According to the textbook and article, why is it important to read to children? Please write about two key points from each

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create a cohesive story, or idea, in the case of expository text (Hogan, Adlof, & Alonzo, 2014). Early elementary school reading curricula focus primarily on teaching word reading. To prepare children for this curricular focus, preschool teachers are spending more time on pre-reading skills such as print awareness, letter recognition, and letter-sound correspondences, thereby leaving less time for activities that increase language skills foundational for comprehension. As a result, some children are becoming good word readers who cannot comprehend the texts they read (Catts, Hogan, & Adlof, 2005).

Noting this trend, the U.S. Department of Education funded the Reading for Understanding initiative in 2010. This was the largest federal research initiative ($120 million) since sending a man to the moon in the 1960s. RFU provided funding to six teams, or consortiums, of researchers to determine the devel- opmental processes underpinning reading comprehension and to create and test evidence-based interventions to improve reading comprehension in children preschool through 12th grade (Douglas & Albro, 2014).

Language development begins in utero and continues to expand across the lifespan. Early childhood in particular is a time of extraordinary gains in language that set the stage for academic achievement. In a recent study, my colleagues and I found that language skills measured at as early as 15 months predicted reading comprehension in fifth grade (Petscher, Justice, & Hogan, 2017). One pillar of most, if not all, preschool curricula is shared book reading, in which children listen to a text read aloud. In this article, I describe work by a feder- ally funded consortium that provides an evidence-base on how best to leverage shared book reading to stimulate early comprehension, which in turn builds a strong foundation for future academic achievement.

What Does the Research Say?

Reading comprehension is comprised of both word reading— turning printed text into spoken words either read aloud or kept in one’s head—and language comprehension—under- standing these spoken words as connected language that

Tiffany P. Hogan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is director of the speech and language (SAiL) literacy lab, and professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, Massachusetts. Hogan studies the genetic, neurologic, and behavioral links between oral and written

language development, with a focus on improving assessment and intervention for young children with speech, language and/or literacy impairments. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Hogan teaches graduate courses in literacy assessment and intervention, leading literacy change, phonological disorders, and professional issues in academia. Find her on Twitter (@tiffanyphogan), Facebook (sailliteracylab), or online (www.mghihp.edu/sail).

BRIDGING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

The Bridging Research and Practice feature in each issue includes an article on an aspect of

early childhood research, plus links to the original published research with a companion article

full of practical strategies for how to implement the research in your practice.

We encourage you to nominate research for review by the Research Advisory Team by email:

[email protected] To learn more about the Advisory Team, visit www.ChildCareExchange.com/research

RESEARCH

Can you Read to Me? Increasing Language and Literacy Skills During Shared Book Reading

by Tiffany P. Hogan

Copyright © Exchange Press, Inc. All rights reserved. A single copy of these materials may be

reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. Visit us at www.ChildCareExchange.com or

call (800) 221-2864.

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My lab was one of four that comprised an RFU consortium that included preschool children. Our 14-investigator consor- tium, the Language and Reading Research Consortium, pulled from decades of research to create and test a new year-long comprehension-focused curriculum for preschool through third grades called Let’s Know! Lessons were developed and tested using a nine-phase curriculum research framework (Clements, 2007; LARRC, 2016). In phases one through five, a subset of our investigators and an advisory board of 40 educators completed an extensive survey of the literature, determined the focus, scope, and nature of instruction, and created and refined lesson proto- types with measurable teaching objectives. In phases six through nine, a series of four studies were conducted, utilizing over 100 teachers and students across grades, to test feasibility, fidelity, and efficacy of Let’s Know! In phase 10, we conducted a random- ized control trial of the effectiveness of Let’s Know! to improve language and comprehension during one school year. More than 300 teachers and 1,500 students in preschool through third grade participated in the trial.

LARRC studies show that Let’s Know! significantly improves chil- dren’s language and comprehension in preschool through third grade (LARRC, Arthur, & Davis, 2016; LARRC, Jiang, & Davis, 2017; LARRC, Johanson, & Arthur, 2015; LARRC, Pratt, & Logan, 2015). Let’s Know! lessons and their evidence-base are free online (see example lesson plan on pages 16 and 17).

What Does this Mean for the Classroom?

The Let’s Know! curriculum is comprised of 84 30-minute, evidence-based classroom lessons that employ shared book reading with both narrative and expository texts (LARRC, 2016). I highlight three key elements of shared book reading in Let’s Know! lessons:

1. Storybook reading should explicitly target both founda- tional and higher-level language skills (Hogan, Bridges, Cain, & Justice, 2011).

Language comprehension involves a complex interplay among multiple foundational and higher-level language skills (Hogan et al., 2011). We coined some language skills as foundational because they develop early and continue to evolve through everyday experiences. These skills include vocabulary knowl- edge and grammatical understanding and use. Higher-level language skills require explicit instruction for most children. These skills include knowledge of story grammar, comprehen- sion monitoring, and inferencing. Vocabulary is most effectively increased by using child-friendly definitions with repeated exposure to new words in varied contexts and in relation to known words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013). Grammar can be improved through repetition and recasting of a child’s initial phrasing. Recasting is when an adult repeats a child’s utter- ance but corrects erroneous grammar. For example, a child may say, “him goes,” and the adult would recast the utterance by saying, “yes, he goes.” The teacher’s recast may be repeated multiple times in varied contexts (Fey, Long, & Finestack, 2003). Story grammar refers to the consistent structure of a narrative, including reference to a setting, the inclusion of a main char- acter, a problem the character has to solve, an attempt to solve that problem, and a resolution. Some stories use this structure in multiple, slightly different iterations, also called episodes. Preschool children can learn to recognize these elements in stories, thereby improving their comprehension (Dimino, Taylor, & Gersten, 1995). Comprehension monitoring is the reader’s ability to notice when comprehension breakdowns occur. Ideally, when a breakdown occurs, “fix-up” strategies will be used to repair comprehension. An example strategy would be to ask a teacher or friend for clarification. Finally, inferencing involves using background information to fill in the gaps in a story. A first step to improving inferencing in preschool children is noting that gaps frequently occur in stories.

2. Storybook reading should be interactive (Mol, Bus, & de Jong, 2009).

For storybook reading to effectively stimulate language and literacy skills, there must be a reciprocal interaction, a back- and-forth, between the teacher and the students (Whitehurst et al., 1994). This exchange is the crux of the term shared in

Photo courtesy of The Children’s Quarters at the MGH Institute of Health Professions

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Conclusions

Though shared book reading is a staple of early childhood educa- tion, what happens before, during, and after shared book reading determines its effectiveness at stimulating language and compre- hension skills in preschool children. Implementing evidence-based techniques in everyday shared book reading can significantly strengthen the language foundation upon which preschool chil- dren build future academic achievement.

References

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Catts, H.W., Adlof, S.M., Hogan, T.P., & Ellis-Weismer, S. (2005). Are specific language impairment and dyslexia distinct disorders? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1378-1396.

Clements, D.H. (2007). Curriculum research: Toward a framework for “research-based curricula.” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 38, 35–70.

Dimino, J.A., Taylor, R.M., & Gersten, R.M. (1995). Synthesis of the research on story grammar as a means to increase comprehension. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 11(1), 53-72.

Douglas, K.M., & Albro, E.R. (2014). The progress and promise of the reading for understanding research initiative. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 341-355.

shared storybook reading. Shared book reading is not a time to ask children to “sit quietly and listen.” One effective way to facilitate language goals is interactive think alouds, in which a teacher stops reading to think out loud about an aspect of the book. For example, the teacher may stop reading to note, “Oh, I now know that this book’s setting is the beach. I know that a setting is the place where a story happens. Now that I know the story happens at a beach, I can think of all of the times I’ve been to the beach, or read stories about the beach. I’m now thinking about all the things I know about the beach, like there is sand that I like to dig and the ocean water is cold on my feet. What do you know about the beach?” Teachers can also use sabotage to simulate comprehension breakdowns and then ask the students how to work through those breakdowns.

3. Storybook reading should include pre- and post-reading activities (Rosenblatt, 1994).

Shared storybook reading goes beyond reading a specific book. It involves pre- and post-reading activities that augment the shared book reading experience. Pre-reading activities activate relevant background knowledge and prepare children for the language skill to be taught. One pre-reading activity is a book walk. During a book walk, the teacher turns the pages of the book and asks children to guess aspects of the story based on the pictures. For example, the teacher may generate a semantic map of animals in a book to determine how they are similar and different. The map would include connections linking similar animals, as well as separate maps for groups of animals that share features. Post-reading activities give children more opportunities to continue to learn or to practice a new skill. For example, the teacher may refine the semantic map generated in a pre-reading activity. Another example is to find other books that include a similar setting. The Gradual Release of Respon- sibility Model (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) is a well-established technique to structure pre- and post-reading activities. This model uses an “I Do, We Do, You Do” approach. For an “I Do” activity, the teacher models a technique or skill. In the “We Do” activity, children work together to practice the modeled technique or skill. Ultimately, in a “You Do” activity, children practice this technique or skill independently. “I Do” tasks map on well to pre-reading activities, “We Do” onto reading, and “You Do” onto post-reading.

Notably, we found that shared book reading was most effective when we chose books that best matched the language skills we were targeting. As such, when focusing on story grammar, we chose a book that included clear elements of story grammar, such as a straightforward setting, preferably only one; the main character mentioned by name, preferably often; a well-defined problem; etc. We also selected storybooks that represent the diversity of cultures in the United States and we created ¡Vamos a Aprender!, a Spanish-language preschool version of Let’s Know!

Free Let’s Know! Curriculum Download

■ Includes: lessons, supplemental materials, teaching tech- niques, and book lists

■ 5 grades (Preschool through 3rd grade)

■ 4 units: Fiction, Folktales, Animals, and Earth Materials

■ 25 weeks: 7 weeks per units 1-3, 4 weeks in unit 4

■ 3-4, 30-minute lessons per week for 84 lessons

■ ¡Vamos a Aprender! closely aligns with the preschool version of Let’s Know! and features Spanish and English lessons and materials

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Fey, M.E., Long, S.H., & Finestack, L.H. (2003). Ten principles of grammar facilitation for children with specific language impair- ments. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12, 3-15.

Hogan, T.P., Adlof, S.M., & Alonzo, C.N. (2014). On the impor- tance of listening comprehension. International Journal of Speech- Language Pathology, 16, 199-207.

Hogan, T.P., Bridges, M.S., Justice, L.M., & Cain, K. (2011). Increasing higher-level language skills to improve reading comprehension. Focus on Exceptional Children, 44, 1-19.

Language and Reading Research Consortium. (2016). Use of the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF) for developing a reading- comprehension curricular supplement for the primary grades. The Elementary School Journal, 116, 1-28.

Language and Reading Research Consortium, Arthur, A., & Davis, D.L. (2016). A pilot study of the impact of double-dose robust vocabulary instruction on children’s vocabulary growth. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 9:2, 173-200.

Language and Reading Research Consortium, Jiang, H., & Davis, D. (2017). Let’s Know! proximal impacts on PK through G3 chil- dren’s comprehension-related skills. The Elementary School Journal, 118, 177-206.

Language and Reading Research Consortium, Johanson, M., & Arthur, A. (2015). Improving the language skills of Pre-Kinder- garten students: Preliminary impacts of the Let’s Know! experi- mental curriculum. Child and Youth Care Forum, 1-26.

Language and Reading Research Consortium, Pratt, A., & Logan, J. (2014). Improving language-focused comprehension instruction in primary-grade classrooms: Impacts of the Let’s Know! curric- ulum. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 357-377.

Mol, S.E., Bus, A.G., & De Jong, M.T. (2009). Interactive book reading in early education: A tool to stimulate print knowledge as well as oral language. Review of Educational Research, 79, 979-1007.

Pearson, P.D., & Gallagher, G. (1983). The gradual release of responsibility model of instruction. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 112-123.

Petscher, Y., Justice, L.M., & Hogan, T.P. (2017). Modeling the early language trajectory of language development and its rela- tion to poor reading comprehension. Child Development online early view.

Rosenblatt, L.M. (1994). The reader, the text, the poem: The transac- tional theory of the literary work. SIU Press.

Whitehurst, G.J., Arnold, D.S., Epstein, J.N., Angell, A.L., Smith, M., & Fischel, J.E. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in day care and home for children from low-income families. Devel- opmental Psychology, 30, 679.

Resources

Nation, K. (2018). What teachers need to know about shared reading: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking- views/what-teachers-need-know-about-shared-reading

Find books to target specific language and literacy goals: https://booksharetime.com/

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Example Let’s Know! lesson. See page 14 for details on how to download free Let’s Know! lessons.

Let’s Know! Pre-K Fiction Cycles and Sequences Read to Me Lesson 2

Show Me What you Know! You’ll be stars of Cycles and Sequences—we’re going to video record our class acting out a story in sequence.

Teaching Objectives:

■ Identify when something in the text does not make sense ■ Participate in collaborative conversations about the book

Lesson Materials You Provide:

■ Sticky Notes

Unit Materials Provided:

■ Comprehension Monitoring Icons ■ Fix-Up Strategies Poster

Teaching Techniques:

■ Comprehension Monitoring ■ Rich Discussion

Lesson Text:

■ Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Talk Structure for We Do / You Do:

■ Selected by teacher

Special Instructions for this Lesson

Before the lesson:

■ Cut out and attach the Comprehension Monitoring Icons to craft sticks so students can use them in this lesson and throughout the Let’s Know! units.

■ An important purpose of the Read to Me lessons is an opportunity to read the entire book. However, preview the book and prepare the text you will read to keep the lesson at the appropriate length while including all of the story elements.

■ Insert sticky notes with prepared questions and comments on the corresponding pages.

In the I Do portion of the lesson:

■ Introduce the Comprehension Monitoring technique and the Comprehension Monitoring Icons, or Makes Sense/Doesn’t Make Sense signs. Introduce a stumbling block and explain how important it is to “fix it up.” Thumbs up or down or other signals can be taught to indicate when the text makes sense or does not make sense in lieu of the Comprehension Monitoring Icons.

During the We Do routing:

■ Read the text and occasionally insert a stumbling block. Then do a think aloud, applying a fix-up strategy.

The goal of the Rich Discussion techinique is:

■ To have multiple students participate and take multiple conversational turns. Suggested questions to begin a rich disucssion are provided. If a particular question is sparking a good discussion, there is no need to ask all of the questions listed. To help begin the discussion, you may want to model your answer to the question and then ask students to agree, disagree, or add new ideas. Try to facilitate a discussion dominated by student talk.

Lesson Routine

Set Engage students’ interest; activate their background knowledge on the skill or concept you will teach by providing an example. State the purpose of the lesson and why it is important for listening or reading comprehension.

You could say: “When you’re watching TV at home, does a grown up ever hit the pause button and rewind the show? They might say they didn’t understand what someone said or what happened. It’s important to do that same kind of thing when you’re reading a book. Today, while I’m reading, I’m going to stop so we can talk about what’s happening in the book. I’m also going to ask if what I’m reading makes sense. Good readers and listeners often stop and talk about what’s happening so they can understand the story and remember what happens in each part of the story. I’m really excited to read our first book for this unit, where we will be studying stories and learning to retell them in the correct sequence or order.”

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Lesson Routine Continued

I Do

Teach main concept or skill using clear explanations and/or steps. Model two examples for the skill or concept students will practice in You Do. Show a completed sample if appropriate.

You could say: “Today we get to read our first book in this unit, Harry the Dirty Dog! Before we begin I want to teach you something important to do while you are listening to a story. Sometimes when you are listening to a book, there might be words or ideas in the story you don’t understnad. When you listen to a story it’s important to stop and ask yourself, ‘Hmm…. Does this make sense? Do I understand what is happening?’ If the answer is yes, you keep listening because you understand what you’re hearing; it makes sense. (hold up Makes Sense side of the Comprehension Monitoring Icon.) If the answer is no, then something doesn’t make sense. (hold up Doesn’t Make Sense Icon.) Some ideas or some words in the story are confusing. You need to stop when you don’t understand and fix what doesn’t make sense.”

Demonstrate holding up the Makes Sense/Doesn’t Make Sense sign while students listen to part of the text and think about whether they comprehend it. You could say: “Here’s an example sentence: ‘Harry is a happy canine.’ If you don’t understand that sentence, you can hold up your Doesn’t Make Sense sign. (Hold up icon.) You can ask me, ‘What is a canine?’ Then I can help you fix what doesn’t make sense. We can figure out the word ‘canine.’ We can look at the pictures in the book, we can read some more sentences, or we can ask questions to try to learn the word ‘canine.’ (Display the Fix-Up Strategies Poster.) When we read, we’ll practice stopping and checking if something doesn’t make sense. It’s important that the story and words make sense.”

We Do

Provide guided practice, feedback, and support, ensuring active participation of all students. Check for understanding, ensuring that students are ready for independent practice before moving to You Do.

To demonstrate comprehension monitoring, you could say: (10th page; begins “He slid down a coal chute…”) “Let’s see… I’m going to stop where it says, ‘Harry slid down a coal chute and got the dirtiest of all.’ I don’t know what a coal chute is. (Hold up icon.) In the picture I see a pile of something black that looks like it came from the truck. The story says Harry got the dirtiest of all. The black rocks are prob- ably the coal; they are black and would make you very dirty. Harry is going down something that looks like a slide. It looks like the black coal slid off the truck on that slide. From the illustration, I think the slide is the chute, and it’s for the black coal. It makes sense that a coal chute is a slide for coal and that Harry got dirty sliding down it.” (Flip icon.)

(18th page; says “He danced and he sang.”) “I’m going to stop here where it says, ‘He danced and sang.’ Does that make sense? Hold up your signs to tell me if this makes sense. I’ll hold up my Doesn’t Make Sense sign (display icon) because dogs don’t sing or dance. I’m going to use the fix-up strategy Reread. On the previous page it says, ‘Harry started to do all his old, clever tricks.’ On the next page it says, ‘He did these tricks over and over again…’ Do these sentences help the story make sense?”

Support students in realizing that “danced and sang” is not literal but refers to Harry’s tricks.

You Do

Provide at least two opportunities for each student to complete independent practice of the skill or application of the concept. Provide individualized feedback. At the end of You Do bring students back together and focus their attention on you before beginning the Close.

Rich discussion should be teacher-led but student-dominated conversation. Prompt students to take multiple turns and use higher-level language. You could say: “I really enjoyed that story. Harry made it back home, and finally his family realized it was their dog, Harry. I wonder… (ask one of the following questions):”

■ “What might have happened if the dirt didn’t wash off of Harry?” ■ “What would your family do if you couldn’t find your dog or cat?” ■ “At the end of the story Harry was sleeping peacefully. What do you think Harry might do next?”

Close

Help students briefly review the key skills or concepts they learned, suggest how they could apply them in other activites or contexts, and bring the lesson to an orderly close.

You could say: “You did a great job listening to our first book, Harry the Dirty Dog, and answering questions. Today we learned it’s impor- tant to stop when you are reading and make sure that what you read makes sense. If something doesn’t make sense, what should you do? Show me the sign we use when something does make sense. Next time someone reads to you maybe you can teach them how to stop when something doesn’t make sense and talk about the book while you are reading together.”

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El Camino College Childhood Education Department

CDEV 115 Introduction to Curriculum

Introduction to Curriculum for

Early Childhood Educators

An Open Educational Resources Publication by College of the Canyons

2 | I n t r o d u c t i o n t o C u r r i c u l u m f o r E a r l y C h i l d h o o d E d u c a t i o n

Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education

An Open Educational Resources Publication by College of the Canyons

Created by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, and Clint Springer

Editor: Alexa Johnson Cover: Ian Joslin

Version 1.1

2019

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Acknowledgements

College of the Canyons would like to extend appreciation to the following people and

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