Small Group Skills Transcript. Welcome to the Core Knowledge Foundation, Core Knowledge Language Arts Program Webinar Series.

Transcription

1 Small Group Skills Transcript Slide 2: Welcome to the Core Knowledge Foundation, Core Knowledge Language Arts Program Webinar Series. Slide 3: By participating in this presentation, you will be able to explain how Small Group Skills in CKLA teaches children emergent literacy skills and describe how Small Group Skills supports children s unique needs through differentiated instruction. Slide 4: In Preschool CKLA, children learn a broad range of foundational emergent literacy skills throughout the year that are predictors of reading and academic success. Small Group Skills is an opportunity for teachers to spend focused instructional time on these specific emergent literacy skills and provide targeted support to those who need it. The program offers two small group activities each day for children to learn emergent literacy skills. Each Small Group Skills activity begins with an active warm-up and is followed by a more in-depth activity that focuses on a particular skill or group of skills. The two small group activities take about 10 minutes each, and children rotate to both skills activities giving them the opportunity to engage and practice the emergent literacy skill being introduced that day. Slide 5: Let s look at some of the emergent literacy skills that are introduced and supported through small group instruction. Slide 6: These include environmental noises, a skill that provides a foundation for awareness of sounds in words; phonological awareness, like clapping the number of syllables in words; phonemic awareness, or the ability to identify individual sounds within words; handwriting strokes that make up strokes and eventually letters themselves; print knowledge, like identifying the title of a book; narrative storytelling, or the ability to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end; and rhyme through the teaching of classic nursery rhymes. Now, let s watch a clip that shows how skills are taught as well as how learning is facilitated in small group time. Slide 7: This clip captures instruction from the All About Me domain. This domain teaches children about their body parts and their five senses. This Small Group Skills lesson asks children to draw a self-portrait with a focus on their facial features. The teacher works with children as they learn the names of their body parts. As you watch the clip, pay close attention to the way she introduces the emergent literacy skills of handwriting and print knowledge through this activity.

2 Slide 8: Let s reflect on the ways the teacher, from the clip, intentionally supported children s learning. Slide 9: The teacher was clearly intentional about creating effective learning opportunities for her small group. She provided materials like hand mirrors, pencils, and paper so that the children could make and record observations. This introduced opportunities for handwriting and motor skills practice. These materials were clearly appropriate for the children s developmental level, since they were able to successfully use them to complete their drawings. This teacher also facilitated name recognition exercises (a print knowledge skill), by placing name cards for each child on the table, and giving them opportunities to identify their own names. When children are engaged and teachers are intentional, small groups present rich opportunities for learning. Let s now consider how the learning during small group can provide a springboard for learning and application at other points across the classroom day. Slide 10: Introducing skills in small groups provides an opportunity for children to explore and build the confidence they need to perform these skills independently. Let s look at some examples. Slide 11: During Starting the Day routines, children often practice the print skills introduced in small groups. For example, at the beginning of the year children are asked to identify the printed form of their names when paired with a photograph. As children become more familiar with printed letters in small group, their photograph is removed. Then, later in the year, as students gain experience in small group with handwriting, they start to write their names on their own. Learning skills like name recognition and handwriting in small groups gives children the confidence they need to perform these skills during daily routines, and makes these types of activities run more smoothly and efficiently. Slide 12: Another skill that children learn in small groups is how to respond to and tell stories. Practice with narrative storytelling provides the foundation for sequencing and retelling stories they hear during the Listening & Learning portion of the day. For example, after learning the words first, next, and finally in small groups, children can work together in whole group to collectively sequence the main events of the story The Lion and the Mouse using those same words.

3 Slide 13: Small groups afford children time for practicing the fine motor skills that are the foundation of fluent handwriting. Children work with crayons, pencils, and art materials developing these skills. Extension activities which are often craft projects based on the content from a read-aloud provide students opportunities to refine these fine motor skills. For example, when children are studying the parts of the body in Listening & Learning, they are practicing fine motor skills like cutting, coloring, and pasting as they represent content and ideas they have learned from read-alouds. Slide 14: In Learning Centers, students have opportunities to independently and creatively practice the skills they have been learning in small groups. Learning Centers are an important extension of small group learning because they allow children to generalize new skills by applying them to different contexts. For example, the children in this doctor s office Learning Center are using their knowledge of letters and handwriting learned in small groups as part of their dramatic play. Slide 15: Small group is an ideal time to introduce new skills that are practiced and reinforced throughout the day. In CKLA small groups there are fewer children, there is more time to explain, it is easier to introduce and manage new materials, and there are increased opportunities for students to respond. The small group setting allows children to explore and build the confidence they need to perform skills independently. This setting is also an opportunity for a teacher to provide differentiated instruction. Slide 16: Differentiated instruction involves altering the implementation and design of lessons and activities so that the needs of all of the children in the classroom are met. Through differentiation instruction children use different pathways to explore and learn, while taking away the same essential ideas and understanding on the topic. Slide 17: So how does a CKLA small group enable teachers to differentiate instruction to support the diverse needs of the children in their class? First, let s think back to the self-portrait clip we just watched. That activity might only take 10 minutes but it can be challenging for some children and easy for others. In the Part 1 of the webinar, we talked about how the skill of name writing builds across the year and how this particular daily routine can be broken into different steps. In the same way, small group activities, like self-portrait, can also be broken into steps, even if the activity is only 10 minutes long. So let s consider three steps that can be used to scaffold this activity and ensure each child s unique needs are being met.

4 Slide 18: The first step in differentiating instruction is to identify the activity s end goal. In the self-portrait activity the end goal is for children to be able to effectively demonstrate their knowledge of their body parts by drawing a self-portrait. The lesson specifically asks children to focus on their facial features. Slide 19: After identifying the end goal, the next step is to identify the different stages of the activity. What different components of this task do children need to be able to master in order to reach the end goal? They can be very concrete actions that need to be taken to prepare for an activity or they can be implied steps that assume another skill has been mastered. In this case, the components of the self-portrait activity include: children must understand the instructions of the activity including how the pre-cut body part materials provided by the teacher can be used to create a self-portrait; children must, be able to draw a self-portrait with an understanding of where the body part should be placed on their picture; children must be able to name the various body parts as they add them to their portrait; children must be able to recognize their name from a group of names and glue it to their self-portrait; and the end goal, children must be able to be able to effectively demonstrate their knowledge of their body parts by drawing self-portraits. Slide 20: Step three is to determine which support strategies will be provided to children in order for them to be successful at each stage of the activity and ultimately reach the end goal. There are many ways to provide support for a child. Sometimes we provide support by using different materials or manipulating the materials we are using. The teacher can use concrete manipulative materials with children who are just learning a skill. Once the child understands the skill with concrete manipulative materials, the teacher can shift to more abstract methods. Sometimes, we provide support by altering the desired response type, and sometimes we provide feedback that supports the child. Quality feedback is an interactive practice between the teacher and child. It is often comprised of conversational loops in which the teacher assists the child in obtaining a deeper understanding. Scaffolding feedback promotes quality feedback. Let s look at how these three support strategies can be applied. Slide 21: So, we identified the first component of the self-portrait activity is to ensure children in the small group understand the instructions. This is essential for successful participation; the child must understand what is being asked of him or her and how the materials provided can be used to complete the task. The teacher might scaffold children s understanding of the instructions by providing continuous verbal feedback and direction while the children are engaged in the activity. It may also be helpful for some children to see a sample of a completed self-portrait to make the connection of what s being asked of him or her. Visual supports such as photos, drawings, objects, gestures, and print and environmental cues, helps children know what to do, learn new skills, and feel included.

5 Slide 22: The second component of the activity requires children to draw a self-portrait; with an understanding of where the various body parts should be placed on their picture. To support children with drawing their self-portraits, teachers may need to change the materials. Let s think back to the materials that were used in the clip to support children with completing their self-portraits. You may remember that the teacher provided each child with a hand mirror. By adding hand mirrors to this activity, children who needed support with identifying where to place a specific body part on their portrait can stop and look in the mirror. Teachers should always ensure that there are a range of materials available during small group that support different learning levels. Slide 23: The third component of the self-portrait activity involves children naming the various body parts they are adding to their portraits. A good way to support children with naming their body parts is through continuous feedback and direction. During the clip of the self-portrait activity, this teacher was deliberate about using the vocabulary that students were learning as they completed their drawings. She made comments like, I see those eyelashes. She also encouraged students to use the vocabulary themselves when she gently and repeatedly asked, What else do you think you re going to put on there? Slide 24: After children name their body parts, the activity is almost complete. Children now need to recognize their name from a group of names and glue it to their self-portrait. To support children with this step, a teacher might need to alter the desired response type. Instead of having children recognize their name, some children may need to recognize the first letter of their name. Also, it may be necessary for children to have their picture attached (or on the back) of the name card as added support. By altering the response, the child s ability to recognize their name does not change; only the scaffolding changes. And of course as children master a particular step during one small group activity, teachers can adjust each step to provide less and less support and introduce new challenges. Slide 25: By laying in supports at each stage of an activity, teachers are able to meet children s individual needs and ensure that each child is provided with the best learning experience possible. Slide 26: CKLA Preschool Small Group Skills teaches children emergent literacy skills and supports children s unique needs through differentiated instruction.

6 Slide 27: We want you to succeed in the implementation of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program with your students. If you have further questions about Core Knowledge, The CKLA program, or supporting your class through small group instruction, please contact us at Slide 28: Thank you for joining me today. I hope that this webinar has been helpful to you. We wish you the best of luck with implementing Small Group Skills in your class.