Instructors Manual - For Helping Young Children Learn Language and L...

Instructor’s Manual For Helping Young Children Learn Language and

Literacy: Birth Through Kindergarten

Fifth Edition Carol Vukelich, Billie Jean Enz, Kathleen A. Roskos, James Christie, 1 / 4

Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy-5 th Edition 3 Copyright © 2020, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved Table of Contents About the Facilitator’s Guide 4 Chapter 1 Foundations of Language and Literacy 14 Chapter 2 Families’ Role in Children’s Literacy Learning 23 Chapter 3 Educational Environments Beyond the Family 37

Chapter 4 Language: The Foundation for Literacy Learning 51

Chapter 5 Developing Oral Language Comprehension 65 Chapter 6 Sharing Good Books with Young Children 75 Chapter 7 Teaching Early Reading 83 Chapter 8 Teaching Early Writing 90 Chapter 9 Assessing the Foundations of Early Literacy Learning 106 2 / 4

Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy-5 th Edition 14 Copyright © 2020, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

CHAPTER ONE

Foundations of Language and Literacy

SUMMARY OF MAIN CONCEPTS

This chapter opens with a description of how oral and written language are integrally connected and related to each other. This section is followed with a brief description of the standards movement in the United States, a movement that culminated in the production of a set of rigorous, research-based standards known as the Common Core State Standards. The heart of the chapter introduces the two dominant approaches to early literacy instruction. The natural approach suggests that children learn about language and literacy by observing, exploring, and interacting with others. As they engage in social interactions, children integrate new experiences with prior knowledge, constructing and testing hypotheses to make meaning. The other perspective, the explicit instruction approach, argues that children need to be explicitly taught those skills that the research literature has identified as predictive of later reading success. This chapter lays the foundation that we support throughout the text - the best early literacy instructional approach blends together the key components of both approaches.

How is the natural approach to early literacy instruction different from explicit instruction approach?

The natural approach suggests that children learn about language and literacy by observing, exploring, and interacting with others. Children assume the role of apprentice---mimicking, absorbing, and adapting the words and literacy activities used by more knowledgeable others. As they engage in social interactions, children integrate new experiences with prior knowledge, constructing and testing hypotheses to make meaning. They store this newly constructed knowledge in mental structures called schemas.

The explicit instruction approach argues that children need to be explicitly taught those skills that the research literature has identified as predictive of later reading success. To date, eleven variables have been identified as predictive of later reading success, including: alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, oral language and vocabulary, environmental print, invented spelling, listening comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonological short-term memory, rapid naming, phonemic awareness, visual memory, and visual-perceptual skills. The skills in italics are identified as demonstrating the highest correlation with school-age children’s decoding skills.

What principles should guide early childhood teachers’ teaching of language and literacy?

The chapter closes with a description of a set of basic principles of effective early literacy instruction that we believe should guide how children are taught language and literacy in birth through kindergarten classrooms.

Effective early childhood teachers:

• explicitly teach children the key research-supported skills • provide children with a print-rich classroom environment • read to children daily • demonstrate and model literacy • provide opportunities for children to work and play together in literacy-enriched environments • encourage children to experiment with reading and writing • provide opportunities for children to use language and literacy for real purposes and audience • make use of everyday activities to demonstrate the many purposes of reading and writing • use multiple forms of assessment to find out what children know and can do • respect and make accommodations for children’s developmental, cultural, and linguistic diversity • build partnerships with parents 3 / 4

Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy-5 th Edition 15 Copyright © 2020, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

LEARNING OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES, AND ASSIGNMENTS

Objective: The teacher candidates will analyze their beliefs and attitudes about how literacy is learned and taught by reflecting on the way they learned to read and write.

Discussion/Process Activity:

• Begin by directing the teacher candidates to complete handout Reminiscing about My Literacy

Learning. Following their completion of this questionnaire, ask the teacher candidates to form small groups of three or four to discuss what they recall about their early reading and writing experiences.Before discussing their findings in the large group, ask the teacher candidates to record three or four discoveries they thought were significant (e.g., We all went to elementary school in the same state, but we were taught to read differently.). Also, ask each group to appoint a spokesperson to share the group’s discoveries. As each group reports its discoveries, invite others to respond.

• Make the point that it is important to uncover our personal literacy histories because what we

experienced as learners often influences what we do as teachers. It will be easier to teach the way we were taught than to teach in ways consistent with current research and theory on language and literacy learning. For instance,

• Many teacher candidates want to be teachers because they have positive memories about their school experiences. Therefore, they might want to do with their students EXACTLY what their teachers did with them.

• Other teacher candidates will recall how they despised phonics or sharing their writing with peers, and though we know these practices to be important components of a quality literacy program, they will not want to include them in their literacy program when they are teachers.

• The facilitator will need to remind the teacher candidates that personal experiences are never

sufficient reasons for teaching in a particular way. We need to acknowledge and understand our personal biases–and work to protect ourselves against them and to use them effectively. We need to know what is best for children now, based on quality research, theory and best practice. So, while our personal experiences inform us, they should not limit us.

• After the groups have shared their discoveries, ask the class to listen to you read the cereal vignette

(slide Cereal Vignette). Then, turn their attention to the Pause and Think About….When Children’s Language and Early Literacy Development Begins (see slide). Ask: How does Dawn and Tiffany’s interaction help to explain why some researchers have concluded that children’s language and early literacy development begins long before children enter kindergarten? Ask: What ideas did you generate when you paused and thought about these researchers’ conclusion? Finally, ask the candidates to look at their responses to question 10. Ask: How many of you checked only “a” and “b”? Given that many of them likely learned to read and write through very formal, sequential programs, perhaps this is not surprising. Now, ask the teacher candidates to look at options “c” and

“d”. Ask: Given their new knowledge, have you changed your thinking?

• Turn the group’s attention to the Pause and Think About . . . the Benefits of Adults Reading to

Children (see slide) Based on your experiences, explain how reading a story to children, like Grandma did to Carol in the opening vignette, can support children’s language and literacy skill development.Distribute five post-it notes to each candidate. Direct the candidates to write one idea per post-it

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