The National Association for the Education of Young Children School Readiness Connections Distance E

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The National Association for theEducation of
Young Children School Readiness
ConnectionsDistance Education Program

• Working with Immigrant Children, Families,
  Communities Session 1
• The NAEYC Distance Education Program is supported
  by
• The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

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Welcome and Introduction

• Peter J. Pizzolongo
• ppizzolongo_at_naeyc.org
• Assistant Director for Professional Development
• NAEYC

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Welcome

• Julie Kohler, Ph.D.
• kohler_at_knightfdn.org
• Interim Director, National Venture Fund
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

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Working with Immigrant ChildrenPresenters

• Dr. Lisa Lopez
• Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology
• University of South Florida
• Lopez_at_coedu.usf.edu
• MaryAnn Cornish
• Director
• Higher Horizons Head Start Early Head Start
  Program
• Falls Church, Virginia
• MaryAnn.Cornish_at_fairfaxcounty.gov

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Working with Immigrant Children, Families,
Communities

• Format for the Sessions
• Blended-learning approach
• Synchronous asynchronous
• First step view the video presentation
• Follow-up activities group discussion sessions,
  threaded Web discussions, national teleconference

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Working with Immigrant Children, Families,
Communities

• Needs Assessment Process
• Teleconferences with all agencies
• List of topics questions
• Advisory Committee Knight Foundation input

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Working with Immigrant ChildrenSession Agenda

• Research-based best practices for serving
  immigrant children in EC programs
• Support for childrens home languages
  strategies for helping children learn English
• Screening assessment
• Consistent approaches across programs
• Staff development

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Diversity in the Population

• 63 increase in number of immigrant children
• Latino population grew by more than 50
• Latino population is the single largest group
• Early childhood programs serve children
  families who speak many different languages

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What are the best practices for working with
immigrant children who speak different languages?
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Working with Immigrant Children Who Speak
Different Languages

• No cookie-cutter approach!
• Differences among different cultures different
  languages
• Individual factors childs personality, age,
  exposure, motivation
• Resources available staff person, in the
  community?

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Working with Immigrant Children Who Speak
Different Languages

• Needs expectations of the parents
• Want children to maintain home language?
• Need to know No detrimental effect for
  children to learn more than 1 language!
• Speaking more than 1 language enhances
  cognitive, linguistic, cultural, economic
  abilities potential

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English as a Second Language Model Options to
Consider

• Dual language instruction is the most effective
  method for instruction
• Dual language instructiontwo forms
• Taught language literacy skills in English
  and home language, OR
• Paired with monolingual children who are also
  taught both languages

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English as a Second Language Model Options to
Consider

• Dual language instruction is the most effective
  method, but programs might not have resources to
  implement
• Other models Taught in first language, receiving
  services in English, OR a structured program for
  learning oral language skills in English and then
  introduced to literacy skills

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Working with Immigrant Children Who Speak
Different LanguagesImportant Findings

• Need to know how far along child is in home
  language
• If language is orthographic (with a writing
  system consisting of symbols/characters
  representing groups of sounds) easier to
  transfer acquired skills into English
• Use labels in home language English, display
  two alphabets, emphasize cognates (words similar
  in two languages)

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Working with Immigrant Children Who Speak
Different LanguagesImportant Findings

• Non-orthographic language (e.g., Arabic or
  Chinese) more difficult task
• Similarities between languages are less apparent
• Difficult to use knowledge of first language in
  learning the second
• Sounds are important in each language
• Emphasizing phonological aspect of language helps
  children grasp English

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Working with Immigrant Children Who Speak
Different Languages Summary

• Options for the education of immigrant children
• Selecting an option depends on several
  factorsparents needs expectations, number of
  children who speak the same language, programs
  resources (including staff expertise)

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development
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Literacy, Language, Reading

• Cross-linguistic transferimplementing skills in
  one language when learning a new language
• Need to understand Symbols represent words
  (alphabetic principle)
• Grapheme-phoneme correspondencelink between how
  a word is spelled how it soundsneeded to
  decode text
• Children taught how to read in home language
  first have greater success in learning how to
  read in English!

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development
Vocabulary

• Structured vocabulary instruction for English
  language learners results in incidental
  vocabulary learning better comprehension
• Vocabulary instruction concentrated, repetitive,
  meaningful
• Use a diagram to develop connect key concepts
  to prior knowledge (semantic maps) visuals
  pre-teaching relating words to background
  information

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development
Phonology

• Decoding skills verbal proficiency necessary
  before comprehension can be taught
• Phonology (sounds of a language) Most effective
  to work on sounds not the same in English and
  first language, as well as sounds child does not
  know
• Explicit teaching, repetition, practice reading,
  immediate feedback, correction of mistakes

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development
Phonology

• Explicit systematic instruction in English
  phonology
• Focus on elements that differ from childs native
  language
• Instruction related to phonological awareness and
  decoding, paired with practicing
  reading-connected text conversation regarding
  the text

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development

• Phonics instruction helps in word identification,
  NOT word attack comprehension
• Many skills transfer across languages
• Phonological awareness
• Letter knowledge
• Print awareness
• Rapid naming

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development

• Instructional design plays a major role
• Whole group approach is inadequate
• Need small group or individual instruction
• Teacher needs understanding of the child, his/her
  background, culture, experiences

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Literacy, Language, Reading Development

• Reading comprehensiongoes beyond decoding
• Introduce child to background knowledge necessary
  to understanding the text
• Introduce text related to childs knowledge

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How have staff successfully implemented these
best practices in an early childhood program?
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Working with Immigrant Children Best Practices

• Move from culture shock to cultural learning
• Staff speak the same language as the children
• On-the-spot language translation

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Working with Immigrant Children Best Practices

• Sense of belonging
• Home visit to gain meaningful information
• Trusting, collaborative relationship
• How can children reach their developmental
  educational goals, related to relevance of
  curriculum to the childs culture language
• Opportunity to involve parents

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Working with Immigrant Children Best Practices

• Routine is important
• Encouragement from peer interaction, learn words
  from each other
• Small-group time opportunities
• Classrooms labeled with written words pictures
• Family photos books
• Strategies to sustain expand the home language
  while learning English

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Working with Immigrant Children Best Practices

• Provide a multicultural classroom that feels like
  home
• Classroom reflects cultures in an integrated,
  natural way
• Include household items in housekeeping area,
  books in different languages, stories on tape,
  dress-up clothing
• Parents lend items to program

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Working with Immigrant Children Best Practices

• Back-to-School Night Families create posters
  with family picture, flag, something that
  represents familys country
• Display posters in classrooms during first two
  months of program
• Incorporating home language culture throughout
  the curriculum supports development of social
  competence demonstrates respect for familys
  values beliefs

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What does the research tell us regarding
screening assessing immigrant children?
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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• NAEYC-NAECS/SDE Position Statement
• Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment,
  Program EvaluationSupplement on the Screening
  and Assessment of Young English Language
  Learners
• Primary purpose of assessing young ELLs should be
  to help programs support their learning and
  development
• Systematic observational assessment
• Formal standardized assessments

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• Systematic observational assessments
• Needed by parents, teachers, administrators to
  ensure children receive the instruction they
  deserve
• Determine whether children are developing
  normally determine what child still needs to
  learn
• Informs curriculum

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• Observe child during routines you can spot
  changes in behavior track development of
  English
• Steps children go through in acquisition of
  English
• Use home language in the classroom
• Silent period (observing picking up
  phonology)
• Telegraphic phase
• Productive use of the language

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• As you observe, be culturally aware
• Understand the traditions experiences of the
  culture
• Without a full understanding, you can
  misinterpret a childs behavior
• Example disrespectful for a child to initiate a
  conversation with an adult

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• Cultural competence important in administration
  of formal assessments
• Make sure child is comfortable in the testing
  situation
• Many assessments allow for translation of
  instructions into other languages
• Cultural competence needed to determine if
  question is culturally appropriate for the child

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Screening AssessingImmigrant
ChildrenInterpreting Assessments

• Assessments normed on a monolingual sample
• Bilingual children perform below mean on English
  language testsuntil about 5th grade
• Learn competencies in two languages
• Learn different skills in different languages
• Important to assess child in home language and
  English

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children

• Use multiple assessment techniques
• Include person who is culturally linguistically
  familiar with childs home language culture
  when planning delivering assessments

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How do programs appropriately assess immigrant
children?
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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children Best
Practices

• Use multiple assessment techniques
• Include a person who is culturally
  linguistically familiar with childs home
  language culture
• Always screen in the primary language
• Milestones in language development viewed
  flexibly

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children Best
Practices

• Ongoing assessment
• Anecdotal records during daily routine to track
  English language development
• Can rely on nonverbal responses
• Collections of representative work

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Screening AssessingImmigrant Children Best
Practices

• Tap into multiple sources of information staff
  parent observations, health history,
  developmental history, family functioning
• Assessments should be ongoing, collaborative
  process of observation analysis
• All screening assessment activities sensitive
  to childs cultural background

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How do we ensure a consistent approach to
language development for children served by
multiple programs?
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Immigrant Children Served by Multiple Programs

• Consistency will help immigrant children build
  upon their skills in the development of English
• Children should not receive mixed messages
  regarding the use of home language
• may reject language and culture
• communication with family strained
• reject essential metalinguistic factors

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Immigrant Children Served by Multiple Programs

• Training for education providers in the community
  on best practices for working with immigrant
  children?children receive consistent instruction
  care
• Community leaders decide on plan of action
• Need to monitor program implementation
• Takes 47 years to master a language!

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Immigrant Children Served by Multiple Programs

• Individualized language plan (ILP)
• Developed in conjunction with parents, express
  their expectations
• Language specialists help administrators
  parents determine what works best for students
  and how community school resources help meet
  ILP goals
• Ideally, all programs use similar protocol

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How does an agency ensure consistency of best
practices for immigrant children served by
multiple programs?
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Immigrant Children Served by Multiple Programs
Best Practices

• Building partnerships with community agencies
  organizations to share and advocate for immigrant
  children
• LEA often an important point of contact
• Early childhood programs must ensure that the EC
  curriculum aligns with the LEA curriculum
• Work with faith-based communities

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Immigrant Children Served by Multiple Programs
Best Practices

• Establish transition teams/committees
• Non-profit community agencies dedicated to
  working with immigrant children families
• Annual community resource luncheon health
  professionals, faith community, LEA, human
  service organization representatives

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How can we ensure that staff has competencies for
implementingbest practices?
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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Training occurs at various levels
• Training on best practices for working with any
  child
• Developmentally appropriate practice guidelines
  understanding child development, the individual
  child, and the social cultural aspects of
  childs development

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Staff must be aware of the language learning
  process
• Need to understand the role of the first
  language, then think about second language being
  introduced
• Developing a second language differs learning
  two languages simultaneously or sequentially?

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• When children learn two languages simultaneously,
  they go through same developmental process in
  both languages
• Development of language mirrors itself in the two
  languages
• When learn languages sequentially, have advantage
  of using what they learned in first language to
  build second language
• Staff training on these processes?understand
  individual child struggles with language

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Also need specialized training to work with
  particular cultures
• Each culture practices different traditions
  beliefs, speak different languages, have
  different expectations for children
• Community resource person representing culture is
  essential for this type of training

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Staff talk to each other about what they have
  discovered in talking to a parent or observing a
  child
• Staff conduct home visits to experience the
  culture in person
• Ask parent about their culture how it may
  impact childs behavior or learning

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• To ensure competent staff
• Train on developmentally appropriate practice
• Train on first second language acquisition
• Train on cultural competency

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How to ensure that training, mentoring other
forms of technical assistance are provided to
staff?
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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Organized approach to staff development
• Participate in local, state, regional early
  childhood conferences, seminars
• Mentoring opportunities
• Support and feedback to classroom staff as part
  of reflective supervision
• Program-wide activities to make families feel
  welcomed

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Thoughtful, purposeful planning of activities,
  programs, curriculum implementation
• Dialogue among staff, community, consultants
• Dialogue with families
• Self-reflective games
• Simulation games

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Staff Development in Programs Serving Immigrant
Children

• Culturally relevant diverse programming
  requires learning accurate information
• Culturally relevant diverse programming must be
  incorporated in all components and services
• Planning ongoing staff developmentfocus on
  underlying goals of valuing, including, being
  sensitive to children

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Working with Immigrant Children Summary

• Best practices for working with children who
  speak different languages
• Connections between oral language literacy
  development
• How child assessments support immigrant
  childrens learning development
• Ensuring consistency for children served by
  multiple programs
• Staff development

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Working with Immigrant Children Follow-up
Activities

• Facilitator will provide details
• Activities
• group discussion sessions
• threaded Web discussions
• national teleconference

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Working with Immigrant Children, Families,
Communities

• Working with Families
• November 2005
• Working with Communities
• January 2006

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Thank You for Your Participation!