English Language Arts Preschool

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English Language Arts Preschool - Age 3 (2023)

Course Preface

Course Introduction

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INTRODUCTION

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen. When students utilize these skills, they begin to express and understand ideas and opinions, make decisions, solve problems, and achieve goals. Achieving literacy is a lifelong learning process. Literacy enables students to participate fully in their community and society.

Language is the basis for understanding and communicating in most aspects of life. Language development begins in infancy, and by the preschool years, many children have a vocabulary that includes several thousand words and continues to increase remarkably. One of the best predictors of reading success is the number of spoken words preschoolers understand and use. In fact, the number of words that young children hear along with the types of language interactions they have are significantly correlated to their academic achievement in later years (Walker, Greenwood, Hart & Carta, 1994).

Research has supported evidence-based literacy practices using systematic, explicit, sequential, and cumulative instruction when teaching the seven essential components of literacy: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. According to research, it is recommended that preschool teachers prepare children for later reading instruction. They can do so by introducing the five critical building blocks for literacy, including phonological awareness, letter identification, vocabulary knowledge, print concepts, and a positive attitude toward reading (Henry, 2019). The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to read (Adams, 1998). Early phonological awareness skills usually develop during preschool ages and include rhyming, alliteration, segmenting words into syllables, and identifying the first sounds in words. Research suggests these early phonological awareness skills facilitate the development of letter-sound knowledge (Cardos-Martins et al., 2011). The levels of phonological awareness can build on each other, advancing from word awareness to syllable awareness, to onset-rime awareness, to individual phoneme awareness. �Children�s language develops on a continuum and moves from large to increasingly smaller segments of language� (Cunningham & Zibulsky, 2014). Teaching strategies used not only need to be systematic and explicit, but they need to be developmentally appropriate and �framed within playful learning and intentional play� (Paulson & Moats, 2018).

ADULTS SUPPORT LEARNING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS WHEN THEY:

Engage in conversations with children.
Read daily from a variety of texts, including narrative and informational genres.
Create a language- and print-rich environment, including reading, listening, writing, and dramatic play centers, eye level alphabet charts, picture/word labels, and samples of children�s work. Modifications and support in children�s primary language may be provided as necessary.
Provide activities that increase phonological awareness. Phonological awareness includes phonemic awareness, onset-rime awareness, syllable awareness, and word awareness.
Use a wide variety of media and presentation forms, including animated and engaging storytelling, pictures or drawings, posters, appropriate short multimedia presentations, drama, signs, paintings, sculptures, puppets, and hand signs.
Sing a wide variety of songs, including those that reflect the cultural makeup of the classroom community.
Provide a variety of texts such as menus, books, magazines, charts, record sheets, recipes, telephone directories, journals, theater programs, newspapers, maps, instruction booklets, movie or music labels, food and product labels (including those in different languages), and store flyers.
Provide activities that increase awareness of the rhythm of language, such as clapping the syllables in children�s names or other familiar words.
Provide opportunities for multiple readings/retellings of nursery rhymes or stories.
While reading to children, ask questions about what may happen next, how the book relates to their own experiences, how the characters in the story are feeling, etc. Encourage children to re-enact stories using dramatic play or puppets.
Supply a variety of age-appropriate writing tools and materials in all areas of the classroom, including thin short pencils, crayons, markers, whiteboards, glue sticks, magnetic letters, paintbrushes, etc.
Model proper writing in different ways, such as writing down what children say, labeling their drawings, writing questions that could be asked of a visitor, or making a list of foods.

Core Standards of the Course

Speaking and Listening (P3.SL)
Students will learn to collaborate, express and listen to ideas, integrate and evaluate information from various sources, use media and visual displays as well as language and grammar strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt to context and task.

Standard P3.SL.1:
With prompting and support, participate in conversations with peers and adults.a. Begin to recognize rules for discussion such as listening to others, staying on topic, and taking turns speaking. b. Follow one-step directions.

Standard P3.SL.2:
With prompting and support, speak clearly and audibly enough to be understood by familiar adults to communicate wants and needs.

Standard P3.SL.3:
With prompting and support, use age-appropriate language, grammar, volume, and pronunciation when speaking or presenting.

Reading (P3.R)
Students will learn to proficiently read and comprehend grade level literature and informational text, including seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band, with scaffolding as needed. *Standard R.4 includes an asterisk to refer educators back to the Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges in the introduction of the standards.

Standard P3.R.1:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate concepts of print.

With prompting and support, correctly hold a book and recognize that print is read from top to bottom, left to right, and from front to back.

With prompting and support, begin to recognize frequently seen letters and words and recognize own name in print.

Standard P3.R.2:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate phonological awareness skills.

With prompting and support, explore rhyming words and alliteration.

With prompting and support, explore syllables in simple words.

With prompting and support, identify initial sounds in spoken language.

Standard P3.R.3:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate phonics skills.

With prompting and support, begin to identify seven or more consonant names and sounds using one-to-one letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle).

With prompting and support, begin to identify one or more vowel names and short vowel sounds using one-to-one letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle).

Standard P3.R.4:
Begins in kindergarten.

Standard P3.R.5:
With prompting and support, ask and answer simple questions about a text. (RL & RI)

Standard P3.R.6-7:
With prompting and support, begin to retell simple texts. (RL & RI)

Standard P3.R.8:
Begins in P4.

Standard P3.R.9:
Begins in kindergarten.

Standard P3.R.10:
Begins in grade 1.

Standard P3.R.11:
Begins in grade 4.

Standard P3.R.12:
Begins in grade 2.

Standard P3.R.13:
Begins in grade 2.

Standard P3.R.14:
Begins in grade 2.

Writing (P3.W)
Students will learn to write for a variety of tasks, purposes, and audiences using appropriate grammar/conventions, syntax, and style.

Standard P3.W.1-3:
With prompting and support, begin to experiment with speaking and writing while representing ideas visually (e.g., scribbles, stamps, stickers, or gluing pictures on paper).

Standard P3.W.4:
Participate in shared writing projects.

With prompting and support, recall information from experiences or learned information and share it with others.

With prompting and support, interact and collaborate with others. Standard P3.W.5: With prompting and support, print some age-appropriate prewriting strokes.

Standard P3.W.5
With prompting and support, print some age-appropriate prewriting strokes.

http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Cristina Barrera and see the Early Learning website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.

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