The last two weeks, I have been spending some time observing in a Pre-K classroom. The room I am observing has two teachers and up to 20 students. Each week they have a different theme that they center their learning activities around. This week's theme is Dinosaurs. I have seen many different types of literacy development going on in the classroom. Each day the children "sign in" by doing a name tracer and then writing their name on their own. This helps with print awareness and spelling. I have also seen many examples of invented spelling in the writing area where the children write their own names, classmates names and try to label their artwork. Each morning the class time starts with circle time and each circle time begins with the morning message where the children are encouraged to find different site words that they have learned. They have also linked their artwork to literacy by having the children dictate what their specific dinosaur would do if they lived today. The classroom is very focused on developmentally appropriate practice and giving the children the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful in Kindergarten.
In addition to spending time in the classroom, I had a chance to talk to the teacher outside of the classroom about any concerns she may have in her morning classroom about early literacy. She did not have any true concerns about her classroom but she did have some concerns about her afternoon class that is an at risk classroom. Her main concern was her ability to help those that are ELL students. She is not bilingual and fears that some of the children may need extra help that she is not able to provide.
I also spoke to the Assistant Director about her concerns in regards to early literacy. She expressed concerns about the disparity between the children from lower income families in relation to the other students. Her concern is that for many lower income children there is little access to help that many other families and children are able to access. She also feels that it is a never ending cycle of parents that are not able to or can't help their child learn the literacy skills needed to succeed. She would like to see more programs that are able to help lower income families and provide the support to the parents as well as the children.
They both thought that more parental involvement would help children to be more successful. If the children know that it is important to the parent they may try harder to be successful.
Hi Debbi, You are right, the children will be very excited if they see their parents involved more. We do understand that many parents lives are busy but hopefully we as professionals can come up with some great ideas in this area.
ReplyDeleteI simply love circle time, in my daycare it is a way for the children to connect in the mornings. We sing songs, introduce ourselves through a song, talk about our night, and did we have any fun dreams we want to share, etc. The children love to read about large animals, last summer I took my grand babies to a museum exhibit and they were amazed at how big they were however I am pretty sure they seem them before it probably was a put on for their granny :-)
I was excited to see that your observations were in a pre-kindergarten classroom as I have worked in pre-kindergarten for the past eight years. We use a sign-in board during the mornings as well but I am curious, what exactly is a name tracer? I have had a bit of a hard time feeling that I was giving the same early literacy benefits to ELL students under my care as well. I speak small amounts of Spanish which helps Hispanic students to feel more comfortable in the environment, but I have also had students that speak Korean and Hindu. Our pre-kindergarten consultant has suggested that we label classroom objects in English and the child's native language but this can be difficult with languages that we are not familiar with. I can't wait to hear more about what you find in your research, especially anything that might be able to aid your pre-kindergarten teacher.
ReplyDeleteA name tracer is a worksheet that has the child's name printed in a specific font that that consists of dots to form the letters. The children then trace the letters, which helps them to learn how to write their name without the tracer. Usually by this time in the school year they are all able to write their first name and most of them can even write their last name.
ReplyDeleteAs far as labeling things in the classroom, we have tried to label in both English and other languages for the children. This helpful especially if there are pictures to go along with the label.
It seems that this observation has given you some insight and helped you to get some information on your topic for the paper. It is wonderful when we can go into a classroom and observe a teacher who loves ther job. A teacher that is so good at it that she does not even realize what she is doing when she is engaging the children into conversation. Going into a classroom that is full of intentional language building activities is a wonderful experience for anyone and a godsend to the children that are involved especially if they are not getting the language that they need at home.
ReplyDeleteI have been working with low-income and at-risk famlies for 5 years now. There are a lot of programs out there to help these famlies move ahead with their lives. You just need to get out there and seek them out. I service a small community with not a lot of choices and opportunities but they are out there. The bigger the town and community, the more otpions there are.
ReplyDeleteI also struggle with my students learning English. I have a limited Spanish backgroud so I am not able to meet their needs as well as I would like. That may an are that you could advocate for with literacy. I believe that every program should have a bilingual class that teaches in both Spanish and Enlgish equally. These students are slipping through the cracks and are loosing a part of their heritage if they do not learn to read and write in Spanish (or their home language) as well as English.