UIC Early Reading First Building the Foundations for Early Literacy Excellence Alicia J Wyche Summer Internship 2009

What is Early Reading First?  Federal program that supports the development of early childhood centers of excellence  Mission: ensure that all children enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills for continued success in school  Grants are designed to help early childhood centers improve their programs  serve primarily children from low-income families.

UIC-Early Reading First  Awarded 2 federally funded grants from the U.S. Department of Education  In collaboration with the UIC Center for Literacy  Charting a Course to Literacy ( )  Partnership with three Chicago Public Charter Schools  Achieving Preschool Language and Literacy Excellence ( )  Partnership with five Archdiocese of Chicago Schools

Project Goals UIC-ERF  Equip children to acquire the oral language, critical thinking, and early literacy skills needed for successfully developing later reading skills.  Design language and print rich environments of the highest quality that will provide children with meaningful cognitive learning experiences.  Enhance the knowledge and skills of school-based education professionals so that instructional practices consistent with scientifically-based reading research increase.

Participants & Method  Participants  Three- and four-year-old children  Collaborative team that includes: early childhood teachers, school administrators, university faculty, early literacy coaches, and graduate students  Methods  Implementation of a comprehensive preschool curriculum that includes professional development and coaching  Collection of student assessment data

Classroom Curriculum Opening the World of Learning (OWL)  Research-based comprehensive early literacy program specifically designed for preschool students  Integrated approach covers all domains of learning  Thematic lessons include Language and Literacy, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, The Arts, Physical, and Social/Emotional Development  Authors: Judy Schickendanz and David Dickinson in collaboration with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Assessment Tools  Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS-PreK)  Provides information about a child’s exposure to, and mastery of early literacy skills that are related to later success in reading.  Skills: Name Writing, Upper Case Letters, Lower Case Letters, Letter Sounds, Beginning Sound Awareness, Print & Word Awareness, Rhyme Awareness  Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th Edition (PPVT4)  Provides information about a child’s vocabulary development.  Child is shown four pictures while the adult says a word and asks the child to point to the matching picture.

STEP=UP Summer Internship 2009 Data Analyst Intern  Conduct analyses from collected assessment data  Document program impact and track children's’ growth and achievement  Display on project website, present to school administrators, use in future academic publications

Results: What did I gain?  Knowledge of early childhood instruction, assessment, and best practices  Experience with large quantitative databases- growth modeling  Organizing, cleaning, and creating databases  Generating Excel graphs  Running analyses using statistical software (spss)

What now?  Continue involvement with project as graduate research assistant  Scheduling and administering assessments  Managing assessment data and creating reports  Running analyses on data  Video taping instruction for professional development purposes

For further information about UIC-ERF  Project Website:  Contacts  Dr. William Teale; Principal Investigator  Dr. Jeffri Brookfield; Principal Investigator  Dr. Maureen Meehan; Principal Investigator  National Early Reading First Website: dex.html dex.html