Connecting di with dap by adding Playful Extensions for Preschoolers

The Effects of Connecting Direct Instruction with Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding specifically Playful Extensions for Preschoolers.

Despite the importance of allowing children to construct knowledge through active participation to increase their motivation for reading and writing, there has been little research on the implementation of Direct Instruction in the preschool classes. Thus, the present study will investigate the potential effects of connecting Direct Instruction with Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding specifically Playful Extensions for Preschoolers. Our hypothesis is that by connecting both approaches will increase student’s reading literacy.

The term "Direct Instruction" refers to a rigorously developed, highly scripted method for teaching that is fast-paced and provides constant interaction between students and the teacher. (Lindsay, 2004). A review of recent work on developmentally appropriate instruction shows that the features of Direct Instruction are consistent in virtually every way with what we know of developmentally appropriateness. (Kozloff & Bessellieu, 2000). Even though this approach has worked very well, many leading educators ignore Direct Instruction, and others smear it by misrepresentation and ridicule when they speak of it (Engelmann, 1983).

“Direct Instruction is one form of reading instruction that is clearly linked to a behavioral theoretical perspective.”(Tracey, Diane H & Morrow, Lesley M. 2012, p. 49). This research presents the opportunity to connect the Direct Instruction with Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding specifically Playful Extensions for Preschoolers.

Direct Instruction is based on explicit instruction where the teacher models desired behavior and attainable skills for the students. This direct approach involves a carefully sequenced step-by-step approach, continuous assessment and immediate student-feedback. Teachers have detailed handbooks with scripted lessons designed to be comprehensive for both the teacher and the students. Students are given extensive opportunities and time to practice new skills, with the aim of developing fluency (Herbert 2004).

While a classroom lecture is perhaps the image most commonly associated with Direct Instruction, the term encompasses a wide variety of fundamental teaching techniques and potential instructional scenarios. (Hidden Curriculum, 2014). Direct Instruction is considered an approach to teach early reading and it has been shown by research and experience to work very well. (Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, 2001). Here is where we can detect that some students have a richer background experiences and are better prepared for further literacy instruction. Then, the educator must implement activities and teacher-led lessons that are aligned with specific instructional goals, thereby scaffolding each student’s knowledge and abilities in reading and writing. This is the main focus of the study to investigate the potential effects when connecting Direct Instruction and Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding specifically Playful Extensions for Preschoolers and it’s impact on reading literacy.

During the first day of preschool, excitement, curiosity and anxious children abound. Children attend to the workstations – phonemic awareness, reading, writing, alphabet games and art. Educators must be monitoring each child attentively. If we closely monitor each of the workstations, the Reading Workstation for example, we may notice that some of the children can hold the books confidently; pointing the words and following sentences, while some others grab the book upside down and turn the pages backwards. And, still others may be “attempting” to draw pictures, while others are just scribbling.

Early literacy development is very important; babies can begin to acquire information about literacy from the moment they are born. Early years are the foundation and may set the tone on how children may feel about themselves as readers or writers. Educators should know that children have a tremendous capacity for learning and this learning must be consistent with their development (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2007).

They also must understand the role of development as it relates to a child’s present behaviors, and also their continuous development that will lead them to their success.

The beginning years: Children begin to experiment with language in the first few months of life. At first children will use the physical and visual cues to determine what something means. Contrary to what we believe, there is no one teaching method or approach that can be considered the most effective for all children. However, an important activity for these years that appears to be helpful for reading success is reading aloud to children, and exposure to and concepts about print. Additionally, alphabetic principle is a fundamental insight developed in children’s early years, as well as exposure to linguistic awareness, phonemic awareness, and invented spelling. It is extremely important for children who are learning English as a second language to get familiar with the vocabulary and concepts in their primary language to be able to become readers and writers in English. (Tracey & Mandel, 2012).

Kindergarten: This year is crucial, because teachers need to capitalize on every opportunity for enhancing children’s vocabulary development, through listening to stories to be exposed to vocabulary (Feitelson, Kita & Goldestein, 1986). In order to further reinforce the language of the text repeated readings are to be fundamental. There are some activities that help children clarify the concept of word, just to mention an example, the language experience charts let teachers demonstrate how talk can be written down and provide a natural medium for children’s developing word awareness. Finally letter naming is a well-established predictor of their end of year achievement (Juel, 1991).

Direct Instruction is based on explicit instruction wherein the teacher models desired behavior and attainable skills for the students. This direct approach involves a carefully sequenced step-by-step approach, continuous assessment and immediate student-feedback. Teachers have detailed handbooks with scripted lessons designed to be comprehensive for both the teacher and the students. Students are given extensive opportunities and time to practice new skills, with the aim of developing fluency. (Herbert, 2004). Furthermore, research findings indicate that the amount of time children spend engaged in reading and writing activities prior to formal instruction influences their emergent literacy development (Keaton, 2007).

Due to the fact that learning to read and write is crucial to a child’s success in school and later in life, and because reading and writing abilities continue to develop from birth through age eight, the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children worked together to delineate this joint position. The main purpose of this position statement is to provide guidance to teachers of young children and early childhood programs. (NAEYC, 1998).

Both associations believe that this position statement will contribute significantly to an improvement in practice and the main reasons why was created are:

• The importance of teaching the children to read and write competently.

• Diversity in classrooms is increasing significantly.

• There is a specific time in early childhood years when teaching of reading should begin.

• Early beginnings of literacy acquisition results in use of inappropriate teaching practices.

• Not enough policies and resources that required professional preparation fro teachers.

Direct Instruction is based on explicit, scripted and comprehensive lesson instruction where the teacher models desired behavior and attainable skills for the students. This direct approach involves a carefully sequenced step-by-step approach, continuous assessment and immediate student-feedback (Herbert, 2004). However, early years are the foundation and may set the tone on how children may feel about themselves as readers or writers. Educators must be consistent with their development (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2007). Thus, the present study will investigate the potential effects of connecting Direct Instruction with Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding Playful Extensions for Preschoolers. Our hypothesis is that by connecting both approaches will increase children’s reading literacy, over those you who have Developmentally Appropriate Practices only.

Method

Participants

Participants will be 40 students from pre-k classes, enrolled in a learning center located in a lower middle class community, but the students come from a diverse socioeconomic background. The sample will be 100% Hispanic, coming from mixed socioeconomic status, and gender. It is proposed to begin the study in the fall 2016; the students who will participate in the research will also range in a wide variety of abilities. Some students will be English Learners. Each class consists of 20 students, since the curriculum is being presented to the entire class, we will use cluster sampling, randomly selecting two classes to participate in our study. All students attend the same pre-k school; therefore we will obtain parent’s consent to participate in the research, at the beginning of the year as part as the registration process.

Method and Design

The research question requires a quantitative study using group comparison design. The main reason for this project will be to determine which of the two classes; Developmentally Appropriate Practices or Direct Instruction connected with Developmentally Appropriate Practices with Playful Extensions, perform better in reading literacy at the end of the study. Group comparison design is appropriate to explore the differences in gains of reading ability.

Instruments

The students in the class with only Developmentally Appropriate Practice will be using Big Idea from Scholastic as curriculum. The second group/classroom will be connecting Direct Instruction with Developmentally Appropriate Practices by adding Playful Extensions. The specific program for this curriculum is Reading Mastery Program and Frog Street for Preschoolers.

mClass:CIRCLE assessment and Placement Test will be administered to students to measure progress. Both instruments (mClass:CIRCLE and Placement Test) will be measuring Phonemic Awareness, Letter-Sound Correspondence, Sounding Out of Words, Word Recognition, Vocabulary, Oral Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension. Both instruments will be applied to both groups. This instrument is an early childhood assessment software that measures critical skills for early literacy with short, research-based tasks. The classroom teacher will explain the exercise by following the computer prompts to help the child understand how the assessment will work. Then brief tasks are automatically timed and scored to measure the child’s development in reading literacy. Once children finish with all prompts a summary of results for each child is displayed directly on the teacher’s device. Finally, secure web reports include both class and student summaries for a portfolio of every child’s development.

The Placement Test is an assessment that measures children’s reading skill proficiency and it will be provided as a post-test and is administered to individual students in turn. Teachers will present test items aloud, listening to students answer and tally the student’s correct answers on a score sheet. The test will be administered in a place that is somewhat removed from the other students, so that they will not overhear the testing. Student’s grades will be analyzed to verify the validity of whether approach has a significant impact on student’s reading literacy.

Procedures for Data Collection

The study will be conducted in one academic year, beginning in the fall of 2016. Students will be given a pre-test (mclass:CIRCLE and Placement Test) the first day of the third week of the school year, in other words we’ll provide the students with two weeks for regular adjustment. And a post-test (mclass:CIRCLE and Placement Test) will be administered from May 15th to May 19th 2017 (End of the year). The mClass: CIRCLE results are going to be found on the web, specifically in the student’s portfolio. One of the researchers is going to access the web and print out the reports. For the Placement Test, results are going to be collected from the teacher that placed them.

Both tests are going to be administered by the teacher, in the same school; therefore students will be comfortable with the environment. Result data will be collected by one of the researchers. Once we have the results of both pre and post-tests, data will be entered into excel, and in order to have a better understanding of the data collected, we will generate graphic organizers.

Data Analysis

Once data is collected we will be implementing the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). This analysis is appropriate to explore possible significant differences across groups. The analysis of covariance controls for initial differences in groups. Therefore, the ANCOVA is especially appropriate due to the fact that children differ, developmentally and in life experiences. After the ANCOVA analysis is complete, the researchers will triangulate the data by examining students’ classroom grades at the end of the study.

References

• Engelmann, Siegfried & Haddox, Phyllis & Bruner, Elaine (1983) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. New York, NY. Science Research Associates, Inc.

• Feitelson, D., Goldstein, Z., Iraqi, J., & Share, D.L. (1993). Effects of listening to story reading on aspects of literacy acquisition in a diglossic situation. Reading Research Quarterly, 28 (1), 70-79.

• Herbert, Kate (2004). Reading Mastery. Retrieve on March 23 from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/aphd/UserFiles/File/Reading%20Mastery.doc

• Hidden Curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum

• Juel, C (1991). Beginning Reading. Handbook of Reading Research: Volume II (pp. 759-788).

• Keaton, Jean M., Nicholas, Karen R., Palmer, Barbara C., Lake, Vickie E. (2007). “Direct Instruction with Playful Skill Extensions: Action Research in Emergent Literacy Development.” Reading Horizons. Volume 47, Issue 3 Article 5.

• Kozloff, M.& Bessellieu, Frances B. (2000). Direct Instruction is Developmentally Appropriate. Retrieved from the Internet on 03/14/16.

• Lindsay, J. (2004) Direct instruction: The most successful teaching model. http://jefflindsay.com. Retrieved from the Internet on 3/18/2016.

• NAEYC (1998). Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children.

• Tracey, Diane H., Morrow, Lesley M. (2012). “Lenses on Reading”. The Guilford Press, New York NY.

• Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report (2001). “Direct Instruction and the Teaching of Early Reading” Vol. 14, Number 2.