Early Literacy

Have you recently received an Early Reading First Grant? Are you in the process of writing an Early Reading First Grant? We can provide the professional development you need to meet the requirements of the Early Reading First Grant. We can provide professional development to enhance any Early Childhood Program.

• Oral Language

Do you have children that enter your preschool or kindergarten program speaking in two or three word phrases? Find out how to accelerate their oral language through oracy instruction.

If children have been slow to acquire speech or have been offered fewer opportunities to hold conversations (for many reasons) there can be limitations in the grammar they control, which might mean that they have difficulties with comprehending oral and written language. (Clay, 1991)

 

• Functions of Language

Language has purpose - to communicate needs, wants, ideas, information, and feelings.

We are finding these connect closely to the comprehension strategies used when reading the written word.

Click Here to see Halliday’s Functions of Language.

 

• Centers that accelerate oral language acquisition and utilizes the functions of oral language

Students need many opportunities to use language for different purposes within meaningful contexts and concrete experiences. Halliday (1975) observed that students must learn to apply as well as learn the language itself.

Let us help you design centers that will give your students opportunities to use language for different purposes. We are finding if they can use these functions in their oral language they more easily transfer over when they need to use them to comprehend written text.

 

• Assessing oral language acquisition

Identify stages of linguistic development in students. Teachers can use this data to plan instruction that will accelerate the acquisition of oral language in individual students or small groups of students. This assessment can be used in children as young as 2 years old.

Similar to Running Records with written text this assessment uses the same ticking method as a running record as the child speaks.

Purpose – To identify children who need systemic intervention in their language and literacy development in order to succeed in school as well as to inform instruction. (Gentile, 2003)