Barbara A. Wasik

The Effects of a Language and Literacy Intervention on Head Start Children and Teachers

A language and literacy intervention was implemented in 10 Head Start classrooms. Teachers were trained in specific book reading and conversation strategies. The focus of the intervention was to train teachers how to increase opportunities for language and vocabulary development in young children. At the end of the year, children in the intervention classrooms performed significantly better than children in the control classrooms on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—III and the Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). In addition, teachers in the intervention classrooms used strategies that promoted language development during book reading and other classroom activities. Head Start teachers can be trained to implement strategies that have positive effects on children’s language and literacy development.

Beyond the pages of a book : Interactive book reading and language development in preschool classrooms

The effects of a book reading technique called interactive book reading on the language and literacy development of 4-year-olds from low-income families were evaluated. Teachers read books to children and reinforced the vocabulary in the books by presenting concrete objects that represented the words and by providing children with multiple opportunities to use the book-related words. The teachers also were trained to ask open-ended questions and to engage children in conversations about the book and activities. This provided children with opportunities to use language and learn vocabulary in a meaningful context. Children who were in the interactive book reading intervention group scored significantly better than children in the comparison group on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III and other measures of receptive and expressive language. Book reading and related activities can promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children.

A Social Model for Health Promotion for an Aging Population: Initial Evidence on the Experience Corps Model

This report evaluates whether a program for older volunteers, designed for both benerativity and health promotion, leads to short-term improvements inmultiple behavioral risk factors and positive effects on intermediary risk factors for disability and other morbidities. The Experience Corps® places older volunteers in public elementary schools in roles designed to meet schools’ needs and increase the social, physical, and cognitive activity of the volunteers. This article reports on a pilot randomized trial in Baltimore, Maryland. The 128 volunteers were 60–86 years old; 95% were African American. At follow-up of 4–8 months, physical activity, strength, people one could turn to for help, and cognitive activity increased significantly, and walking speed decreased significantly less, in participants compared to controls. In this pilot trial, physical, cognitive, and social activity increased, suggesting the potential for the Experience Corps to improve health for an aging population and simultaneously improve educational outcomes for children.

Success for All: Longitudinal Effects of a Restructuring Program for Inner-City Elementary Schools

This article presents the effects of variations of a schoolwide restructuring program, Success for All, on student reading achievement and other outcomes in elementary schools serving large numbers of disadvantaged students. Success for All uses research-based preschool and kindergarten programs, beginning and intermediate reading programs in Grades 1-3, one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving students, family support programs, and other elements. A total of five Baltimore schools were studied over a period of 3 years (four schools) or 4 years (one school). Comparisons with matched students in matched schools indicated strong positive effects on most individually administered reading measures in most schools for students who have been in the program since first grade. Retentions in grade were also substantially reduced, and attendance increased over time.

Experience corps: Design of an intergenerational program to boost social capital and promote the health of an aging society

Population aging portends a crisis of resources and values. Desired solutions could include intergenerational strategies to harness the untapped potential of older adultsto address societal needs and to generate health improvements for older adults. Despite the desire of many older adults to remain socially engaged and productive, the creation of productive roles has lagged. This report describes the conceptual framework and major design features of a new model of health promotion for older adults called Experience Corps®. Experience Corps operates at, and leads to benefits, across multiple levels, including individuals, schools, and the larger community. At the individual level, we propose a model based on Erikson’s concept of generativity to explain bow and why experience Corps works. At the level of schools, we propose a parallel model based on social capital. Experience Corps is a volunteer service program designed to improve the lives of urban childre and to yield health improvement for older persons. It illustrates how population aging creates new opportunities to address difficult social problems. This article explores how the linkage of concepts at multiple levels motivates a potentially cost-effective, feasible, and high-impact program.

Short-Term Impact of Experience Corps® Participation on Children and Schools: Results from a Pilot Randomized Trial

This article reports on the short-term impact of a school-based program using older adult volunteers and aimed at improved academic achievement and reduced disruptive classroom behavior in urban elementary school students. The Experience Corps® Baltimore (Maryland) program places a critical mass of older adult volunteers, serving 15 hours or more per week, in public schools to perform meaningful and important roles to improve the educational outcomes of children and the health and well-being of the volunteers. This article reports on the preliminary impact of the program on children in grades K-3. A total of 1,194 children in grades K-3 from six urban elementary schools participated in this pilot trial. At follow-up, third grade children whose schools were randomly selected for the program had significantly higher scores on a standardized reading test than children in the control schools, and there was a nonsignificant trend for improvement in alphabet recognition and vocabulary ability among kindergarten children in the program. Office referrals for classroom misbehavior decreased by about half in the Experience Corps schools, but remained the same in the control schools. Teachers had somewhat more favorable attitudes toward senior volunteers as a result of having older volunteers in the classroom, although the difference between the intervention and control schools was not statistically significant. In this pilot trial, the Experience Corps program led to selective improvements in student reading/academic achievement and classroom behavior while not burdening the school staff.

Developing Vocabulary through Purposeful, Strategic Conversations.

Explicit instruction on the skill of creating mental imagery from text supports reading comprehension and recall. This article shares a strategy for teaching students how to process what they read by comparing mental imagery to “brain movies.” It emphasizes choosing appropriate fiction and nonfiction texts to encourage readers to build the skill of creating mental imagery, and offers examples from two classrooms on how students use brain movies to make meaning from what they read.

Understanding the Active Ingredients in an Effective Preschool Vocabulary Intervention: An Exploratory Study of Teacher and Child Talk During Book Reading

Research Findings: In order to identify the active ingredients in an effective professional development intervention focused on enhancing preschool vocabulary instruction, this study examines the frequency with which teachers and children discussed theme-related vocabulary words during shared book reading. Head Start teachers received 1 year of training focused upon early vocabulary development. Childrens vocabulary skills were assessed in the fall and spring of the school year. In spring, teachers read a storybook to their classroom, and teachers’ and childrens remarks about theme-related vocabulary during the reading—including contextualized and decontextualized statements as well as verbatim repetitions of one anothers statements—were coded. Practice or Policy: Results of multilevel models showed that more frequent references to thematic vocabulary by teachers were linked to stronger child vocabulary development. Although childrens vocabulary references were not uniquely predictive of vocabulary learning, teachers’ repetition of childrens remarks contributed to childrens vocabulary gains.

Phonemic Awareness and Young Children

0 ver the past 20 years, considerable research has been devoted to phonemic awareness and the role it plays in young childrens learning to read (Cunningham, 1990; Stanovich, 1986; Wagner et al., 1997). Unfortunately, much of this work has been limited to the research community and to elementary school reading teachers. It has not been effectively communicated to one of the most important audiences-teachers of young children. This lack of communication may be due to misconceptions about phonemic awareness. Teachers of young children may be reticent about discussing phonemic awareness because they assume that phonemic awareness is 1) phonics, and 2) not developmentally appropriate for young children.

Understanding the Home Language and Literacy Environments of Head Start Families: Testing the Family Literacy Survey and Interpreting Its Findings

The current study investigated the nature of Head Start childrens home literacy environments and the associations between these resources and childrens early-language and literacy skills. At the beginning of the preschool year, families of 302 children completed the Family Literacy Survey. In general, Head Start families reported providing a variety of activities for young children; however, variability was observed across families on several aspects of the home literacy environment. Findings also revealed that the average family reported employing academically focused activities approximately once or twice per week, whereas play-related activities took place significantly more often, close to every day. Implications for measuring the home literacy environments of families in poverty and for helping educators to build upon and strengthen these home environments are discussed.