Assessment of Early Developing Phonological Awareness Skills: A Comparison of the Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK

Research Findings: Assessing the development of early literacy skills is necessary in order to identify children with delays, provide appropriate intervention, and monitor progress. The purpose of the current study was to compare the data obtained from 2 curriculum-based assessments of phonological awareness skills in a sample of low-income, urban preschoolers. Participants included 227 children from Head Start and other community-based preschool classrooms located in a midwestern city. The Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK (PALS-PreK) were administered in the fall and spring of the year. Results suggested that the PALS-PreK was more advantageous than the IGDIs in terms of providing meaningful data for this group of children. The IGDIs appeared to be more appropriate for developmentally advanced preschoolers in this population. Practice or Policy: There remains a critical need for assessments of emergent literacy that are appropriate for diverse groups of preschool children and can feasibly be used for monitoring development.     

Classroom behaviour management content in Australian undergraduate primary teaching programmes

The ability to differentiate classroom behaviour management (CBM) strategies is an important skill for novice teachers in increasingly diverse classrooms. Worldwide, little is known about the curriculum content offered to pre-service teachers in the area of CBM. This article reports the findings from the first nationwide survey of Australian primary pre-service teacher educators coordinating units and programmes with CBM content. Twenty-five Australian tertiary institutions with primary programmes participated, providing information on 102 of the 118 units with CBM content. Stand-alone units were offered in 68% of programmes and embedded in 96% of programmes. Unit coordinators included a mean of 8.3 approaches/models per unit. They commonly included applied behaviour analysis, decisive discipline, positive behaviour intervention and support, and choice theory/reality therapy, among the 36 approaches/models listed. More than half (57.9%) of the stand-alone units and only 20% of embedded units were coordinated by an academic with a stated CBM research interests. Units coordinated by an academic with CBM research interests contained more hours/model and included research-based models more often than those without CBM research interests, although they still included non-research-based models.     

Strategies for mentoring pedagogical knowledge

Fundamental for mentoring a preservice teacher is the mentor’s articulation of pedagogical knowledge, which in this research draws upon specific practices, viz.: planning, timetabling lessons, preparation, teaching strategies, content knowledge, problem solving, questioning, classroom management, implementation, assessment and viewpoints for teaching. Mentoring is haphazard; consequently, mentors need a pedagogical knowledge framework and a repertoire of pedagogical knowledge strategies to guide a preservice teacher’s development. Yet, what are strategies for mentoring pedagogical knowledge practices? This qualitative research investigates mentoring strategies assigned to pedagogical knowledge from 27 experienced mentor teachers. Findings showed that there were multiple strategies that can be linked to specific pedagogical knowledge practices. For example, mentoring strategies associated with planning for teaching can include co-planning, verbally reflecting on planning with the mentee and showing examples of the mentor teacher’s planning (e.g. teacher’s plans, school plans, district and state plans). This article provides a bank of practical strategies for mentoring pedagogical knowledge practices to assist a preservice teacher’s development.     

保护好孩子的梦想

美国马萨诸塞州小男孩詹姆斯做梦都想拥有一套乐高"绿宝石午夜火车"玩具。他用了整整两年时间攒够了钱款,却失望地发现这款玩具已经停卖了,而无论是网上的少量存货还是二手转卖,它们的标价对詹姆斯来说都是天文数字。于是小男孩给乐高玩具写了一封信询问,却得知这款玩具已经停产。让人内心温暖的是,在詹姆斯11岁生日时,他收到了乐高悄悄寄来了这份惊喜。你一定想分享詹姆斯的快乐,小男孩脸上欢呼雀跃的表情,是不是也让你感动呢?这让我不禁联想起同样让人内心温暖的一个小女孩。当得知妈妈吃光了她的万圣节糖果时,小女孩红着眼眶,挤出笑容安慰妈妈说:妈妈我不生你的气,我只是有点伤心……吃那么多糖果会让你头痛,你应该多喝水……下一个万圣节我就不会伤心了,但你不能没有跟我商量就吃掉我的糖果,明年我们一起分享好吗?其实这只是父母们的一个万圣节恶作剧,还有很多小朋友也得到了同样的"噩耗",孩子们天真的各种抓狂让人捧腹,还有小女孩的"next Halloween we can share my candy"让人感动。我相信小女孩长大后,她如果听说有个小朋友特别渴望得到心中的"乐高",她也一定会帮助实现。瞧,正能量就是这样传播和积聚的。     

Universal access to preschool education: approaches to integrating preschool with school in rural and remote communities

In 2012, the government of South Australia responded to Federal agreements aimed at universal access to preschool education for children in the year before starting formal schooling by introducing a trial designed to ‘integrate’ preschool children into first year of school programmes in rural and remote areas of the state. This paper reports on the evaluation of this trial, exploring the ways in which integration was interpreted and implemented in eight rural and/or remote sites, the perceived value of collaboration in planning integrated provision and the ways in which two new curriculum documents – one for the prior-to-school years and the other for compulsory school – influenced the delivery of integrated preschool–school programmes. Results identify several types of integration, highlight some of the challenges of collaboration in integrating preschool with school and share the caution of educators about the push down of school curriculum into preschool contexts.     

Student veterans in the academic library

Enrollment increases in the number of veterans returning from service in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars offer an opportunity for academic librarians to craft outreach programs that address their unique needs as they transition from military to academic life. Library information and research services can be highlighted and integrated into the support services for student veterans already in place at most academic institutions. This article provides a case study of the design and development of services and facilities to support student veterans, and it describes the evolution of library outreach to student veterans through direct campus collaborations.     

Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners

Integrating experiences with music in the early childhood classroom supports English language learners’ literacy development (Peregoy and Boyle, Reading, writing, and learning in ESL. Pearson, Boston, 2008; Saricoban and Metin, Songs, verse and games for teaching grammar. Internet TESL J, 2000). This article describes the benefits of incorporating musical experiences into daily instruction and provides practical activities for classroom implementation, e.g., reading, writing, and singing songs for language skill development, reading fluency, and writing progress. Despite a teacher’s level of aesthetic appreciation and musical training, the value of fostering creativity and enhancing literacy instruction through music is vital in today’s diverse early childhood classrooms. Music can transform classrooms into positive learning environments where children thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Providing children with structured and open-ended musical activities, creating an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect, and sharing the joy of creativity with each other all are foundational to bases for the growth and development of the early childhood learner.