Astor family services education committee Early Literacy and Common Core in Preschool: How Do they Fit Together in Our Classrooms? May 23, 2017

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT As an organization, how do we build capacity to become an effective learning organization? Who are the stakeholders that we want to reach? What are the resources that we have currently, resources we need and resources that we can tap? Where does Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Writing fit into our literacy plan? What do we do to make the “Juice Worth the Squeeze”? Does Common Core standards change our expectations for preschool learning?

Common Core: The Good, the Bad, the Possible? X Preschool?

The Good: A set of mutually agreed-upon standards. Valuable knowledge/skills that can lead to improved instruction and assessment. National assessments to target instructional needs. Shared professional development. Beneficial for students in our increasingly mobile society. Clear grade-level standards in each content area. Target skills and use RTI to progress towards mastery. College and career ready by providing clear goals for student learning. Better teacher education programs. ELA across the curriculum.

The Bad: Standardize curriculum with inflexible teacher driven approaches. National cost for compliance going almost directly to publishers. Consultants that are test savvy offer one-size-fits-all PD ignoring Standards for Professional Learning put forth by Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Association) which emphasize job-embedded, site-specific, sustained, and supported professional development. Standards and test-driven with lack of focus for individuals. To be successful (pass) could focus on low-level learning with less critical and creative thinking. Unfair expectations that could impact teachers of students from poor urban and rural communities who don't have the resources to help students reach these standards when they come to school already two or three years behind their middle and upper class peers. Teach to the collective needs of the society and not the individual. Leaving the gifted, not challenged and the below average still struggling.

The Devil in the Details Do we know and understand the standards? collaborative conversations among grade-level teams, compare them with our existing curriculum maps, and decide what revisions, additions, and improvements would benefit our students. In what ways might we embed these standards in substantive integrated curriculum units rather than teaching them in isolation? In what ways might we combine with best practices in technology and the nurturing of creativity and innovation? Using our own guidelines, how might we ensure that we are using developmentally appropriate practices and content that addresses not just the cognitive needs but the affective needs of our students as well? How do we have “thoughtful” lesson planning? Be sure to include all activities into the planning. Lunch, arrival, nap etc. REMEMBER: Change takes time. Common wisdom is that it takes three to five years to fully implement a systemic change. Everyone involved will need to evaluate progress thoughtfully, regularly, and with integrity.

In the end, the Common Core State Standards are neither good nor bad In the end, the Common Core State Standards are neither good nor bad. How WE decide to use them will determine their impact and meaning THE CHOICE IS OURS.

Phonological vs. phonemic Phonological Awareness Hearing the sounds in spoken language (listening skill) Phonemic Awareness (A more advanced skill of phonological awareness) Hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words

Games for Phonological/Phonemic Awareness To support children’s learning Identify sounds Build rhyme awareness Build alliteration awareness Recognize letters Develop letter-sound awareness

How Does Writing Relate to Literacy? DEvelopment of pre-writing skills are critical to development of phonological awareness skills ( Stahl & McKenna, 2001) Phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, vocabulary and writing skills stimulate growth in one another ( Perfetti, Beck, Bell, & Hughes, 1987)

How Do They Write… Let us Count the Ways Early writing is one of the best predictors of children's later reading success. (National Early Literacy Panel [NELP], 2008). Specifically, early writing is part of a set of important foundational literacy skills that serve as necessary precursors to conventional reading (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998), including developing understandings of both print (i.e., print concept and alphabet knowledge) and sound (i.e., phonological awareness).

DG’s Great Literacy Resources Preschool-Grade 8 Florida Center for Reading Research http://www.fcrr.org http://www.fcrr.org/resources/res ources_vpk.htmlmailto:http://www. fcrr.org/resources/resources_vpk. html

Get ready to read http://www.getreadytoread.org Home literacy environment checklist Screening Tools Classroom literacy environment Checklist Transitioning to kindergarten toolkit Skill building activities Early childhood Resources

Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/ http://www.readingrockets.org/search?c x=004997827699593338140%3Anptllrzhp78& cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF- 8&as_q=preschool+phonemic+awareness+ activities http://www.readingrockets.org/reading_ research_guides_resources

THREERINGSCONNECTIONS School Family KIDS Resources Donna G website https://threeringsconnections.org