Maine Early
Language and Literacy Initiative (MELLI)
Coming
this spring!
March -
May
This five-part
series offers the early childhood educator an opportunity to learn
current research-supported practices in promoting the literacy development
of children birth to age five.
SPIRALS
Literacy Summit underscores science of learning to read
Belfast,
Maine – May 31 – According to Dr. Laura Justice, If our record with
airplane safety was only as good as our record in teaching children
to read, 33% of planes would fall out of the sky. This level of
failure in the aviation industry would be unacceptable, she said
in her keynote address to the May 18 th SPIRALS Literacy Summit
at Camp Kieve in Nobleboro—and so should it be in the “business”
of early literacy education.
In
a presentation titled “Making Every Moment Count,” Dr. Justice made
her argument to Waldo and Knox County preschool teachers, consultants
and staff from Waldo County Preschool & Family Services (WCPFS).
All are participants in the three-year SPIRALS ( Supporting
Preschoolers in Reading and Language Success ) program, which
aims to transform several mid-coast preschool classrooms into “centers
of excellence.” This goal reflects the federal Early Reading First
mission “to ensure that all children enter kindergarten with the
necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills for continued
success in school.”
Early
Reading First, which funds SPIRALS, comes at a time when there is
more scrutiny on early childhood education than ever before, said
Justice. With a $7 billion public investment and an increased focus
on “universal access” to preschool, policy makers want to know if
children are learning… and if the investment is showing returns.
A
host of factors—including inconsistencies in instructor education,
in preschool environments and in the level of incoming preschool
children’s skills—lend to a high level of disparity in early education,
revealing troublesome gaps in the preparation and abilities of our
young children. The Early Reading First program aims to level the
playing field.
Certainly,
teachers who have experienced enough educational reforms might be
tempted to think that this is just another one, noted Justice. But
previous reforms have not been based to this degree on science.
Taking the example of air travel, what makes it so safe is the fine-tuning
of safety measures driven by the accumulation and convergence of
independent research. Ideally, says Justice, education policy around
teaching children to read would follow suit. And so Early Reading
First is essentially a policy to embrace the growing body of research
around the emerging science of literacy education.
Justice
shared some of the latest research with Literacy Summit attendees
and underscored its bearing on teaching practice. The presentation
anchored a full day of professional development training for the
teachers, including roundtable discussions and breakout sessions
with SPIRALS consultants to develop some of the best-practice teaching
concepts discussed.
Professional
development for teachers is a key component of the SPIRALS Program.
Training sessions such as the Literacy Summit center around scientifically
based reading research on language, cognitive, and early reading
development that will assist in developing preschool-age children’s
abilities in the following areas: oral language (expressive and
receptive language, including vocabulary development), phonological
awareness (rhyming, blending, segmenting), print awareness and alphabet
knowledge (letter recognition).
Other
components of the SPIRALS program include:
•
Developing the classrooms to provide preschoolers with high-quality
oral language and print-rich environments;
•
Identifying and providing activities and instructional materials
centered on scientifically based reading research;
•
Implementing reading assessments, and;
•
Integrating those instructional materials, activities, tools, and
measures into the classrooms’ overall programs.
Laura
Justice, PhD., serves as a consultant to the SPIRALS Program. She
is a clinical speech-language pathologist and applied researcher
in early childhood language and literacy development, communication
disorders, and educational interventions. Dr. Justice directs the
Preschool Language and Literacy Lab in the University of Virginia
's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning; she is also
a faculty member in the McGuffey Reading Center in the Curry School
of Education, in which she teaches a course in reading disabilities
and early literacy development.
SPIRALS
is the second three-year Early Reading First project awarded to
Waldo County Preschool & Family services by the federal government.
WCPFS administers the project in collaboration with the Maine Department
of Education, the University of Maine System , Waldo County Head
Start, and Maine Roads to Quality.
Based
in Belfast , WCPFS has been providing services that nurture children,
strengthen families and develop communities in the midcoast since
1983. This May, Youthlinks of Rockland merged with the agency, joining
Mid-Coast Children’s Services, also of Rockland , who merged with
WCPFS in 2005.
WCPFS
awarded $3 million grant, launches SPIRALS program
Belfast
, ME - Dec. 12, 2006 - Waldo County Preschool and Family Services
has been awarded a $3 million grant from the federal Early Reading
First Program. This is the second ERF grant for WCPFS, following
a $2 million award in 2002, the program’s inaugural year. The agency
is one of only three ERF-1 grantees nationwide to receive a second
round of funding, and its early reading initiative in the mid-coast
has been hailed as a national model.
The
ERF Program, an initiative of the No Child Left Behind Act, is aimed
at increasing kindergarten readiness for all children, especially
those at-risk for reading failure. Results from the past three years
have exceeded expectations, with children from ERF classrooms scoring
significantly higher on screening tests for kindergarten than their
non-ERF peers.
To
build on this success, WCPFS announces the creation of a new program,
entitled SPIRALS (Supporting Preschoolers in Reading and Language
Success). The program is a collaborative effort of a statewide coalition
of partners—including WCPFS, its Mid-Coast Children’s Services program,
Waldo County Head Start, the Maine Department of Education and the
University of Maine System.
SPIRALS
will build on the successes of the past three years through the
following components:
-
Centers
of Excellence: SPIRALS will transform four additional early
childhood programs, in Waldo and Knox counties, into centers
of early literacy excellence.
-
Professional
Development: SPIRALS will provide for the intensive training
of ERF teachers through its Mentor Program.
-
Model
Curriculum: SPIRALS will develop its emergent-literacy curriculum
for application throughout the state and beyond.
Through
its first ERF grant, WCPFS guided hundreds of children in developing
crucial literacy skills. With this new grant, the agency plans to
bring these benefits to hundreds more over the next three years,
and—through SPIRALS’ curriculum- and professional-development initiatives—to
many more into the future.
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