phonological Awareness3.0 Alphabetics and Word/Print Recognition4.0 Comprehension and Analysis of Age-

Appropriate Text 5.0 Literacy Interest and Response Writing1.0 Writing Strategies

Summary of the strands and substrands

The vocabulary substrand is an important tool for:

accessing background knowledge, expressing ideas, acquiring new concepts.

Children with large vocabularies can acquire new words more

easily, are more effective readers, and are more proficient in

reading comprehension. Multiple experiences with words

across a variety of contexts are critical for children’s acquisition and extension of vocabulary.

Vocabulary

An important element of vocabulary development is the attainment of an increasing variety and specificity of accepted words (words that are commonly used in the children’s environment or community) for objects, actions, and attributes used in both real and symbolic contexts.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary substrand includes three interrelated foundations:

age-appropriate vocabulary basic concepts vocabulary that describes relations between

objects

Vocabulary

Vocabulary development also consists of understanding and using accepted words for categories of objects.

At around 48 months of age, children understand and use category names they encounter frequently, such as toys, food, clothes, or animals.

As children near the age of 60 months, their understanding and use of verbal categories expands to ones they encounter less often, such as reptiles, vehicles, fruits, vegetables, and furniture.

Age-Appropriate Vocabulary

Vocabulary undergoes rapid growth during the preschool years. Vocabulary acquisition is not merely adding new words in a serial fashion to a static and established vocabulary base. Learning new vocabulary is a more complex process that involves altering and refining the semantic representation of words already in the children’s vocabulary base, as well as relationship among them.

Vocabulary Base

Retrieval strategies were designed to teach the child to use the information that was already known about target words (SLP presented a series of retrieval cues related to target words, such as the name of the category-semantic cue and the sound the word begins with- phonemic cue).

Therapy technique

McGregor, K.K., & Leonard, L.B. (1989). Facilitating Word-Finding Skills of Language-Impaired Children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 141-147.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com

References

“Phonological awareness is an important area of early and later reading instruction”.

- California Department of Education, 2008.

Phonological AwarenessFocus: Phoneme Awareness

Unlike the foundations for all the other substrands, those for phonological awareness are written only for children between four and five years of age (California Department of Education, 2008).

Kamhi states that “the perception and manipulation of individual phonemes is an abstract and difficult task, especially for younger children and children with language disorders” (as cited in Wallach, 2008, p. 112).

Preschoolers’ development of phonological awareness depends to a great extent on the amount and kind of support provided by the teacher (California Department of Education, 2008).◦ Use of pictures, props, objects

What is phoneme awareness? One component of phonological awareness The latest component of phonological

awareness to be acquired, and the component most closely related to early word decoding and reading achievement.

Requires the skill of isolating and manipulating individual sounds

Focus: Phoneme Awareness

California Department of Education (2008). Preschool learning foundations. Volume 1.

Schuele, C. M. and Boudreau, D. (2008). Phonological awareness intervention: Beyond the basics. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 39(1), 3-20.

van Kleeck, A., Gillam, R. B., and McFadden, T. U. (1998). A study of Classroom-Based phonological awareness training for preschoolers with speech and/or language disorders. Amrican Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 7(3), 65-76.

Wallach, G.P. (2008). Language Intervention for School-Age Students. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier

References