Collaborating with Preschool Teachers to Create LanguageLiteracy Rich Classrooms

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Collaborating with Preschool Teachers to Create
Language/Literacy Rich Classrooms

• Lesley Becker
• Sandra Combs
• Nancy Creaghead
• Micah Hines
• Amy Hobek

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Contexts for our Services

• Poverty
• Preparation for school
• RTI
• Need for teacher education in language and
  literacy

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Key Facets of Collaborating with Teachers

• Be in the classroom
• Empower Teachers
• Believe that we can make a difference
• Become real partners
• Build relationships
• Take time to get to know each other
• Take time to help with what needs to be done in
  the classroom
• Respect what the teacher knows
• Understand their responsibilities

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Maya Angelou--

• You can only become truly accomplished at
  something you love. Don't make money your goal.
  Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and
  then do them so well that people can't take their
  eyes off you.

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2 Types of Teachers

• The type you cant stop watching b/c he/she is
  doing so many wonderful things.

• The type that you cant stop watching b/c of the
  train wreck that she/he is creating.

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We collaborate with teachers because we care
about children

• Today we will cover 3 areas of language/literacy
  collaboration with teachers.
• 1. General Rules for Collaboration
  Contextualized Language/Literacy
  Instruction--Lesley
• 2. Lesson Planning--Sandra
• 3. Writing Workshop--Amy

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Rehab your Collab!

• STEP 1 Identify your teachers
• You may want to initially start with the
  cooperative teacher
• What happens if you choose difficult teacher?
• At first, maybe only a few teachers
  (1-3).eventually expanding to all perhaps

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Rehab your Collaboration!

• STEP 2 Identify your goals
• Consult with your chosen teachers
• Your goals may not be theirs!
• Where can you have the most effect?
• Dialogic book reading?
• Phonological awareness?
• Supporting language facilitation?
• Screening/Identification?
• Match your prevention goals to caseload goals
• Remember to consider? Evidence-Based Practice

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Rehab your Collaboration!

• STEP 3 Allot time
• You do not need a large amount of time to
  accomplish your goals
• Consider schedule of teacher too.
• Allow time for modeling
• Allow time collaboration
• Help develop activities/choosing books,
  materials, etc.

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Rehab your Collaboration!

• STEP 4 Implement the program
• Put talk to action
• Create hand-outsor learning binder
• Consider using a communication journal
• Effective with following individual cases
• Allows teacher to voice his/her trials-and-errors
  on his/her own time
• Make sure to respond to comments
• Makes sure that teacher is actually implementing
  your suggestions

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Rehab your Collaboration!

• STEP 4 CONTINUED
• Implementing program
• Monitor your success
• If you arent being successfulmake changes
• Interview your teachers (on paper or in person)
• Child outcome data
• Track data on goals

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• A Contextualized Phonological Awareness
  Collaboration Program

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Raisor and Creaghead (2006) Phonological
Awareness Study

• Investigated whether a contextualized approach to
  phonological awareness training in preschool was
  as effective as a more structured, drill-like
  approach.
• We found that children made gains in phonological
  awareness in both the drill and contextualized
  approaches
• (although the contextualized group also made
  gains in print knowledge)

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Collaboration for Phonological Awareness in the
Classroom (Raisor, 2006)

• First, I noticed that teachers were not doing any
  types of phonological awareness activities and if
  they werethey were down right bad.
• To combat this, I implemented a teacher
  training
• I discussed contextualized and drill-based
  interventions in phonological awareness
• Appeared unsuccessful by itself
• Consultation required more to be successful

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Collaboration for Phonological Awareness in the
Classroom (Raisor, 2006)

• Second, I identified my teachers (6) for the
  study and utilized graduate students in CSD to
  model the interventions for teachers
• Along with the modeling, I met with the teachers
  2 times per week (5 minutes each meeting) to
  discuss what the students were doing and why (I
  THINK THAT THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR)
• I regularly consulted with teachers to monitor
  their own progress using both traditional and
  naturalistic methods
• Program was 8 weeks (10 minutes total
  collaboration per week/ 80 minutes total
  collaboration across the study)
• Took notes during consultation/exchanged
  communication journal

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Collaboration for Phonological Awareness in the
Classroom (Raisor, 2006)

• Finally, I watched their classrooms and classroom
  interactions transform
• We saw amazing growth in the use of both
  contextualized and drill-based phonological
  awareness activities in several of the classrooms
• There were some classrooms that did not grow as
  much
• Why does this happen? What can we do about it?

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Project CALL (Culatta, Hall, Kovarsky, Theadore,
2007)

• Contextualized approach to language and literacy
  (Project CALL) capitalizing on varied activities
  and contexts to teach early literacy skills.
• Explicit teaching of language/literacy skills
  taught in engaging activities
• Embed instruction in a full array of
  classroom-based activities
• Allows instruction to be child-centered

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Project CALL (Culatta, Hall, Kovarsky, Theadore,
2007)

• Researchers found that rhyme and letter knowledge
  increased after a 14 week period using CALL

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• We encourage teachers to use the full array of
  classroom contexts for instructional purposes.
• Try to teach teachers to capitalize on all
  activities in the classroom not just circle time.

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Lesson Planning

• Here are the answers to common teacher questions
  about incorporating language and literacy
  throughout the curriculum

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Monthly Themes

• August Back to School
• September All About me
• October From Farm to Market
• November Cooking with Native Americans
• December Customs around the World
• January Polar Express
• February Underground Railroad
• March Health Hearts/Healthy Minds
• April Under the Rainbow
• May From Caterpillar to Butterfly

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Lesson Plan Format

• Morning Meeting
• Read aloud
• Phonological Awareness
• Language Development Literacy
• Dramatic Play
• Journal Writing/Writing Center
• Mathematical Development
• Math Center
• Construction Center
• Individualization

• Science Development
• Science Center
• Art Center
• Physical Health Development
• Fine and Gross Motor
• Social/Emotional Development
• Cultural Awareness

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What can we do in morning meeting besides read,
and retell?

• Jacket I Wear in the Snow
• Activity 1
• Select 1 child to be the main character from
  book.
• Have all clothing items from story in a bag.
• Have child selected act out story ( put on
  clothing in order mentioned in story ).Activity
  2
• Have outline of child on poster board.
• Have all clothing items from story blown up to
  fit poster.
• Each child selects an article of clothing. As
  read story children come and place on poster
  board in sequence.
• Guess How Much I Love You
• Have bunny ears and give children opportunity to
  act out story (Mailbox)

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Teachers request Planning phonological
awareness

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Changing Voices (Listening for differences)
• Teacher says different character quotes from the
  story, changing the voice for each character
  seeing if the children can identify who said it.
  Then, using the same voices, say something that
  is not in the story and ask the children who they
  think said it.
• Rhyme Time
• Have a big cut out of a goat velcro dots
• Have words that rhyme with goat (coat, boat,
  note, moat, wrote, etc) along with a few words
  that dont rhyme.
• Show the children each picture one at a time and
  ask them if it rhymes with goat.
• Put the rhyming words on the goat.

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What can we do in dramatic play besides play
house?

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Make a valley scene with trees, mountains, rocks,
  river, etc.
• Make a bridge out of cardboard or paper so that
  the children can walk over it.
• May I Cross Your Bridge? - kids ask, May I
  cross your bridge? and the troll could
  respond, You may jump across my bridge, if you
  are wearing____________.
• Finger puppets or stick puppets could be made and
  placed with the book to encourage retelling and
  acting out the story.
• The Jacket I Wear in the Snow
• Create a Winter Wonderland with white peanuts on
  the floor
• Provide clean white socks rolled into balls for
  snowballs
• Provide shovels and assorted winter clothing for
  dress-ups
• Create a fireplace on one wall for children to
  warm-up by
• Make a cave for hibernating
• Make a pond for pretend ice skating

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How can we get the children to WANT to write in
their journals?

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Have pictures of farm animals with matching words
  for the children to see and practice writing.
• Have the pictures of the goats with the different
  sizes written next to them big, medium, little,
  as well as a picture of a bridge and a troll with
  their matching words.
• Story Starters
• Have children draw a picture from the story
• Use stamps or stickers to get started
• Have children dictated their story and write it
  for them
• Guess How Much I Love You
• Materials construction paper, pencils, doilies,
  crayons, envelopes and stickers.
• Encourage the children to use this time to
• make valentines
• write letters to friends, family telling them how
  much they love them.
• Have some papers with I love you as much
  as_________ and let them draw a picture.
• Story Starters
• Write about or draw a picture of your favorite
  part of the story.
• Write a letter to someone telling them how much
  you love them.
• Draw a picture of how high you can jump (to the
  moon, the stars or the tree branch

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Can we really get a story theme into the Math
Center?

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Counting Goats
• Have cut-outs of goats, troll and bridge. First
  count each goat and then the troll. Are there
  more goats or trolls?
• Re-enact the story. If one goat crosses the
  bridge, how many goats are left? How many goats
  have crossed the bridge? You could have more
  than three goat cut-outs while re-enacting to
  make the activity more challenging depending on
  the level of the children.
• Ordering Goats
• Put goats in order from smallest to largest (or
  vice versa) using cut-outs for goats.
• Use other objects bowls, trees, game pieces,
  etc to order from largest to smallest
• Guess How Much I Love You
• Measuring and Graphing
• Have graphing paper, large chart with laminated
  name tags, measuring tape or yard stick and a
  ruler.
• Measure and graph how tall each child is and then
  how high they can reach.
• Whose Hug is bigger?
• Have different sized animals that the children
  can measure whose arms are longest
• Graph whose hug is bigger and whose hug is
  smaller?

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What can we do in blocks besides just build and
knock down?

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Materials blocks, plastic goats, cars, people,
  troll dolls
• Encourage children to build bridges to see how
  big a bridge they can build, how long does it
  take the goat to cross each bridge?
• Guess How Much I Love You
• Materials blocks, small animals (stuffed or
  plastic), some colored shapes (for a moon and a
  tree).
• Encourage the children to see how high they can
  build the blocks and how far they can stretch the
  blocks across the floor
• The Biggest Best Snowman
• Cover blocks with white paper and allow children
  to make igloos, snow forts, or castles
• Introduce cylindars, or barrels covered with
  white cloth or paper to build snowmen

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Can you help me with this lesson plan? I dont
know how to get this story into science?

• Guess How Much I Love You
• Reading Maps
• Materials map of the field where the Nutbrown
  Hares live, a ruler, various colored crayons,
  journals or graph paper
• Ask the children to hypothesize which places
  are farther and which are closer based on just
  looking at the map
• Test your theroies by measuring the distance from
  various places in the field tree, sun, etc
• Record your measurements in a science journal.
• Who can reach the highest?
• Materials - children, measuring tape, yard
  stick, journals, graph paper
• Ask the chidlren to hypothesize whose arms are
  longer, who can reach the highest?
• Ask them to tell you why they think that?
• Test your theories by measuring the height of the
  children, arms and then how high they can reach
• Record you answers in your science journal

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Seriously, there is no way to get literacy into
my physical development goal!

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Play a game with the bridge called, May I Cross
  Your Bridge?
• Have the kids ask, May I cross your bridge?
• Let the troll (you) respond i.e. You may go
  across my bridge, if you (some kind of action)
  ! (hop on one foot, jump, skip, crawl, etc).
• Walk like a troll?!
• Handwashing, Toothbrushing
• How would a troll brush his teeth?
• How would a goat brush his teeth?
• Would they brush their teeth?!
• The Biggest Best Snowman and The Jacket I Wear
  in the Snow
• Frosty Says (simon says)
• Snowball fight using clean, rolled up white
  socks
• Go for a walk and look for the biggest best
  snowman in the neighborhood
• Make a snowman and roll, nudge, mat/pat/bat the
  snow into a snowball
• Make snow angels

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This is the easy one but did you know you are
meeting language goals here too?

• Feelings Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Do you think trolls have feelings?
• How did the troll feel when they came across his
  bridge?
• Why do you think he was angry?
• How did each goat feel when the troll was mean
  and why?
• Cultural Awareness Guess How Much I Love You
• Discuss the relationship between Big Nutbrown
  Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare (father/son).
• What kinds of families are represented in the
  class? Do you live with mommy, daddy, grandpa or
  grandma.
• Introduce other family stories such as Mamma, Do
  You Love Me?, Grandpas Face, and I Love You
  Forever
• Ask the children Are you named after someone?
  Talk about how that links us to our past
  (history).
• Introduce other famous people named after someone
  (Martin Luther King Jr.)
• Use these to introduce Black History Month and
  the Underground

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A Writing Rescue
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What We Saw

• Writing Time Children all sat at a table and
  were instructed what to write in a composition
  notebook with narrow lines
• Writing assignment included writing name multiple
  times, tracing letters, writing letters over an
  entire page, copying sentences, etc
• Writing centers had few materials, mostly pencils
  and lined paper
• Many children groaned when told it was time to
  write or could be heard saying I cant do it

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What to do?

• Began to research preschool writing, however
  there wasnt much information I could find to
  present to the teachers that had much weight
• I would give suggestions in the classroom, but
  didnt have much to back it up
• I gave up for a while due to not knowing what to
  do!

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The Art of CEUs

• Live E-Seminar Developing Early Literacy Through
  Mediated Writing by Joan N. Kaderavek, PhD
• ASHA BookTalk, The Art of Teaching Writing by
  Lucy Calkins

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Now what?

• Have a relationship built with your teachers
  first
• Have a concrete plan
• Convince them that the information you have to
  offer them is valuable
• And if all else failsbribe them!

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If You Build It

• Will they come??
• My goal 1 teacher. (one teacher18 children)
• Sent out reminders, went around that morning and
  reminded each teacher
• Held my breath and
• Nine teachers (out of 16) showed up to hear what
  I had to say during their lunch break at their
  will!
• (Of course, I did bring a lot of food and prizes
  to raffle off, but I like to think they were
  somewhat interested!)
• The following month I only had 4 show up (better
  than zero) and the following month I didnt
  initiate it and I had two teachers inquire about
  it.

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Writing Rescue

• An Introduction

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Statistics

• 36 of white fourth graders achieve proficient
  levels of writing
• 14 of children who are African American become
  proficient writers
• 17 of children who are Hispanic become
  proficient writers
• (reference??Lesley did I steal this from you?)
• (we are not talking about being able to
  physically write letters, we are talking about
  being able to articulate a story in writing, etc)

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Why is our speech therapist talking to us about
writing??

• The children that are on my caseload are the most
  at risk for reading and writing difficulties
• Thirty minutes a week is not nearly enough for
  these children. With your help we can give them
  so much more

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Writing Development A Guideline

• Scribbling scribble scrabble is
  developmentally appropriate, it is the starting
  block, a stepping stone, it IS writing to a three
  year old (Baby ex)
• Drawing children draw pictures to tell their
  stories, it IS writing to a 3,4,5 or even 6 year
  old. They may even begin to reproduce
  characteristics of the writing system in their
  environment.
• Letters and Letterlike Units Children begin to
  use letter forms or pseudo-letters. Letters may
  be use in strings, but do not correspond to
  sounds in the words.
• Beginning Invented Spelling Child may use a
  letter to stand for each syllable or word.
• Later Invented Spelling Child begins to
  demonstrate increasing knowledge of letter-sound
  relationships.
• Conventional Spelling Child uses letters to
  indicate all the sounds in a word.
• (Emergent Writing levels adapted from Au, Mason
  and Scheu, 1995 Ferreiro Teberosky, 1982
  Sulzby, 1990)
• -Adapted from Kaderavek, J. e-seminar

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What are we doing now?

• It is adults who have separated writing from
  art, song and play it is adults who have turned
  writing into an exercise on lined paper, into a
  matter of rules, lessons and cautious behavior.
  Children view writing quite differently. For
  them, it is exploration with marker and pen.
• -Lucy Calkins, The Art of Teaching Writing

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What are we currently doing?

• Copying, tracing letters over and over and over
  again
• Having a child write without putting meaning to
  what they are writing
• Expecting the same thing from our 3 and 5 year
  olds
• Focusing on the motor task of penmanship opposed
  to the creative task of writing

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Well, then, what should we do?

• Head Start Standards Writing
• Develops understanding that writing is a way of
  communicating for a variety of purposes
• Represents stories and experiences through
  pictures, dictation and in play
• Experiments with a growing variety of writing
  tools and materials, such as pencils, crayons and
  computers
• Progresses from using scribbles, shapes or
  pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like
  symbols, to copying or writing family words such
  as their own name
• (Head Start Child Outcomes Framework 2000)

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What to do?

• 90 of children come to school believing they
  can write.
• Lets be the ones who reinforce that belief in
  them.
• It is very helpful if we can focus on what
  children are doing rather than on what we wish
  they would do.
• We have to begin by meeting each child where they
  are, not where we want them to be.
• (Lucy Calkins, The Art of Teaching Writing)
• The most powerful classroom predictor on
  end-of-kindergarten-year vocabulary levels and
  emergent literacy skills is the frequency and
  content of extended teacher-child interactions.
  (Dickinson, 2001)
• We must take an active part in facilitating each
  childs writing growth and development.

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Its Up To You

• I really feel its up to you on how you want to
  change how you think about preschool writing and
  how that looks to you in your classroom, if you
  think you need to change at all.
• Try to remember our long term goals, creative
  writing, telling a story, being able to express
  oneself through words. Make it functional and
  meaningful to the children. Let them have the
  opportunity to LOVE writing.
• We care about writing when we write with, for,
  and about the people who matter to us, and when
  we write about or off of the issues and
  experiences that matter to us. L.C.
• What is necessary is that we have memories of a
  time when we loved writing and that we draw on
  those memories when we teach writing. L.C.
• (special excerpts of writing from Amys children
  shared here!)

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Some Suggestions Journal Writing

• Let the child lead (scribbling, drawing, writing,
  whatever) Its called a journal for a reason,
  does anyone tell you what to write in your
  journal??
• Talk to them about what they have written (even
  if its scribbling or drawing, we can still call
  it writing, thats what it is to them)
• Help them extend it to the next level, if they
  are scribbling, can they write lines or circles
  if they are drawing can they write letters to
  tell more about their story,etc
• Have them share their writings with the rest of
  the class
• (examples)

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Dramatic Play

• Housekeeping recipes, a shopping list, pad of
  paper beside the phone, a note on the fridge, a
  book to read to the dolls (the child makes it)
• Bank write checks, fill out deposit slips, keep
  ledgers
• Restaurant menu, bill, receipt
• Block center make own signs, road signs, street
  signs, Dont wreck it

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Writing Center

• Have many different writing materials (pencils,
  markers, crayons, colored pencils, stamps,
  stencils, etc)
• Have many different things to write on
• Staple paper together to create mini books for
  mini stories
• Lined and unlined paper
• Notepads, sticky notes, lists
• Notecards, blank cards, envelopes
• Thematic activities with pictures and words from
  your activities, books, etc for the month
• Non-writing literacy activities such as matching
  letter activities, letter puzzles, etc
• Change it often and make it inviting and
  exciting! (Would you want to spend time in your
  writing center?)

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Other classroom ideas

• Sign in sheet
• Milk requests
• Job responsibilities
• Making valentines/mothers day/fathers day cards
  etc
• Writing letter to field trip provider
• Writing on dry erase board
• Bring in a chalk board (or sidewalk chalk)

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Your fabulous ideas
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Next time

• Less of me and more of you
• I want us to share ideas
• Let us know what you did differently this month
• Share what worked great and what didnt work so
  well
• What do you want help with?

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Foot In the Door

• Follow up in the classroom-this presentation gave
  me the foundation to comment more in the
  classroom setting
• Teacher conversation-gave them the opportunity to
  discuss among themselves the different strategies
  used
• Ongoing-wasnt a one time event, our learning
  continued together

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What could I have done differently?

• Next time
• Plan for beginning of year and try to continue
  throughout
• Ask for anonymous feedback from teachers
• Provide in class assistance with writing with
  each teacher
• Try to set up a team of teachers to meet with or
  without me involved on a regular basis

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Other Resources
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References