Transcript Cecil County’s Early Childhood Program

Cecil County’s
Early Childhood
Program
Goal: All students will enter school
with the readiness skill necessary
to be successful learners.
The Whole Child
Cecil County’s early childhood programs
center around seven domains:
•Personal/Social
•Language and Literacy
•Math
•Science
•Social Studies
•Physical Development
•Fine Arts
All kindergarten children are assessed in each of these
domains in the Fall and Spring using the Maryland Model of
School Readiness.
www.mdk12.org/instruction/ensure/MMSR/MMSRDE1_toc.html
What is MMSR (Maryland Model of School
Readiness)?
• A set of 30 indicators taken from an assessment tool
called- Work Sampling System
• Work Sampling System provides rubrics for a level of
performance on 66 indicators covering seven domains for
children three to eight years of age.
• Work Sampling System is based on the premise that
assessment of young children needs to be done in an ongoing manner through the use of antidotal records and
teacher observation.
• It is also based on the premise that early childhood
education needs to address all seven domains of the
developing child.
www.mdk12.org/instruction/ensure/MMSR/index.html
Language and Literacy
• Houghton Mifflin Kindergarten Reading Series
• All incoming kindergarten students are screened using a
tool from Houghton Mifflin called the “Emerging Literacy
Survey.”
• The “Emerging Literacy Survey” assesses student’s skills
in the area of:
– Phonemic Awareness
– Familiarity of Print
– Beginning Reading and Writing
Emerging Literacy Survey
Phonemic Awareness
• Rhyming
• Beginning Sounds
• Blending Onsets &
Rimes
• Segmenting Onsets
and Rimes
• Phoneme Blending
• Phoneme
Segmentation
Familiarity of Print Beginning
Reading and
• Letter
Writing
Identification
• Concepts of Print • Sight Words
• Nonsense
Words
• Dictated
Sentences
Emerging Literacy Data
• Research has shown that strengths in phonemic
awareness skills result in strengths in reading
• Phonemic Awareness data identifies specific phonemic
awareness skills that need reinforcement.
• This year, all kindergarten teachers were trained on
Lindamood-Bell Learning Process (LiPS) to support
development of phonemic awareness skills.
• LiPS is presented in whole group and used in small group
to reinforce phonemic awareness skills that students are
still having difficulty performing.
• Children entering school with a strong understanding of
sound symbol relationships often use phonemic
awareness tools taught in LiPS during writing activities to
support stretch spelling.
• Beginning reading and writing data from the “Emerging Literacy
Survey” provides information on a student’s development of sight
words and their understanding of how letter sounds are combined
to form words.
• Information about a student’s sight word development provides a
baseline for determining the level of material a child should be
reading during guided reading.
• Guided reading sessions provide a student an opportunity to
develop comprehension skills and strategies using a level of text at
their instructional level.
• The “Emerging Literacy Survey” is repeated in the winter and
spring. Spring data is used to provide first grade teachers with
information about appropriate reading levels for their beginning first
graders.
• Often, as young children begin to learn to read they are
able to read words, however, they may not comprehend
what they are reading.
• Comprehension strategies are beginning to emerge, but
are not fully developed.
• Usually, the first type of text children read is fiction. Fiction
supports their development of learning new words because
it follows a predictable pattern that is supported through
the use of illustrations, rhyme, or rhythm.
•Non-fiction material is much harder for them to read
because of content related vocabulary and because it is not
always written in the same format.
•Whole group instruction provides the opportunity for
students to practice comprehension strategies using both
fiction and non-fiction text in an oral format.
•Comprehension strategies introduced in whole group are
reinforced in guided reading with text based on a student’s
instructional level.
Math
• Curriculum is based on Cecil County indicators that are
aligned with Maryland’s Voluntary State Curriculum.
• Current resource for Kindergarten Everyday Math
• Concepts are extended and reinforced during small group
instruction.
• In order to enhance math content skills and math
processes, “Round the Rug Math” stories are being
presented in a co-lab fashion by the challenge and
kindergarten teacher.
• In between sessions, the kindergarten teacher has the
opportunity to extend the concepts presented during the
lesson.
Why Round the Rug Math?
Integration
• Mathematical concepts need to be integrated into other
•
•
content areas.
Integration allows children to develop understanding in
real-life situations.
Integrating mathematical concepts provides
opportunities for developing “connections” as
students solve problems.
Literature
• Literature is a powerful tool to help children understand
and visualize mathematical concepts.
• Research has found the process of oral storytelling is a
powerful medium allowing the teacher and students to
interact with the math concepts as the story is told.
• Using oral storytelling traditions found within many
cultures often provide context, continuity and motivation
for learning early math concepts.
Round The Rug Math
Adventures in Problem Solving
• A series of six books intended to supplement
and enhance instruction.
• Students actively participate in mathematical
activities as they solve problems presented to
characters in the story using hands-on
activities.
• Storytelling is enhanced through the use of
puppets, posters and manipulative materials.
http://www2.bc.edu/~caseyb/oview.html
Why Spatial Concepts?
• Involve the ability to think and reason through the
transformation of mental pictures
• Are involved in geometry, estimation, measurement,
diagrams, graphs, drawing, breaking fractions into
geometric regions, and conceptualizing mathematical
functions
• Spatial skills and mathematical achievement are
closely related
• Research shows that girls perform more poorly
on spatial tasks involving transformations then boys
Primary Talent Development
•PTD is based on the premise that all students (K-2) should be given
opportunities to develop talents and abilities to their fullest extent.
•PTD is a collection of K-2 science-based curriculum modules which
include instructional guidelines and strategies for open-ended,
problem-solving learning experiences to challenge students.
•PTD modules are currently being piloted at Leeds, Thomson Estates,
Perryville, Rising Sun, and Bay View.
PTD Modules
Kindergarten: Astounding Attributes & Questioning Quest
Grade One: Fourth Little Pig & Wiggly Worms
Grade Two: Branching Out with Trees & Environmental Explorations
Why Primary Talent Development?
• PTD models best practices that provide learning
experiences which allow all K-2 children to demonstrate
advanced learning capabilities or the potential for
advanced learning.
• PTD provides enrichment and differentiation to K-2
students in open-ended, problem solving instruction.
• PTD allows strengths of students to be identified and
data to be collected over time in order to build student
profiles, guide instruction, and recognize students who
may need gifted and talented educational services.
Contact Information:
Sandra Grulich
Instructional Coordinator for Early Childhood
410-996-5424
[email protected]