Overview of the Bridgewater-Raritan Panther Preschool Proposal

Transcription

1 Overview of the Bridgewater-Raritan Panther Preschool Proposal The Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District s Preschool Program educates children ages 3 to 5. The preschool staff members work diligently to create a warm and caring environment so that children feel valued and safe as they engage in enriching learning experiences. In the preschool program, children learn to problem-solve and become more independent while engaging in developmentally appropriate activities. All components of the program are anchored in best practices in education of young children. Who will be served? All children ranging in age from 3 5 (third birthday by October 1 st ) living within the Bridgewater-Raritan community would be eligible to apply for entry into the Panther Preschool Program. Once selected, student may remain in the Panther Preschool for a maximum of two years or until the student enters Kindergarten. When will the program be housed? All of the Preschool Programs within Bridgewater-Raritan will be housed in selected primary schools. How many children will be included? The Panther Preschool Class will have a capacity of 17 children. Nine non-disabled children will be selected through a lottery and eight of the children in the class will be identified through the Child Study Team as eligible for special education and related services. The lottery will take place in the February prior to the following school year. Each class will be instructed by one certified preschool-grade 3 teacher along with an instructional classroom assistant. A special education teacher will provide support as dictated by the individual student s education plan. What curriculum will be taught to the children? The Bridgewater-Raritan Preschool Curriculum utilizes the framework of The Creative Curriculum, Everyday Mathematics for Preschool and components of the Bridgewater-Raritan Communications Arts Curriculum to implement developmentally appropriate practices in our preschool classrooms. The instructional approaches of The Creative Curriculum are based on current research that highlights the importance of literacy and the skills and knowledge children need to learn, as documented in Preventing Reading Difficulties (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998), and the Report of the National Reading Panel (NICHHD, 2000). The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a scientifically-based, research-tested model. The Creative Curriculum components promote executive functioning, letter knowledge, phonological awareness. The Creative Curriculum for Preschool: Background The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a comprehensive curriculum based on child development and early education research and theory (Dodge, Durham, Duckett, & Stover, 2011). It is widely used in programs across the United States (Hyson, 2008). Curriculum materials detail how to (a) create learning

2 environments, (b) individualize for diverse learners, (c) teach content areas, and (d) integrate in-depth investigations of topics of interest to children. Embedded within the curriculum resources are links to the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment system that provide opportunities for daily, guided observation of children s progress toward learning objectives. Effectiveness of The Creative Curriculum for Preschool was recently examined in a study conducted by independent researchers. The study focused on preschool children s cognitive achievement when teachers used The Creative Curriculum for Preschool for one or for two years. Children in classrooms where teachers had been using The Creative Curriculum for Preschool for two years had significantly higher literacy and mathematics scores than children in classrooms where the teachers used another curriculum or where teachers had used The Creative Curriculum for Preschool for only one year. These results imply that The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is effective in promoting children s cognitive achievement when teachers have sufficient time to implement the program. Language Skills Language skills are an important developmental milestone for preschoolers. As they learn to communicate more effectively, they are better able to express their wants, needs and ideas to others. In addition, language becomes a social activity as children use their skills to form friendships, compromise, negotiate, play and problem solve. Language skills also prepare children for reading and eventual school success. Language skills influence: Ability to communicate wants and needs Ability to develop healthy relationships Ability to develop early literacy skills A lack of language skills can lead to: Behavioral difficulties Problems in interpersonal relationships Academic failures Between ages two and five, children acquire a tremendous amount of information about language. They go from saying brief two-word sentences to full, long phrases. They learn how to make past, present, and future tenses, how to devise singulars and plurals, and hot to ask questions and make statements. Language development varies considerably from child to child. By age five, the differences between children with different degrees of language skills can be striking. One child may have a vocabulary of four or five thousand words; another child only has one to two thousand. As children make the transition from preschool to kindergarten, one of the best predictors of school success is how many words they know and use. Teachers consistently identified children as high academic achievers if they used language with notable skill and power. Children with strong oral language skills in kindergarten later become proficient readers and writers (Loban, 1976). Positive relationships have been identified between meta-linguistic awareness and reading proficiency (Turner, Nesdale & Wright, 1987).

3 Some important language skills for a 3-4 year old child: Preschoolers are learning how to put words together to make sentences. Younger children usually use fewer words, while 4- and 5-year olds put together sentences that have at least five to seven words. Preschoolers are also learning how to use the past and future Preschoolers should be using 6 to 8 word sentences with the basic rules of grammar Preschoolers are learning how to pronounce words more clearly. Most adults should be able to understand most of what 3-year olds say, and 4- and 5-year-olds should be almost completely understandable. Some sounds, like f, v, sh, r, and th take longer to learn and might not be clear even after children start school. Preschoolers begin using pronouns and prepositions appropriately, begin to understand size relationships and begin to enjoy rhymes and word play Language Benefits for Students with Disabilities in the Panther Preschool By the age of 3, most children know about 900 words and by the age of 5, most children know over 3,000. Students in the Panther Preschool will now have natural language models to expand their vocabulary development. All students will learn new words every day through song, playing, reading and theme based activities Peers can serve as good social language models teaching students appropriate social skills such as eye contact, greetings, turn-taking, conversational skills which will lead to increased listening skills and turn-taking in conversation between students Peers will serve as appropriate language models which will lead to increased opportunities for all students to engage in spontaneous and reciprocal conversations Peers can model typical play skills in a natural learning environment Language Benefits for Students without Disabilities in the Panther Preschool Access to curriculum and specially trained certified teachers and therapists Low student to teacher ratios High level of support from staff Increased opportunities for parental education Developmental gains at least equivalent to those made by their peers in non-integrated programs Development of early literacy skills as they relate to language development Direct instruction provided in both expressive and receptive language use

4 Executive Functioning: The Creative Curriculum for Preschool accomplishes this by way of studies, in-depth, investigations of topics that are relevant to children and that begin with their questions. This type of investigative thinking enables children to think about what they already know, what they want to find out, and how they plan to research, experiment, and work together to learn more. Teachers model the investigative process by wondering aloud, talking about how to apply past experience to current investigations, and writing down children s ideas and plans all of which are ways to support children s executive skills and behaviors. Letter Knowledge: Children have daily opportunities to learn to recognize, name, and write the letters of the alphabet and on associate them with sounds. Teachers take an active role in promoting children s knowledge of letters and words through meaningful reading and writing experiences. Guided by Curriculum resources, teachers offer planned, focused, individualized instructions, promoting letter knowledge as they simultaneously support development in other areas. They help children being to: Recognize and name upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet Associate letter names and symbols with their sounds Understand that letter symbols are grouped together in a particular order to form words, and Experiment with writing letters of the alphabet in the context of writing for a purpose Phonological Awareness: The Curriculum includes a wide variety of activities that promote children s phonological awareness hearing and understanding the different sounds and patterns of spoken language. Phonological awareness develops gradually and sequentially, from simple skills (e.g., listening) to very complex skills (e.g., manipulating individual sounds in words). Building these activities into the daily schedule is critical, as young children s phonological sensitivity is a strong predictor of later spelling, writing, and reading ability. In The Creative Curriculum classroom, teachers are guided by the Foundation and Daily Resources. These resources help teachers guide children as they learn to Hear and differentiate between the separate sounds of oral language that are blended into ordinary speech (which plays a vital role in learning to read); Notice and discriminate rhyme and alliteration; and Explore sounds, syllables, and words by examining onset (the part of the syllable before the first vowel), and rime (the first vowel and everything after it). Social Skills Social skills are those communication, problem-solving, decision-making, self-management, and peer relations abilities that allow one to initiate and maintain positive social relationships with others. They are critical to successful functioning in life in school and in the community. Social skills influence:

5 Success in general education settings Opportunities for children to learn from peers Peer acceptance and peer perception of a child s disability Self-esteem The development of healthy relationships A lack of social skills can lead to: Behavioral difficulties in school Delinquency Inattentiveness Peer rejection Emotional difficulties Bullying/aggressiveness Problems in interpersonal relationships Academic failures Social skills develop early in life and follow a predictable pattern. They are often the least developed skill for a child with a significant disability. Social skills deficits increase with age and are greater for children with disabilities. They are as important as academic skills for success in life, and are primarily acquired through learning (observation, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback). Social skills should be taught to young children to enhance their social-emotional development (Panyon, M. 1998). In addition, high quality play, especially pretend play, can make an important contribution to children s cognitive development in the early years. There are clear links between pretend play and social competence (Bergen, Doris, 2002). Some important social skills for a 3-4 year old child: Observing and listening to what other children are doing Imitating other children Reciprocal conversation/reciprocal play Taking turns Sharing Negotiation/compromise Benefits for All Students in the Panther Preschool All the children will be enrolled in an excellent academic preschool program with experience Teachers, Speech Therapists, and Occupational Therapists and trained Teacher Assistants All students will be challenged academically and socially due to the natural environment and comprehensive Preschool Curriculum targeting all areas of development All children will participate in literacy centers, circle time, centers as well as being provided with multiple opportunities to participate in group activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, yoga, etc. Reading is one of the best ways to help children learn about language. When children hear stores, they will begin to connect words to meanings and better understand ideas. Story time and literacy centers are an integral part of the Panther Preschool Curriculum

6 Simple songs, nursery rhymes and finger plays are easy to remember and teach children about language. While singing or reciting, children learn about rhythm, rhyming and vocabulary. Music and movement activities also promote listening skills, an important component of language development, as well. Increased opportunity for social interactions including s haring, turn-taking, and reciprocal conversations Increased sensitivity and acceptance of differences Increased language and social development How will children s progress be reported to families? Parent-teacher conferences will be held in November for all families whose children are enrolled within the Preschool Program.