Carol Vukelich

Effects of play interventions on young children's reading of environmental print

Abstract This study examined effects of exposure to print and interaction with a more knowledgeable other on 56 kindergarten childrens environmental print knowledge. Three classes were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exposure to print during play in print-enriched settings, exposure to print and functional experiences with a more knowledgeable other (an adult) during play in print-enriched settings, and play in nonenriched settings. Prior to and following three weeks of play in each of five settings (15 week intervention period), each childs ability to read the environmental print appropriate to each setting was assessed in two ways: in-context with the words embedded in their supporting context and out-of-context with the words written on a list. The results indicated that while exposure to print significantly influenced the childrens ability to read environmental print when the print was embedded in its supporting context, exposure to the print and functional experiences with a more knowledgeable other around this print significantly influenced the childrens ability to read environmental print on both reading tasks. These findings suggest that exposure and functional experiences with adults in print-enriched play settings may offer an important opportunity for young children to associate meaning with print.

Prospective Teachers' Reflection: Strategies, Qualities, and Perceptions in Learning To Teach Reading.

Abstract This study examined and documented mental strategies used by prospective teachers to guide reflections on course content and teaching experiences. The 30 prospective teachers were enrolled in a literacy methods course and accompanying practicum at three university sites. Double‐entry journals and oral interviews were analyzed using open coding procedures, analytic induction, and cross‐subject pattern analysis. Across sites, prospective teachers relied primarily on directing their attention to personal experiences and values to guide their reflective work and they indicated the value of their own perspective to help them remember information and make sense of course content. Implications for instruction are drawn from an analysis of the power of personal experiences, the developmental nature of reflection, and noted tendencies to adopt new strategies as the semester progressed.

Literacy histories: Categories of influence

Abstract The preparation of literacy educators is a complicated task. Many factors, some outside a teacher education program, contribute to what a teacher candidate believes about literacy and its instruction. Unfortunately, the institutionalized pedagogy that comprises the literacy component of a teacher education program too often ignores teacher candidates’ wider social and experiential arenas and the beliefs and values that emanate from them (Liston & Zeichner, 1991). Instead, these personal experiences seem to be perceived as somehow beside the point. In this study, we attempt to understand the relationship between candidates’ experiential roots and their education to be a teacher of literacy. To explore an aspect of this wider range of influence, we secured the self‐reported literacy histories of teacher candidates. This source of information about a group of teacher candidates’ literacy lives provided a context for analysis. Using them, we examined possible links between teacher candidates’ remembr...

Tutoring: A Value-Added Way to Support Head Start Preschoolers' Language and Early Reading Development.

This article describes the language and early literacy program, including the use of extra instructional support, provided to low-income children in one Early Reading First (ERF) project. The article (a) describes the specific strategies used within a tutoring program to provide assistance beyond the classroom intervention program to children identified as at higher risk for future reading difficulty (i.e., children who performed below age-appropriate levels on the tools selected to measure childrens language and early reading knowledge), (b) describes the impact of this support in conjunction with the classroom intervention on these childrens language and early literacy achievement, and (c) offers suggestions for using this approach in other early care and education settings and future research.

Promoting literacy in play

When I was four my mother, father, sister, and I moved to California. My mother wrote my grandmother often, partly because she missed her terribly and partly because my mother relishes writing letters. Whenever she wrote, I sat beside her at the kitchen table and composed as many pages as she did, page after page of squiggly lines.

Understanding the Gap Between an AmericaReads Program and the Tutoring Sessions: The Nesting of Challenges

Abstract Increasingly, students receive tutoring for reading assistance. While some information exists about the features of various programs, little is known about the overlay between the planned tutoring program and what a tutor actually does. This investigation fills that void by exploring whether tutors in an AmericaReads program implement the planned program. To make this determination, artifacts stemming from the tutoring sessions, audiotapes of representative lessons, interviews of supervisors, and questionnaires completed by tutors were examined. The findings unveiled an inconsistent fidelity to the tutoring expectations. To further understand why these mismatches occurred, specific features of this AmericaReads program were examined. Here, organizational difficulties were detected that further explained the challenge of a program like AmericaReads to ensure that tutor actions reflect the planned program.

Coherence in Children's Written Narratives.

This study uses de Beaugrandes (1980) concept analysis system to analyze a group of childrens written narratives. In addition to ascertaining the potential of this system as a means of assessing coherence, the purpose of this study was to describe how 20 third graders employed narrative concepts at the local and global levels. An analysis of a maximum of nine writing samples from each child produced in response to a weekly request to write a story revealed that (1) most children were able to establish coherence consistently at a local level, (2) children varied in their establishment of coherence across samples, (3) writing reflected degrees of coherence on a continuum from less to more coherent samples, and (4) a minority of children wrote narratives that were consistently coherent at the global level. The study also supported the value of the concept analysis system as one means of assessing coherence in written narratives.

Factors affecting variance in Classroom Assessment Scoring System scores: season, context, and classroom composition

ABSTRACT Early care and education programme quality is usually assessed at the classroom level. One such measure of classroom quality is the classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS). In an effort to ensure higher quality programming, the CLASS is being used to direct teacher professional development. However, there has been relatively little research on environmental features that lead to differences in CLASS scores. As the CLASS becomes a regulatory tool, more research is needed on factors that can affect CLASS scores. In this quasi-experimental, descriptive study, we compare CLASS scores over the course of three years. Our data indicate patterns of seasonal fluctuation with rising scores fall to spring, but the scores revert to lower levels in the subsequent fall. We also found a relationship between CLASS scores and the proportion of boys in a classroom. These findings call for additional exploration of the factors that influence preschool CLASS scores.

Teachers’ Responsiveness to Preschoolers’ Utterances in Sociodramatic Play

Abstract Research Findings: This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine both preschool teachers’ responsiveness to children’s utterances in sociodramatic play and the children’s responses to their teachers’ utterances. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while interacting with children in the dramatic play center. Salient findings of this study are threefold: (a) Teachers’ responsiveness and the children’s responsiveness to their teachers’ talk varied substantially, (b) the children responded frequently to the teachers’ topic-continuing utterances, and (c) the children responded frequently in the pretend play mode when teachers extended the children’s utterances following the topics initiated by the children. Practice or Policy: The current study contributes to the extant research by providing a more fine-grained analysis of children’s response modes in the sociodramatic play context. In addition, the current study suggests that teacher education and that practice and policies supporting teaching quality should consider emphasizing the details of teacher–child interaction in the dramatic play center at the utterance level.

The Effects of Group Size on Kindergarten Children's Listening Comprehension Performance.

The present study assessed the effect of small, medium, and large group size on kindergarten childrens listening comprehension. Approximately 120 children were divided by sex and randomly assigned to one of four groups which varied from one another only in size. To determine the childrens entry listening comprehension skill level, subtests of four reading tests were administered to all children. Those children participating in one adult to one child instruction, one adult to seven or eight children instruction, and one adult to fifteen children instruction interacted daily for ten sessions with an instructor who posed specific comprehension questions, read a carefully selected piece of childrens literature, then restated the comprehension questions to assess the childrens understanding of the story. All responses were recorded on a pictorial answer sheet. Those children in the control group received no instruction. The childrens exit level listening comprehension skills were reassessed by administering the same preinstruction subtests to all children immediately following the ten sessions. Group size was found to affect significantly the childrens performance, with one to one instruction resulting in the greatest gains.