Preschool Literacy Research Articles

Using the Quality of Literacy Implementation Checklist to Improve Preschool Literacy Instruction

Despite much progress in improving the quality of preschool programs, there is still an uneven quality of instruction in early childhood settings. Providing support and professional development (PD) for teachers that is practical, systematic and sustainable is one potential avenue to increase classroom quality in preschool, including quality of literacy instruction. Preschool educators who want to focus on increasing the quality of literacy instruction need simple-to-use tools that can be implemented quickly and provide a means to assess progress towards the goal of improving literacy instruction. The Quality of Literacy Implementation checklist measures how well the teaching staff include intentional, instruction in literacy/oral language. Rather than focusing on a specific curriculum or intervention, quality of implementation focuses on the teacher’s delivery of key procedural features of evidence-based instruction. As is the case with fidelity of implementation, a quality of implementation checklist not only measures implementation but also provides a roadmap about how instruction might be modified to ensure that critical and essential skills are emphasized across the preschool day.

Preschool Literacy and the Common Core: A Professional Development Model

<p>Many states have adopted the Common Core Standards for literacy and math and have begun enacting these standards in school curriculum. In states where these standards have been adopted, professional educators working in K-12 contexts have been working to create transition plans from existing state-based standards to the Common Core standards. A part of this process has included re-aligning professional development models to support implementation of these new standards. While K-12 professional educators have been hard at work in this changeover, little attention has been paid to early childhood contexts and the need of pre-school curriculum to support learners in moving toward new kindergarten goals in the Common Core.</p><p>This study examines the alignment between an existent professional development model for preschool literacy widely employed in one Southern state and the new Common Core Standards. The researcher’s goal was to examine the existent professional development model to determine if the offered curriculum supported teachers in supporting learners’ knowledge and skills expected in a kindergarten classroom preparing students for the common core. The researchers sought to determine where the curriculum supported learners in this new standards environment as well as to recommend revising the professional development content as necessary in light of the new standards. The overarching goal of the study was to support preschool teachers’ abilities to prepare their students for the new expectations for school-based literacy.</p>

Development, Validation, and Evaluation of Literacy 3D: A Package Supporting Tier 1 Preschool Literacy Instruction Implementation and Intervention

Increasingly, prekindergarten programs with literacy outcome goals are seeking to implement evidence-based practices to improve results. Such efforts require instructional intervention strategies to engage children as well as strategies to support teacher implementation. Reported is the iterative development of Literacy 3D, an enhanced support system for Tier 1 literacy instruction that combines evidence-based strategies for teacher implementation with instructional intervention strategies. A waitlist randomized control trial (W-RCT) design was used over two years. In Year 1, classroom clusters were randomized to two groups, one Literacy 3D and the other a waitlist BAU comparison. In Year 2, the waitlist group received Literacy 3D. First year results indicated that Literacy 3D was promising with regard to improving teachers’ use of Literacy 3D practices as well as some intermediate teacher outcomes. Improvements were made and re-tested with the waitlist group in Year 2. Results produced better outcomes in teacher, child, and early literacy outcomes. Implications are discussed.

A socioeconomic comparison of emergent literacy and home literacy in Australian preschoolers

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy practices impact upon children’s early literacy development. The present study explored where current emergent literacy and home literacy differences lie in Australian preschoolers aged three to five years from lower SES (n = 49) and higher SES (n = 52) homes. Children were assessed on letter knowledge, print concepts, and name writing. Parent literacy teaching, storybook-reading, and home literacy resource data were gathered via a home questionnaire. Duration of parent–child reading was similar for both SES groups. Lower SES parents taught their children less frequently about print compared to higher SES parents with lower SES children performing more poorly on print skills. This suggests that home reading may not be sufficiently fostering print skills in lower SES children highlighting the need for policymakers to enable lower SES parents to engage in more print-based strategies to help bridge the literacy gap.

Opening up spaces for early Critical Literacy: Korean kindergarteners exploring diversity through multicultural picture books

Despite the increasing emphasis in literacy education on critical pedagogies, there is minimal scholarship focusing on the implications of critical literacy in preschool (Pre-K) and kindergarten classrooms. The purpose of this article is to understand the possibility of early critical literacy as a space where young children examine books and articulate their voices on subjects related to cultural/racial diversity and equality. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, this study focuses on the creation of 'alternative texts' by 12 five-year-old children, after they read multicultural picture books in a kindergarten classroom in South Korea. As part of a larger longitudinal study, the data were collected for six months through video/audio recordings, participant observation, dialogical interviews, observational field notes, and children's written materials. The study found that writing alternative texts followed by reading multicultural books enabled children to pose questions, share opinions, and develop critical perspectives on issues related to racial/cultural diversity and equality. Findings suggest that early literacy teachers should foster a supportive literacy environment in which young children are encouraged to read literature for its subtext as a way to prompt responses of vocal multiplicity rather than limiting children by presenting a pre-determined and single answer.

Digital play as a means to develop children’s literacy and power in the Swedish preschool

This paper presents different angles on the subject of digital play as a means to develop children’s literacy and power, using an online ethnographical study of Swedish preschool teachers’ discussions in informal online forums. Question posts (n = 239) were analysed using the Technological Pedagogical Knowledge framework and the Caring, Nurturing and Teaching framework, with the aim of understanding how teachers intended to support children’s literacy development with tablets. Literacy development can be understood as a social practice that needs to develop along with changes in society’s demands on citizens. The results presented indicate that school subject oriented skills are predominantly present in the mind-set of these preschool teachers. When digital play is increasingly used for pedagogical purposes in preschools, that also means that preschools have expanded their opportunities to work with children’s literacy development. For preschool teachers, it is important to discuss how literacy development can be supported in a contemporary media landscape.

Beating the Odds: A Longitudinal Investigation of Low-Income Dual-Language and Monolingual Children's English Language and Literacy Performance

Research Findings: The current study reports on the results of a longitudinal investigation of the language and early literacy development of a sample of dual-language learners (DLLs) and monolingual English speakers from low-income families who received an Early Reading First intervention during their Head Start preschool year. A total of 62 children who entered and remained in the same school district were followed from kindergarten through 2nd grade. The results indicate that both the DLLs and monolingual English speakers in the study showed similar developmental trajectories on receptive vocabulary, story recall, decoding, and letter and word identification from preschool through the 2nd grade. Furthermore, at the end of 2nd grade, the 2 groups' vocabulary, story recall, reading fluency, decoding, and letter and word identification performances were similar and within the normal range for children their age. Practice or Policy: The study's findings suggest that a strong preschool language and literacy program can reduce the English language gap between DLLs and monolingual English speakers from low-income families.

Pre-Packaging Preschool Literacy: What Drives Early Childhood Teachers to Use Commercially Produced Phonics Programs in Prior to School Settings

Language-rich environments are key to overall quality in early childhood settings, including frequent child—staff interactions around picture books and dramatic play. In a language-rich environment, explicit teaching of literacy concepts, such as phonics, is embedded in authentic and meaningful situations where alphabet letters and sounds are taught in a context meaningful to the child. Recent research, however, suggests that the use of commercial pre-packaged phonics programs (such as Letterland and Jolly Phonics) is widespread in prior to school settings in Sydney, Australia. Little is known about why early childhood teachers choose to use such programs with children aged five and under. In the present study, thematic analysis of data from interviews with five early childhood teachers using commercial phonics programs found that their reasons were pragmatic rather than pedagogical. Motivations included the idea that the programs reduced their workload, provided tangible evidence to parents of their child's ‘school readiness’, and served as a marketing tool to attract parents. Further analysis found that the teachers were unable to articulate what phonics and phonological awareness are and how they are learnt in early childhood.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI)

Despite growing interest in early intervention, there are few measures available to monitor the progress of early academic skills in preschoolers. The Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI; DiPerna, Morgan, & Lei, 2007) were developed as brief assessments of critical early literacy and numeracy skills. The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure of the EARLI probes via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a sample of Head Start preschoolers (N=289). A two-factor model with correlated error terms and a bifactor model provided comparable fit to the data, although there were some structural problems with the latter model. The utility of the bifactor model for explaining the structure of early academic skills as well as the utility of the EARLI probes as measures of literacy and numeracy skills in preschool are discussed.

Theory-Based Parameterization of Semiotics for Measuring Pre-literacy Development

A probabilistic model was applied to problem of measuring pre-literacy in young children. First, semiotic philosophy and contemporary cognition research were conceptually integrated to establish theoretical foundations for rating 14 characteristics of children's drawings and narratives (N = 120). Then ratings were transformed with a Rasch model, which estimated linear item parameter values that accounted for 79 percent of rater variance. Principle Components Analysis of item residual matrix confirmed variance remaining after item calibration was largely unsystematic. Validation analyses found positive correlations between semiotic measures and preschool literacy outcomes. Practical implications of a semiotics dimension for preschool practice were discussed.

World Beat: Giraffes CAN Dance!

A university instructor with roots in Cape Town extends a successful preschool literacy program from Boston to South Africa.

Patterns of literacy and numeracy activities in preschool and their relation to structural characteristics and children’s home activities

Early literacy and numeracy activities in family and preschool are considered important for promoting children’s early literacy and numeracy skills. However, little research exists, especially in Germany, on the frequency of such activities in different contexts. The current study identified patterns of literacy and numeracy activities in preschools and their relation to structural preschool characteristics and to attributes of the home learning environment. Four hundred twenty-one children attending 89 preschool classes in two German federal states were examined. The results indicate that preschools fall into three different profiles of literacy and numeracy activities: low levels of engagement in both domains, numeracy-oriented engagement and literacy-oriented engagement. Additionally, structural characteristics of the preschools, family literacy and numeracy activities were found to predict children’s profile membership. The study’s implications for future research and early education are discussed.

Using Physical Activity to Teach Academic Content: A Study of the Effects on Literacy in Head Start Preschoolers

The potential impact of increased physical activity on early literacy skills in preschool children has not been sufficiently explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 6 month, low cost, teacher-directed, academic program that delivered existing literacy lessons using physical activity in Head Start preschools. Preschool Literacy Individual Growth and Development Indicators were used to assess early literacy and phonological awareness in the areas of alliteration and picture naming. The results showed significant increases in physical activity during free play and improvements in early literacy (Picture Naming, Alliteration) compared to a non-exercising control group. In conclusion, the findings suggest that academic lessons taught using physical activity improve early literacy in preschoolers.

Emergent literacy: Preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices

The present study reports on the construction of a research instrument developed to examine preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices in relation to emergent literacy. A 130-item survey (Preschool Literacy Survey, PLS) was completed by a total of 90 preschool teachers in Norway. Items were grouped into homogenous scales, and the relationship between beliefs and practices was examined using structural equation modelling. The structural model for all preschool teachers was compared in a qualitative way with the structural model for a random group of preschool teachers ( n = 54), who had not participated in literacy-awareness training to look at whether the effects of literacy-awareness training could be assessed with the PLS. The main results show that teachers who took part in the literacy-awareness training were more homogeneous in respect of their beliefs and practices, that their beliefs were strongly underpinned by their beliefs about the specific role of the preschool teacher and by their beliefs about practices consistent with current research. Finally, it seems that the literacy-awareness programme affected the beliefs rather than the practices of preschool teachers. How a PLS can further contribute to research on early literacy in preschools and preschool teacher training is discussed.

The role of frequent, interactive prekindergarten shared reading in the longitudinal development of language and literacy skills.

In this study, we examined the longitudinal relations between frequency and features of reading experiences within the preschool classroom to children's language and literacy outcomes in kindergarten and 1st grade. Frequency refers to the number of shared reading sessions conducted each week as measured by teachers' written reading logs recorded across the academic year. Features refers to teachers' extratextual talk about literal, inferential, or print or phonological topics as assessed by analysis of 6 videotaped readings of narrative and informational texts collected across the preschool year. Participants were 28 preschool teachers and 178 children. The children were largely at risk and randomly selected from among those in each classroom to complete longitudinal assessments. In preschool, results showed that the frequency of classroom shared reading was positively and significantly related to children's receptive vocabulary growth, as was the inclusion of extratextual conversations around the text; only extratextual conversations related to children's preschool literacy growth. There was no evidence of differential influences of these experiences for children; that is, the relationship between frequency or features and children's language and literacy development was not moderated by children's initial skill level. Longitudinally, extratextual talk during preschool shared reading remained associated with children's vocabulary skills through kindergarten, with trends toward significance extending to 1st grade literacy skills. The frequency of preschool shared reading was not a significant predictor of longitudinal outcomes.

Preschool Early Literacy Programs in Ontario Public Libraries

This paper reports on research examining how library staff in 10 Ontario libraries’ preschool literacy programs support three- and four-year-old children’s early literacy and school readiness as well as their parents’ and caregivers’ literacy interactions with their children. Multiple data sources included surveys of 82 parents/caregivers, observations of a sample of 65 of the 198 children at the sessions we visited, and interviews with10 library staff. Observations were analyzed for evidence of children’s development of print motivation, phonological awareness, vocabulary, narrative skills, and print awareness: early literacy skills and knowledge that have been shown to be reliably and significantly correlated with future reading success. Analysis of the observational and interview data showed that the programs have been very successful in fostering children’s readiness to participate in school activities and their motivation to read. Participating children learned new vocabulary, demonstrated an awareness of rhymes and sounds of language, and showed an understanding of books that were read by library staff: all early literacy behaviours that are foundational to later literacy development. The programs have also provided parents/caregivers with new ways to interact with children to engage them with books and with print at home. The development of children’s school readiness skills and parents’ awareness of how to support their children’s literacy are outcomes extending beyond library staff goals for their library programs and should be included in literature advertising the programs. Print awareness is an area of literacy development that library staff could encourage to a greater extent, however. Very few instances of such behaviour were observed, with most of the observations taking place in two of the preschool early literacy programs. Concomitantly, developing children’s print awareness is a recommended topic for professional development of library staff.

Promoting Preschool Literacy: A Family Literacy Program for Homeless Mothers and Their Children

Literacy programs often target preschool children who are from minority groups, are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and are second language learners, as they are deemed to be at risk for academ...

Examining the concurrent validity of assessing preschool language and literacy skills

The purpose of this study was to examine the concurrent validity of the assessment for an early language and literacy project. The goal of the project was to promote a successful transition to kindergarten for preschoolers who were at risk for reading difficulties by equipping them with the necessary language and literacy skills needed for early reading success. Both child outcome data and classroom/teacher level data were collected at the beginning and the end of the academic semester. Child-level pre- and post-tests indicated that participating children's language and literacy skills were improved in name writing, letter recognition, beginning sound awareness, rhyming awareness, and print knowledge. Findings from the validity study suggested a significant relationship between- and within-child outcome measures. A significant relationship was also found between norm-referenced child outcome measures and classroom-level measures; however, no significant relationship was identified between criterion-referenced child outcome measures and classroom-level measures. Implications of this study were discussed.

The Adaptation of Handwriting Recognition System User Interface in Preschool Literacy Learning Courseware

Currently, the education software or simply courseware has successfully become the heart of computer usage in classrooms. With varieties of courseware introduced, the discussion of which courseware assist students the most continues. This paper describes our experience on developing a literacy courseware named handwriting leaning number (HLN) for preschool children.HLN has adapted the handwriting recognition system interface where stylus pen becomes its input modality.By using the stylus pen, we believed that the children could perform better in writing exercise.In order to prove our assumption, we have conducted user satisfaction test using modified questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (QUIS) version 5.5.Result derived from the test indicated that the children tend to satisfy the user interface designed for HLN as the average mean score obtained was 3.864 with Standard Deviation of 0.6879.On the other hand, problems regarding precision and usability of HLN are also reported while solutions to the problems are recommended.

A Data-Driven Preschool PD Model for Literacy and Oral Language Instruction

The purpose of this article is to describe the professional development (PD) model for preschool literacy and language instruction that took place in a 3-year, 2-tiered Early Reading First project in 9 Head Start and community-based school classrooms. In our tiered model, the Tier 1 level was classroom instruction and Tier 2 was intervention instruction. Through our data-driven PD model, we sought to systematically provide workshops for all classroom teaching staff based on the evidence-based literacy/language skills and learning strategies. Teachers received approximately 55 hr a year in training. Classroom coaches each worked in 3 classrooms and spent approximately 4 hr a week per classroom working to plan with teachers and supporting instruction. Children were regularly assessed in areas of literacy/oral language and teachers were assessed on the quality of the classroom environment and teacher fidelity of implementation of strategies learned during coaching and workshop training. Teachers also provided feedback on the quality of workshop training and participated in self-reflection discussions about implementation. Each of these data sources was used to modify training and coaching. The article provides further information about training, coaching, and data sources as well as teacher and child data that support the use of the model.