At-Risk Preschool Childrenís Exposure to Amounts and Types of Literacy Instruction.

early childhood education;preschool;instruction;literacy;at-risk;teacher log;Education;Social Sciences;Educational Studies

Herold, Laura Kathleen MattersDuke, Nell Kristine ;

University of Michigan

关键词: early childhood education;    preschool;    instruction;    literacy;    at-risk;    teacher log;    Education;    Social Sciences;    Educational Studies;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/113568/lherold_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Early reading ability critically affects children’s long-term academic outcomes. However, children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to begin formal schooling with fewer of the key skills and abilities needed for successful reading than do their more privileged classmates. For this reason, investments have been made in targeted preschool programs that focus to a great extent on increasing at-risk children’s early language and literacy abilities. However, we know very little about the language and literacy instruction that teachers present to at-risk preschoolers in such programs. In this dissertation, I examine teacher-log data on the enacted language and literacy instruction provided in a group of Michigan state-funded preschools. I seek to shed light on: (a) the time teachers in targeted preschool programs devote to literacy instruction, (b) the literacy skills they most commonly teach to their students, (c) the extent to which they focus on key literacy skills and related instructional strategies with their students, and (d) the instructional strategies related to language and literacy development they employ within the content domain of science. My results suggest that just over 13 minutes of language and literacy instruction may be provided to the average child per half day of instruction, and that key literacy skills and instructional strategies known to predict later achievement may not be taught a large proportion of the time. These initial findings suggest a potentially problematic situation for at-risk children, who need additional instruction if they are to catch up to their more privileged peers. In this respect, the results of my dissertation may have important implications for educational change and future research.