PreK ESE Teacher Training January 11, 2012

Welcome to… Linking Literacy and Movement Please attach an OCPS PreK ESE label to your resource books 

Rules Respect the speaker (limit sidebar conversations) Participate What is said here, stays here What is learned here, leaves here The chime will be our attention signal. Acoustics are not great/chime will be signal to end discussion Safe place to share and vent Hopefully, we are providing what you need

Celebrations

Ring in the New Year (tune: We Wish You a Merry Christmas) Let’s all do a little ringing, It’s a Happy New Year! Let’s all do a little clapping,

Ring in the New Year (tune: We Wish You a Merry Christmas) Let’s all do a little stomping, It’s a Happy New Year! Let’s all do a little cheering, Adapted from Happy Everything! by Dr. Jean Adapted from a song by Dr. jean

Resources

Our Learning Goals Participants will understand that movement and active learning promote early literacy skills.   Participants will be able to use movement games/activities in their classrooms to enhance students’ early literacy skills.

Scale 4 I can explain three or more ways movement activities foster early literacy skills and I have access to 90 new games/activities to implement 3 I can explain at least two ways that movement activities foster early literacy skills. 2 I think academic skills can be embedded in movement activities but I don’t know how 1 I only use movement activities for fun or exercise (non-academic) 0 I don’t use movement activities in my class

The Case for Active Learning “Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.” -Albert Einstein

Implicit vs. Explicit Eric Jensen, noted brain researcher, defines: implicit learning- hands-on learning ex: learning to ride a bike  explicit learning – being told something (sit and get) ex: being told the capital of Peru  Jensen asks, if you hadn’t ridden a bike in five years, would you still be able to do it?  And if you hadn’t heard the capital of Peru for five years, would you still remember what it was? 

Implicit vs. Explicit Jensen theorizes: Explicit learning is faster than learning through exploration and discovery, but Implicit learning has greater meaning for children and stays with them longer  Implicit learning creates more neural networks in the brain Explicit learning-like rote memorization, has it’s place (i.e. abc’s, multiplication facts) but nobody can memorize ALL the facts. Implicit learning builds neural pathways and teaches you how to learn.

Activating Brain Power Most of the brain is activated during physical activity. According to Jensen, sitting for more than 10 minutes may reduce awareness of physical and emotional sensations and increase fatigue. It’s good for your brain to get up and move!

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Adapted from Rae Pica’s “Ten Reasons to Promote Emergent Literacy through Movement & Active Learning” Active Involvement helps children understand and learn new concepts Prepositions such as over, under, around, next to, beside, etc… take on greater meaning and significance when children experience them physically. Have participants manipulate blocks on table.

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Understanding spatial orientation is necessary for letter identification and the orientation of symbols on a page. b d For example, the only difference between a lowercase b and a lowercase d is the direction in which the curvy line faces at the bottom of the straight line. If children form the straight and curvy lines with their bodies instead of just attempting to copy them from the board, the experience enhances their sense of directionality and spatial orientation. Demonstrate making letters with body 1st then show wooden letters or wiki sticks. Similarly, moving top to bottom or left to right helps children understand those directions

Movement Fosters Early Literacy New vocabulary becomes much less abstract and more concrete when children experience the words. Words like slither, stalk, pounce or adverbs such as slowly, lightly- help them learn the meanings in their bodies and their minds. Have participants move feet slowly like stuck in the mud then fast like bear is chasing them.

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Movement activities provide opportunity to cross the body’s midline. Doing so lets the right and left hemisphere of the brain communicate across the corpus callosum. The integration of the brain’s hemispheres is essential to the ability to read and write.

Copycat Let’s play copycat just for fun. Let’s follow ____ s/he’s the one. Whatever s/h e does, we’ll do the same. That’s how to play the copy cat game. Steph then Janice then participants… With this game, we have activated both sides of our brains, we’ve had to watch and listen carefully to be able to follow, we’ve had to self-evaluate (when we look at the leader and then check ourselves to see if we are following along correctly) and make quick decisions (if we weren’t doing the right motion, we quickly fixed it)

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Acting out the words of a song or poem makes them ponder the meanings of the words. Forces children to actively think about what they are hearing rather than just passively repeating lyrics. Example of my child memorizing a bible verse-has to put motions to it, actually helps him understand what it means. Think back to Itsy Bitsy Spider- from an early age helps children understand what up, down, out mean.

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Movement activities can foster and provide opportunities to practice phonological awareness skills.

Pop Up If you teach VE, you are a BEAR If you teach primarily ASD, DHH, VI, OI… you are a BUNNY When you hear your name called, “pop up” then sit back down. Ready? BEAR….BUNNY…. Now this is an activity that can be used in limited space. You could do it while standing in line or sitting at a table in a crowded room. It comes from the green book and which denotes which activities can be used in limited space or activities that may not be as physically demanding and could be done in a hospital setting-they have an H beside them. How could we make this activity more challenging? Add more categories: bear, bunny, birds. Or listen for target sounds you are working on “ch” and “sh”, Problem solving: Pop Up if you like to eat carrots…pop up if you like to eat honey…Teaches them careful listening, decoding and interpreting the information and making rapid decisions. The movement helps activate their brains. Makes learning these skills more meaningful and more fun. How could you make the activity less challenging? Use pictures (hold up bear, bunny) or start with 2 concepts/ideas/words that are very different such as red and green. The green book gives you ideas on how to adapt each activity to make it more or less challenging.

Movement Fosters Early Literacy Playing together provides opportunities for children to speak and listen to one another. Lots of time we are trying to get our kids to sit still and be quiet which goes against the nature of little kids. Playing Active learning lets them move and encourages talking. It teaches them to listen, make decisions, to negotiate, problem solve…

Pass the Chute Using your imagination you are going to pretend the white paper at your table is a parachute. Place it in the middle of the table and everyone take a hold of it using a thumbs-up grip. While singing the song, slowly pass the parachute to the right. After singing the phrase “Now put it on the ground” let go of the parachute

Pass the Chute (tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat) Pass, pass, pass the chute Pass it round and round. Passing, passing, passing, passing Now put it on the ground. If you are the person the arrow is pointing to, please share one fun/unique activity you experienced during our recent break with your table members. One way to embed literacy is to have the child who the arrow is pointing to recall a detail from a story or an event that occurred earlier in the day.

Parachute Play Develop small muscle control (Motor Dev) Strengthen large muscles (Motor Dev) Join group activities (Social Emotional) Socialize (Social Emotional) Exercises self control (Social Emotional) Follow directions (Social Emotional, Language and Communication) Use language (Language and Communication) Let’s talk about some of the skills practiced in that last activity. Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards for Four-Year-Olds (2011) are in parenthesis

Your Turn! Keeping in mind our focus of language, literacy and communication… Preview the two new resources. Select an activity/game that appeals to you that could be used to foster emergent literacy skills. Use the paper at your table to jot down the gist of the activity. Be prepared to share with the group.

Literacy and Language Print Knowledge Vocabulary Phonological Awareness Narrative Sentences and Structure

Our Learning Goals Participants will understand that movement and active learning promote early literacy skills.   Participants will be able to use movement games/activities in their classroom to enhance students’ early literacy skills.

Scale 4 I can explain three or more ways movement activities foster early literacy skills and I have access to 90 new games/activities to implement 3 I can explain at least two ways that movement activities foster early literacy skills. 2 I think academic skills can be embedded in movement activities but I don’t know how 1 I only use movement activities for fun or exercise (non-academic) 0 I don’t use movement activities in my class

“What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I know.” Confucius says “What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I know.”

Progress Monitoring Checklist Language and Literacy Growth Checklist Format similar to Preschool Classroom Behavior Checklist (Incredible Years) Two versions: Four-Year-Old Checklist and Three- Year-Old Checklist (more prerequisite skills) Should be completed on each child and placed in portfolio

Portfolios The Developmental Profile (BCCT) will need to be completed on each child going to K The Literacy and Language Growth Checklist (based on research of Laura M. Justice Ph.D. and Anita McGinty Ph.D.) Preschool Classroom Behavior Checklist (Incredible Years) Updated BDI-2 Score Summary (from exit testing) Any additional data collected

BDI-2 The Florida DOE has determined that children receiving PreK ESE services need a progress monitoring instrument to help design instruction and assess program effectiveness. (Indicator 7 on the State Performance Plan) The Florida DOE has selected the Battelle Developmental Inventory-ll (BDI-2) as the designated assessment instrument.

BDI-2 Elementary sites with PreK ESE classes need a PreK ESE teacher trained in the test administration in order to ensure the district is in compliance A training will be held during the first week of March for new teachers/teachers who have not been trained on the BDI-2 Registration will be through signmeup.ocps.net

BDI-2 May begin testing on March 12th Procedures stay the same from last year administer screening to all children going to Kindergarten next year then administer full BDI-2 test domain for each domain failed on the screener (i.e. if a child failed motor on screener, then you have to administer full motor domain from BDI-2 test)

BDI-2 No additional training for teachers previously trained Checklist will be developed to use for each child (more about this at February’s meeting) Optional help session/Q & A session for all teachers TBA May have online videos from Riverside to watch on test administration

Sample Scale 4 3 2 1 Developed by: Whitney Feldsted I can teach what I’ve learned to someone else in the class I can demonstrate what I’ve learned With help, I can demonstrate my understanding Even with help, I cannot demonstrate my understanding Developed by: Whitney Feldsted Kindergarten Teacher, Cypress Park Elementary

Looking Ahead How best to meet your needs: Materials/Resources Topics for monthly meetings/professional development (2012-2013) Summer Institute Interest? Topics?

Future Meetings Joel Borowicz (District Staffing Specialist) Incredible Years Maria Velasco (District ASD Support Team) BDI-2 Support More Than Counting (linking math and literacy) Increasing Narrative Skills with Ron Mohl

Reminders… Complete a T-9 (purple bubble sheet) after each meeting Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 8, 2012 February FTE Parent Survey for ESE Remember to visit our wiki site at Ocpsprekeseshare.wikispaces.com Janice will be out of the office until January 25th

Contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns Janice Penn Stephanie Thomas Janice.Penn@ocps.net Stephanie.Thomas2@ocps.net