Partnering for Literacy: A Multi-Disciplinary Program for Emergent and Early Reading Success
Project Abstract
Eagle Academy Public Charter School, E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, Bridges Public Charter School, The Chesapeake Center, Inc., University of Maryland Hearing and Speech Sciences Department, and Educational Solutions, LLC propose to form a Literacy Partnership (LP) to deliver high-quality early childhood education programs to at-risk preschoolers. The project is designed to support meaningful changes in instruction, curriculum, professional development, and classroom environment. These goals will be accomplished by: (1) Providing theoretically sound and scientifically motivated classroom-based literacy instruction, (2) Administering assessments and on-going progress monitoring to identify at risk students, and (3) Providing ongoing professional development. Multi-disciplinary teams including classroom teachers, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and literacy mentors will implement programs to create preschool centers of excellence which will endure well beyond the grant period. .
All program components are designed to improve children’s oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and cognitive development. The proposed LP will utilize a 3-Tiered Response to Intervention model. In Tier 1, teachers collaborate with literacy mentors and SLPs to assess students as a means to inform high-quality, explicit, and comprehensive classroom-wide instruction using the Creative Curriculum Literacy Component augmented by Instructional Supplements created by grant team members. Tier 2 children with known risk factors, or those unresponsive to Tier 1 activities, will participate in small group or one-on-one instruction in the Promoting Awareness in Speech Sounds (PASS) Program and Vocabulary Enhancements administered in small-group sessions with SLPs. Tier 3 students, not progressing in Tier 2, will receive additional intensive instruction. Tier 3 students that do not respond to further intensive instruction will be referred for evaluation by a multi-disciplinary team to determine eligibility for special education services. Student learning will be systematically monitored on a frequent schedule using Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs). Teacher learning will monitored on an ongoing basis using the ELLCO and other CBMs.
Key Grant Participants
Bridges Public Charter School of Washington, D.C.: Acting as Department of Education Lead Grantee, housing Project Director (Nancy Mahon), providing six classrooms to participate in grant project.
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School of Washington, D.C.: Providing one Pre-K classroom to participate in grant project as well as one non-participating kindergarten classroom to act as quasi-control group.
Eagle Academy Public Charter School of Washington, D.C.: Providing four Pre-K classrooms to participate in grant project as well as two non-participating kindergarten classrooms to act as quasi-control groups.
University of Maryland Hearing and Speech Sciences Department of College Park, MD: Providing Principal Investigator (Froma Roth) for the project, graduate assistants (SLP Ph.D. candidates), statistical consultant, PASS Program, professional development materials, and project reports.
Educational Solutions, LLC of Arlington, VA: Providing the Professional Development Coordinator (Jay Michney), three Literacy Mentors (Carolyn Stein, Theresa Allison, and Cecie Boggs), Instructional Supplements Program, and professional development materials.
The Chesapeake Center of Springfield, VA: Providing the Learning Environment Coordinator (Pat Rogers), three Speech Language Pathologists (Tammy Wright, Lisa Walker, Kendall Kluthe), Vocabulary Enhancement Program, and professional development materials.
Early Reading First Purpose and Goals
The overall purpose of the Early Reading First Program is to prepare preschool age children to enter kindergarten with the language, cognitive, and early reading skills necessary for reading success, thereby preventing later reading difficulties. Early Reading First will transform early childhood programs into centers of excellence that provide a high-quality education to preschool age children, especially those children from low-income families.
Early Reading First enables preschool programs to do what scientifically based research shows is the most effective way to reach this goal. Classroom environments will be rich in age-appropriate print, from sources such as books, labeling, and posting the alphabet and children’s work in pre-writing. Teachers will deliver intentional and explicit, contextualized, and scaffolded instruction and conduct progress monitoring to determine which skills children are learning. Programs will provide intensive and ongoing professional development that includes mentoring and coaching in the classroom. These are just a few examples of how Early Reading First is designed to make a dramatic improvement in the ways we teach our preschool age children and prepare them for future school success.
The specific purposes of the Early Reading First program are as follows:
1. To support local efforts to enhance the early language, literacy, and early reading development of preschool age children, particularly those from low-income families, through strategies and professional development that are based on scientifically based reading research.
2. To provide preschool age children with cognitive learning opportunities in high-quality language and literature-rich environments so that they can attain the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary for optimal reading development in kindergarten and beyond.
3. To demonstrate language and literacy activities based on scientifically based reading research that supports the age-appropriate development of --
A) oral language (vocabulary development, expressive language, and listening comprehension);
B) phonological awareness (rhyming, blending, segmenting)
C) print awareness
D) alphabet knowledge (letter recognition).
4. To use screening assessments to effectively identify preschool age children who may be at risk for reading failure.
