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UD boosts English skills with Head Start grant 3:49 p.m., Jan. 18, 2007--Classrooms in three New Castle County Head Start Centers are bright and bustling with activities designed to enhance language and literacy skills thanks to a U.S. Department of Education grant to the UD Center for Teacher Education. The $3.3 million, three-year "Early Reading First" grant--part of the federal government's No Child Left Behind initiative--provides more than $60,000 in supplemental materials for the mostly Spanish-speaking students in the Manor Park, Rose Hill and Lambson centers. While the classrooms may look like typical preschool rooms, everything in them is designed with a purpose. Language skills are woven into every part of the students' days, whether they are working on math skills, a science project or eating lunch. The program reaches some 220 three- and four-year-olds each year. This is the second year of the three-year grant. Three UD faculty members who work with the grant are Carol Vukelich, director of the Delaware Center for Teacher Education, director of inservice education and a professor in the School of Education; Martha Buell, professor of individual and family studies; and Myae Han, assistant professor of individual and family studies. Their grant proposal was selected from among 625 pre-applications. The three selected the curriculum and trained the teachers and support staff at each center. They meet monthly with the teachers and offer additional training each summer to build the teachers' knowledge of how to build classrooms to enhance language and literacy skills. Additionally, they meet with regularly with three coaches assigned to the center to work in liaison capacities. The Doors to Discovery curriculum provides a new theme each month for the Head Start students. This year, the first session was called "New Faces, New Places" and focused on the start of the new school year, meeting each other and learning to share and accept responsibility. That was followed by a transportation unit and the current unit called "Healthy Me." Again, all areas of the classroom are incorporated into language and literacy development as it relates to the unit theme. During "Healthy Me," for example, dramatic play areas were transformed into doctor's offices. Children could practice language skills while checking in with a “receptionist” and read stories to each other as they pretended to be parents and children in the doctor's waiting room, while pretend nurses practiced writing numbers on the doctor's chart. At other times, the area may be transformed into a restaurant while the class practices reading menus and learns about healthy eating. “These children are bathed in Spanish, and we dip them in English,” Buell said. “Everything is very well planned and purposeful. The classroom environments are engaging and provide the children with constructive models. The writing centers give the children access to all sorts of medium to write with and all of the activities are very rich in language.” “It's an exciting and playful environment where all the material is integrated with active learning,” Han added. “The teachers are constantly monitoring the children's language and literacy skills and teaching them through active involvement and play.” A parent liaison at each center ensures that there are plenty of activities for the children to take home to continue practicing their language and literacy skills, Vukelich said, adding that each center also sponsors parent programs such as "Build Your Own Book Night" or nutrition talks where families can draw up menus. Additionally, each child takes a turn taking Tabby the Tiger, the curriculum mascot, home and keeping a journal of Tabby's activities during the visit. Vukelich said each student is given a pre-test at the beginning of the year and a post-test at the end to measure language and literacy skills. When compared with a control group, she said, the Headstart students scored very well in concepts of print and alphabet knowledge. Article by Beth Thomas |
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