early literacy training for child care providers: a proven program for success early literacy...

Early Literacy Training for Child Early Literacy Training for Child Care Providers: A Proven Program Care Providers: A Proven Program

for Successfor Success

Early Literacy Training for Child Early Literacy Training for Child Care Providers: A Proven Program Care Providers: A Proven Program

for Successfor Success

ALA

Anaheim, California

June 29, 2008

Overview1) Study design and background 2) Assessment results and research implications3) Overview of training design4) Application activity5) Questions and discussion

Project Background

• Library Services Technology Act Grant (Maryland State Department of Education)

• Goal: to develop training to help home childcare providers in Title I school districts address Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR) expectations

• Awarded grant to design and conduct training for the 2005-2006 school year and to assess its effectiveness

with both the providers and the children in their care

Project Background

• 1998 report on “Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children”

• Establishment of Every Child Ready to Read @ your library initiative

• Carroll County (Maryland) Public Library’s research based project

• Gap in MMSR training for child care providers in 2004

Project Background

Four main components of training:1) Fall and spring

workshops for providers (4.5 total hours) based on MMSR principles in all domains but focusing on language & literacy

2) Early literacy materials for providers

3) Newsletters for providers4) Follow-up phone

conversations with providers

Project Background

Two assessment components:

1) Pre-post survey of childcare providers on their knowledge of early literacy development and how they fostered this development in their childcare homes

2) Pre-post assessment of the three and four year olds in their care

MethodInitial Steps

• Contracted with Resources in Reading

• Collaborated with community stakeholders

• Identified study participants

• Conducted informational meetings with providers and obtained parent permission

• Randomly assigned providers to Treatment Group or Control Group

Method Treatment & Assessment

• Survey tool developed & questions reviewed for validity and neutral language

• Assessment chosen for children: The Early Literacy Skills Assessment (ELSA)

Method Treatment & Assessment• Fall visits for both groups to collect

survey, answer questions, establish rapport and administer assessment


• Training for Treatment Group: Three hours on October 1, 2005

• Training centered around the research-based components of early literacy development included in the MMSR

• Kit of “hands-on” materials given to providers included storybooks, puppets, magnetic letters, white boards, magic markers, etc., as well as the Ready at Five activity cards for the seven MMSR domains and a binder of written support materials


• Two newsletters and phone discussions provided continued support

December, 2005

Dear Workshop Participant: We hope you are enjoying the many books and activities from the Ready at Five kit with your children. We are excited to also be able to send you two puppets to add to the fun as you and your children engage in pre-reading activities.

Puppets are fascinating to children. They know that puppets are not alive, yet they often listen to and talk with them as if they are real. Your puppets may be used in many ways to promote school readiness skills:

Children can make up stories or retell stories read to them for you and/or other children (builds critical language, reading and communication skillsŃ oral language)

Children can use their imagination and enjoy the puppets during make

believe play

You can use a puppet to engage a child in conversations (opportunity to discuss their feelings, fears, anger, sharing, etc.)

Have fun with puppets as children pretend to be the animal in songs or

rhymes that you share (For example: ŅOld MacDonald had a FarmÓ or ŅThree Little Pigs BluesÓ by Greg and Steve on their CD ŅPlaying FavoritesÓ which is available from the library)

Read fiction or non-fiction books together about the two animals your

puppets represent, i.e. cow, bear, duck, pig, frog, etc. Let your child pretend to be the animal while using the puppet.

January, 2006 Dear Workshop Participant: Happy 2006! We hope your new year is starting off well and that you and your children will have a fun-filled 2006. We are enclosing two items with this newsletter: a Community Helpers book from Mailbox that will add additional ideas to the Ready at Five cards and the activities in the box you received at the training. Community Helpers offers many suggestions for ways to help your children explore their world and the services that people provide all around them. We are also enclosing a CD, My Favorite Kidsongs Collection that contains the song ŅDown by the BayÓ mentioned in one of the activities suggested by Elaine for increasing phonological awareness. The CD includes many other terrific songs with rhymes and fun rhythms that your children can use scarves and instruments with to enjoy music and rhyming. This newsletter includes:

a greeting from the Project Director, information about the Professional Credit, a sampling of comments from workshop participants about their experiences so far suggested activities for building phonological awareness a sample list of books available from the Carroll County Public Library branch learning

resource shelves. We hope that the information we share through these newsletters will provide you with additional ideas for fun with your children, and we encourage you to add them to your notebook for future reference. Remember, repetition is an important part of the learning process and if children enjoy an activity, they will continue to have fun and learn as it is repeated. From the Project Director: Thank you for taking the time in recent weeks to speak to me on the phone and reflect on how things are going with the project. I wanted to share some of your positive comments and creative ideas in this newsletter. It is an honor to work with such an incredible group of child care professionals! Elaine, Connie and I are here to be a resource for you. Please donÕt hesitate to call on us if you have questions or ideas to share. Dorothy Stoltz Outreach Services Manager 410-386-4450, x733


Provider Comments from Phone Conversations:• “The older kids are imitating me by reading the

books to the younger children, following along using their finger to point out the words.”

• “I try to find activities that match the children’s evaluations.”

• “I’ve been tickled to death with the program. Everything I pull out of the box has been helpful.”

• “Having new things to use from the activity kit is motivating the children and motivating me, too.”

• “The children love the puppets. Besides reading storybooks, I use puppets to tell little made-up stories. The children now ask, “Will you tell me a story from your head?””

Method Treatment & Assessment• Spring Workshop of 1.5 hours

completed the Treatment in March of 2006. Providers were encouraged to bring activities and stories to share with one another.

• Providers received additional materials.

Method Treatment & Assessment • Spring survey tool developed and mailed to providers

• Spring visits May of 2006 to collect surveys and assess children with the ELSA

• Provider shares language experience book she created from technique modeled in spring workshop

Application from Spring Workshop

Assessment Results for Children: ELSA

RESULTS• The ELSA produces a

raw score in four areas of early literacy development:

– Comprehension– Phonological

Awareness– Alphabetic Principle– Concepts About

Print


RESULTS• From the raw score, a level score is

calculated for each of the four areas.Level 1: Early Emergent Š Exploration

Children explore books, play with sounds, look at and handle letters, and use

words to convey ideas and experiences.

Level 2: Emergent Š Awa reness

Children begin to pay particular attention to book parts, print conventions, sounds

that make up words and letter names. They use an increasing number of words to

convey meaning and to talk about the immediate past and future.

Level 3: Competent Emergent Š Application

Children test their own theories as they ŅreadÓ books, experiment with sounds that

make up words, and recognize and use letters. Their growing vocabularies enable

them to express increasingly complex ideas and narratives.


RESULTS

• Children in the Treatment Group had greater raw score gains in all four test areas.

• Children in the Treatment Group had greater increases in their levels of performance in all four test areas.

Percentage of children whose raw score increased by 6 or

more points

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Compr. PA AP CAP

Treatment

Control

Percentage of children whose level score increased by 1 or

more levels

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Compr. PA AP CAP

Treatment

Control


RESULTS• Regression analysis

was used to isolate the treatment effect. This allowed us to look at each test area and use statistical analysis to determine if we could attribute the gains to the effect of the treatment.


RESULTS• Statistical significance was

achieved in three of the four test areas

• Comprehension • Phonological Awareness • Concepts about Print


RESULTS

TREATMENT

AREA

TREATMENT

EFFECT

TREATMENT

EFFECT

SIGNIFICANT?

SIGNIFICANCE

LEVEL

COMPREHENSION 6.479 YES < .001

PHONOLOGICAL

AWA RENESS

2.137 YES < .05

ALPHABETIC

PRINCIPLE

3.263 NO >.05

CONCEPTS ABOUT

PRINT

3.269

YES

< .001

Assessment Results for Providers: SURVEY RESULTS

• Pre-post survey included both selected response questions and

opportunities for open-ended response

• Designed to assess changes in understanding and application of key early literacy concepts


• Providers in the Treatment Group reported a higher degree of understanding of early literacy concepts and how to apply the concepts in their childcare setting.


Treatment Group: Oral Language• The Emergent Literacy Training taught me about stopping when

reading a story and giving them a chance to tell part of a story their way.

• The training reinforced the importance of activities such as adult interactions in their pretend play and giving them more time for storytelling. Storytelling examples at workshop were helpful. Sharing of ideas of group also helped inspire ideas! Incorporate speaking in everything.

Control Group: Oral Language• Reading more books; using tapes and CD's.• Tapes, discussions.


• Treatment Group providers asked how helpful the professional development resources (workshops, materials, and newsletters) had been to them and to provide examples of how these resources had impacted their early literacy programs

One hundred percent (100%) of the providers indicated “very helpful.”


• They have definitely rejuvenated me with ideas and excitement! Newsletters have continued to reinforce ways we can teach reading in day-to-day activities. Music is now a daily activity due to great resources.

• The suggested books and music CDs in the newsletters

were great. It was nice especially with the books-they were excellent choices that all the children loved!


• Getting more out of reading books. Each child has learned lots of letters if not all. Enjoying the CD - dancing, and exercising and singing.

• Getting ideas from other providers always helps me - can expand on their ideas and be flexible in working it into my daily daycare program. Using everything in my materials box.

Study parameters

• Rural / suburban setting• Study participants predominantly white• All spoke English as primary language• 26 providers (T = 15; C = 11)• 51 children, aged 3 - 4 years (T = 31; C = 20)• Majority of participants in Title I school

districts

Major Findings

• Treatment effect had significant impact on both the children’s performance and the providers’ knowledge of how to best promote early literacy in three areas:Comprehension

Phonological AwarenessConcepts About Print

Major Findings

Most significant gain for the children was in the area of comprehension

Contributing factors:• Promoting oral language development

throughout daily learning experiences• Quality, not quantity of read aloud

experiences

Major FindingsTreatment effect for providers had a positiveimpact on:• their understanding of key early literacy

principles and the importance of “active learning” for children

• their view of themselves as professionals resulting in increased enthusiasm for learning and a willingness to try new techniques

Implications• This level of professional development can

improve school readiness. • Treatment should produce similar results

if replicated by other library systems.• Longitudinal data on the treatment design

would add to the research base on effective professional development for promoting early literacy.

Study Results: Year Two

• The treatment produced similar results with the former control group, further validating the training design.

• The former treatment group received additional training and resources. The children and providers continued to demonstrate growth in early literacy skills, though not at the dramatic rate of the first year of treatment.

Final Report• Go to Carroll County Public

Library’s website for the full report:

• www.library.carr.org• Click on About Our Community• Click on Emergent Literacy

Training Assessment

http://www.library.carr.org/

Training DevelopmentTraining DevelopmentTraining DevelopmentTraining Development

Training Development Goals

• to foster the providers’ ability to relate to how children would perceive and be engaged by learning activities

• to promote accountability for their own learning and the transfer of information to children and their parents

• to create a learning community where they support and learn from one another in addition to the formal training

Training Development

• Create an environment for learning


• Key strategies – Created a binder of professional

information– Developed & presented a pretend play skit

Training Development– Key Strategies

• Assembled take-home kits of resources to use with early literacy cards in all learning domains of the state standards

– Social & personal development, math, science, language & literacy, physical development, the arts, and social studies

• Hands-on activities using early literacy activity cards and kit resources


• Key strategies– Focused on language and literacy

domain• Demonstrated various techniques for

reading and sharing books with children aligned with state standards

Training Development• Key strategies

– Focused on language and literacy domain (continued)

• Demonstrated techniques for developing knowledge and skills in four areas –

– Concepts about print– Alphabetic principle– Phonological awareness– Comprehension

• Small group activity – to decide what techniques they would use to share a

picture book with children– to develop extended activities relevant to the book


– Focused on language and literacy domain (continued)

• Demonstrated other methods of developing language skills through puppets, flannel boards and finger plays

• Created glove puppets to take home to use with fingerplays and rhyming in their child care setting


– Focused on language and literacy domain (continued)• Created a reading ring to assist the

providers in remembering storytime techniques and to allow children to have input on some follow-up activities


• Key strategies– Music as a critical way to develop

language and literacy skills• Interactive activities in the workshop• Mailed CDs with the newsletters• Shared ways to use music with books


– Follow-up spring workshop • to share what participants learned • to share what materials and activities

they used and engaged in with their children

• to provide feedback on all aspects of the program

• additional training such as – Sharing their information on involving parents, – Using a tool created to help providers with

continued assessments of each child in the four areas of language & literacy (Snapshots)

Application ActivityApplication ActivityApplication ActivityApplication Activity

Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Read-Aloud Extension Children Techniques Activities Learn…

Talk about front cover- picture, title, author Connect: What do you do when you’re hungry? Predict: Do you think the caterpillar will eat a lot in this story? What do you think he will eat? Look at back cover

Talk about the word “tiny” and how little the caterpillar looks in the picture Count fruit together Connect: eating too much and getting a stomachache Green leaf made the caterpillar feel better Do you feel better when you eat healthy food? Talk about the big, fat caterpillar and look back at the “tiny” caterpillar Props: stuffed caterpillar and butterfly

Act out the caterpillar coming out of the egg, eating lots of food, building a cocoon, and becoming a butterfly (Scientific Thinking, The Arts) Retell with flannel board what the caterpillar ate each day (Language & Literacy, Mathematical Thinking) Explore five senses with the fruits, e.g., feel the skin of an orange, smell the orange when you cut it up, taste it for snack, etc. (Scientific Thinking) Talk about the Saturday eating binge, i.e., healthy vs. unhealthy choices, real vs. make-believe in what caterpillars eat (Scientific Thinking, Language Arts) Build a cocoon or go on a nature walk (Scientific Thinking) Use colored scarves and music to act out becoming a butterfly (The Arts)

Concepts about print: front and back cover, title, author Comprehension: predicting, connecting story to their own experiences, using pictures Vocabulary: tiny, cocoon, caterpillar, butterfly Beginning understanding of the life cycle Numbers and counting Days of the week Colors Five senses Fact vs. Fiction Healthy food choices

Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Read-Aloud Extension Children Techniques Activities Learn…

Talk about front cover- picture, title, author Connect: What do you do when you’re hungry? Predict: Do you think the caterpillar will eat a lot in this story? What do you think he will eat? Look at back cover

Talk about the word “tiny” and how little the caterpillar looks in the picture Count fruit together Connect: eating too much and getting a stomachache Green leaf made the caterpillar feel better Do you feel better when you eat healthy food? Talk about the big, fat caterpillar and look back at the “tiny” caterpillar Props: stuffed caterpillar and butterfly

Act out the caterpillar coming out of the egg, eating lots of food, building a cocoon, and becoming a butterfly (Scientific Thinking, The Arts) Retell with flannel board what the caterpillar ate each day (Language & Literacy, Mathematical Thinking) Explore five senses with the fruits, e.g., feel the skin of an orange, smell the orange when you cut it up, taste it for snack, etc. (Scientific Thinking) Talk about the Saturday eating binge, i.e., healthy vs. unhealthy choices, real vs. make-believe in what caterpillars eat (Scientific Thinking, Language Arts) Build a cocoon or go on a nature walk (Scientific Thinking) Use colored scarves and music to act out becoming a butterfly (The Arts)

Concepts about print: front and back cover, title, author Comprehension: predicting, connecting story to their own experiences, using pictures Vocabulary: tiny, cocoon, caterpillar, butterfly Beginning understanding of the life cycle Numbers and counting Days of the week Colors Five senses Fact vs. Fiction Healthy food choices

Your TurnRead-Aloud Techniques

What would you discuss about the front and back covers of Grumpy Bird?

Extension Activities

Language Arts - This is a great choice for retelling…how would you approach this?

Social / Emotional - There is an obvious connection to this domain! What type of activity would extend the message of the book?

Children Learn…

Questions?

Contact InformationElaine Czarnecki:[email protected] Stoltz:410-386-4450 ext. [email protected] Wilson:410-386-4450 ext. [email protected]

Carroll County Public Library, Maryland

Emergent Literacy Peer Coaching wikiwiki.carr.org/traction

Click on Emergent Literacy

early literacy training for child care providers: a proven program for success early literacy...

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