PALS-PreK Training Thursday, January 9, 2014 Presenter: Jolene Crawford

Think, Think, Think… Reflect on your classroom… How frequently do you plan literacy-focused activities?

How Do You Rate ?

1- I rarely plan literacy-focused activities 2- I sometimes plan literacyfocused activities 3- I frequently plan literacyfocused activities

Take Out Your Lesson Plans… Highlight ALL literacy-focused activities found on your lesson plans.

Now, How Do You Rate ?

1- I rarely plan literacyfocused activities 2- I sometimes plan literacyfocused activities 3- I frequently plan literacyfocused activities

What Does PALS Mean?

Phonologic al

Awareness Literacy Screening

What is PALS-PreK?

“PALS is a measure of young children’s knowledge of important emergent literacy fundamentals including: Name Writing, Alphabet Knowledge, Beginning Sound Awareness, Print & Word Awareness, Rhyme Awareness, and Nursery Rhyme Awareness.”

PALS-PreK Overview  Developmentally appropriate for four-year-old

children  Provides teachers with important information to

help guide instruction.  Assesses emergent phonological awareness,

alphabet knowledge, and print skills in familiar contexts.

What Does PALS-PreK Assess?  Name Writing  Upper-Case Recognition  Lower-Case Recognition

 Letter Sounds  Beginning Sound Awareness  Print & Word Awareness  Nursery Rhyme Awareness

Share & Compare  Discuss your strategies for teaching: name

writing, upper-case recognition, lower-case recognition, letter sounds, beginning sound awareness, print & word awareness, rhyme awareness, and nursery rhyme awareness. Share & record as many ideas as possible: Use your “PALS Idea Recorder”

Let’s Look @ What Each Section of PALS-PreK Includes Phonological Awareness, Alphabet Knowledge, Print & Word Awareness, Name Writing

Phonological Awareness  Phonological Awareness is the ability to identify

and reflect on various units of spoken language (Shahl, 2001; Stahl & Murray, 1994).  PALS assesses basic phonological awareness,

specifically Awareness of Rhyme and Beginning Sound.  The Beginning Sound Awareness, Rhyme

Awareness, and Nursery Rhyme Awareness tasks on PALS provide an emerging picture of a child’s phonological awareness development.

Alphabet Knowledge  The single best predictor of reading achievement

is accurate, rapid identification of the letters of the alphabet (Adams, 1990; Byrne & FieldingBarnsley , 1989; Stevenson & Newman, 1986).  Alphabetic Knowledge and Phonemic Awareness

together are known as the alphabetic code.  Upper and Lower-Case Letter Recognition

Print and Word Awareness  This assess children’s knowledge of the form and

function of book parts (title and print conventions) as well as skills, with pointing accurately to words in a familiar nursery rhyme (concept of word).  Familiarity with the layout of books is an important

precursor to learning to read (Chaney, 1992; Clay, 1977).

Name Writing  Pretend and practice with Name Writing helps

children understand that spoken language can be written down and that groups of letters can refer to people and objects in the real world.  The Name Writing task on PALS serves as an indicator of emergent literacy across diverse areas. Name Writing is closely linked to important aspects of emergent literacy knowledge; namely, letter recognition, print knowledge and concept of word (Bloodgood, 1999).

Instructional Framework  Curricular planning for literacy development  Involves essential emergent literacy components:

phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, print and word awareness, and facility with name writing.  Provides a glimpse of developing literacy.  Teachers can make well-informed choices about

what to teach in order to advance their children’s literacy development.

PALS has Ideas… But so do YOU!  Break into groups  Discuss and record possible activities/strategies

that could be used to teach children about your specific PALS section.

Name Writing Group Please share your ideas

Name Writing:  Wipe Off Writing: Wipe off boards, shaving cream, sand

trays, pudding.  Pencils and Play:  Restaurant Play: notepads, pencils, menus, signs, bank

checks, and cookbooks.  Office Center: pencils, markers, message pads, stationary, order forms, calendars.  Post Office: envelopes, stamps, address labels, pens, paper, stickers  *Combining writing practice with play makes written

language more meaningful and useful for children.  Journal: A place for each child to share ideas on paper. Stapled sheets of plain paper make inexpensive journals. Journaling can be a group activity or done individually; it can be child or teacher directed, with a topic or free for expression. Encourage scribbles as well as letters and pictures.

Alphabet Knowledge Group Please share your ideas.

Alphabet Knowledge  Matching games that encourage the matching of upper case letters to their

lower case counterparts.  Name cards  Regular work with names (sign-in sheets, signing up for classroom jobs,

writing their own names on their creations).  Mama and Baby matching game: Place an upper case letter on the picture

of the larger (mama) animal and a lower case letter on a picture of the baby animal. Ask their children to match them.  Play name games: “I’m thinking of friend whose name starts with the letter

…” “I’m thinking of a friend whose name starts with the … sound.”  Alphabet books available for exploration  Classroom print is plentiful (labels are present in all areas)  ABC Walk: place cards with an alphabet letter on the floor (or on a chair),

play music, each child stands on a letter and starts to walk when the music starts. Stop the music, choose a “child name and letter link” card (the group can help you decide whose name you pulled) and ask that child to identify the letter they are standing on.

Beginning Sound Awareness Group Please share your ideas.

Beginning Sound Awareness:  Sound Sort: Collect a variety of items from the classroom that begin with the same letter and place them in a bag. Include one item that does not share the initial sound. Introduce the focus sound. Tell the children that there is one item that does not belong and it is their job to figure it out. As you pull each item out of the bag draw attention to the beginning sound of that item and question whether there is a sound match. Be sure to make the sorted objects available for independent practice later.

 Old McDonald Had a Letter: Sing “Old McDonald”

but use letters instead of animals. The children name the letter and say the sound as prompted by the song.  Play i-Spy: Take turns “spying” things around the classroom that start with specific letter sounds.

Print & Word Awareness Please share your ideas.

Print & Word Awareness:  Message board  Re-reading: It is okay to read the same book repeatedly. Encourage repetition in reading, as children become more familiar with books encourage them to read along, read a page, read the story. Make sure that stories the children are comfortable with are available.

 Storytelling: Use children’s interests to determine a good topic to talk about. Adults act as a scribe and provide a sentence starter, “once upon a time there was a dinosaur…”. The prompt children to think of details related to the sentence starter, what did the main character look like, eat, do for fun, etc. Write the children’s ideas and read it to the group frequently.

 Book Walks: Before reading a story, “walk” through it. Look at the cover, the back cover, the title, the title page, the pictures. Make predictions, what could the book be about. Then use the words to either confirm or negate your predictions.

Rhyme Awareness Group Please share your ideas.

Rhyme Awareness:  New Names: Encourage children to find a word that rhymes with their name or their friends’ names.

 Down by the Bay: Sing the song until the children are familiar with the words and rhyme pattern, then leave out the final rhyming word and ask for the children to provide it. Then you can add new rhyming words into the song.

 Squirrel in a Tree: Version of tag. Give one child a card necklace with a rhyming word on it, you will want three sets of rhyming words (cat, hat, bat, mat) (pin, win, tin, bin) (dog, log, fog, bog). Select one card from each set. Give one card each to three children who will be the “trees.” Tell those children to go to various places around the room or playground (small area). Next distribute the rest of the word cards to the remaining children, who will be “squirrels”. When the teacher says, “Squirrel in a tree!” the squirrels move around trying to find the tree that rhymes with their cards. Continue the game by switching cards and roles. *Pictures can be added to the word card, if necessary, to help the children be more successful.

 “Move When You Hear”: During transitions tell the children the

rhyming word will be their cue to move to the next place/activity. “It’s time to wash our hands. If you are wearing blue, listen for me to say a word that rhymes with ‘cat’.” say some words that do not rhyme with ‘cat’ before saying a rhyming word. Do this until everyone has transitioned.

Nursery Rhyme Awareness Group Please share your ideas.

Nursery Rhyme Awareness  Act out a nursery rhyme  Nursery Rhyme Pop Up: Once the classroom knows a rhyme very well, have everyone sit. The teacher pops up and says the first part of the nursery rhyme, then encourages the child sitting next to them to pop up with the next part (typically guided by rhyme placement in the rhyme). Once the children get used to the game, have them tell the rhyme by popping up one word at a time.  One Potato, Two Potato: Have the children sit in small groups of with partners. Have the whole group recite a nursery rhyme. Then recite it again, this time asking them to pat their legs to the beat. Then recite it again, asking them to put their hands on top of their partners hand with each expressed beat.

 Add Nursery Rhymes to the Song Book

End of the Day Activities  At the end of the day, try to get the

classroom picked up after snack and then engage the children in activities, such as PALS activities.  This will help the rooms be more clean as closing time draws near and give the children another opportunity for growth.

PALS-PreK 2012-13 School Year Results  Open your envelope.  Look over the results from your classroom and

your building.  In which areas did your children score the

highest?  In which areas did your children score the

lowest?  What are you going to do to make sure that

Write Tomorrow’s Lesson Plan… And think about the following things… 1. How can you incorporate a literacy-focused activity or develop children’s exposure to literacy during each part of the Daily Routine? 2. Are you providing children with the opportunity to write their name, recognize upper and lower case letters and their sounds, to think about beginning sounds, explore print and words, and experiment with rhymes, daily? 3. Are you using Transition Times as opportunities for teaching and learning? 4. Are you intentionally thinking about and seeking opportunities to improve children’s phonological awareness?

Write One Attainable Goal…  On the bottom of the Lesson Plan you just

completed, write at least one attainable literacy-focused goal. For example:  “I will make sure that each day, my Lesson Plan

includes a teaching strategy or activity from each of the PALS-PreK sections: Name Writing, Alphabet Knowledge, Beginning Sound Awareness, Print & Word Awareness, Rhyme Awareness, Nursery Rhyme Awareness.”

Note: Goals must be time-bound, measurable, and realistic.

Make Sure You Have…  Nursery Rhyme inserts for your Song Book  PALS Activities Binder  PALS Idea Recorder

 2012-2013 PALS Scores

Survey  Please take time to fill out the Presentation

Survey before you leave.

Thank you for your time and participation!