Early Reading First as a Model for Improving Preschool Literacy Instruction and Outcomes
The Early Reading First program (ERF) was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to develop model ‘preschool centers of excellence’ that enhance the early language and literacy skills of low-income preschool children. In this chapter we report on t
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Early Reading First as a Model for Improving Preschool Literacy Instruction and Outcomes Barbara D. DeBaryshe and Kathleen Tran Gauci
Abstract The Early Reading First program (ERF) was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to develop model ‘preschool centers of excellence’ that enhance the early language and literacy skills of low-income preschool children. In this chapter we report on the outcomes of an ERF project conducted with Head Start classrooms in Hawaiʻi. The intervention included intensive professional development on research-based curriculum and instruction, teacher-child interaction, family engagement, and child progress monitoring. Outcomes included large gains on intentional literacy instruction, classroom quality, and family engagement, and moderate to large gains on child emergent literacy skills. The intervention had little effect on oral language outcomes. Despite the academic focus, most teachers were highly satisfied with the experience, reporting increased child motivation and considerable professional growth.
Early Literacy Instruction: Background and Issues Early Literacy Emergent or early literacy is a multidimensional construct that encompasses the set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are the precursors of conventional reading and writing. Components of early literacy include: • Oral language skills such as receptive and expressive vocabulary, syntax, morphology, and pragmatics.
B.D. DeBaryshe (* Center on the Family, University of Hawaiʻi, 2515 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA e-mail: [email protected] K.T. Gauci Department of Educational Pyschology, 1776 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 C.J. McLachlan, A.W. Arrow (eds.), Literacy in the Early Years, International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development 17, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2075-9_10
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B.D. DeBaryshe and K.T. Gauci
• Phonological and phonemic awareness or the ability to detect and manipulate sound units within spoken words. This includes sensitivity to word boundaries, syllables, rhyme, and individual phonemes. • Concepts of print such as awareness of letters as a special group of symbols, knowing that print contains a message that can understood by others, and familiarity with conventions like print directionality. • Alphabet knowledge including awareness of letter symbols, names, and sounds. • Emergent writing which includes the progression of written forms of increasing conventionality (e.g., scribble to letter-like shapes to recognizable letters) and initial attempts at phonetic spelling. • Interest and motivation relating to text-based activities (International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008; Whitehurst & Longian, 2001).
Early Literacy Curricula A number of preschool curricula, both commercially available and unpublished have been developed with the aim of enhancing early literacy outcomes. Some of these are stand-alone,
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