English Language Arts Preschool-Age 4 (2023)
Course Preface
Course Introduction
Printable Version (pdf)
INTRODUCTION
Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen. When students utilize these skills, they begin to express and understand ideas and opinions, make decisions, solve problems, and achieve goals. Achieving literacy is a lifelong learning process. Literacy enables students to participate fully in their community and society.
Language is the basis for understanding and communicating in most aspects of life. Language development begins in infancy, and by the preschool years, many children have a vocabulary that includes several thousand words and continues to increase remarkably. One of the best predictors of reading success is the number of spoken words preschoolers understand and use. In fact, the number of words that young children hear along with the types of language interactions they have are significantly correlated to their academic achievement in later years (Walker, Greenwood, Hart & Carta, 1994).
Research has supported evidence-based literacy practices using systematic, explicit, sequential, and cumulative instruction when teaching the seven essential components of literacy: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. According to research, it is recommended that preschool teachers prepare children for later reading instruction. They can do so by introducing the five critical building blocks for literacy, including phonological awareness, letter identification, vocabulary knowledge, print concepts, and a positive attitude toward reading (Henry, 2019). The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to read (Adams, 1998). Early phonological awareness skills usually develop during preschool ages and include rhyming, alliteration, segmenting words into syllables, and identifying the first sounds in words. Research suggests these early phonological awareness skills facilitate the development of letter-sound knowledge (Cardos-Martins et al., 2011). The levels of phonological awareness can build on each other, advancing from word awareness to syllable awareness, to onset-rime awareness, to individual phoneme awareness. “Children’s language develops on a continuum and moves from large to increasingly smaller segments of language” (Cunningham & Zibulsky, 2014). Teaching strategies used not only need to be systematic and explicit, but they need to be developmentally appropriate and “framed within playful learning and intentional play” (Paulson & Moats, 2018).
ADULTS SUPPORT LEARNING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS WHEN THEY:
- Engage in conversations with children.
- Read daily from a variety of texts, including narrative and informational genres.
- Create a language- and print-rich environment, including reading, listening, writing, and dramatic play centers, eye level alphabet charts, picture/word labels, and samples of children’s work. Modifications and support in children’s primary language may be provided as necessary.
- Provide activities that increase phonological awareness. Phonological awareness includes phonemic awareness, onset-rime awareness, syllable awareness, and word awareness.
- Use a wide variety of media and presentation forms, including animated and engaging storytelling, pictures or drawings, posters, appropriate short multimedia presentations, drama, signs, paintings, sculptures, puppets, and hand signs.
- Sing a wide variety of songs, including those that reflect the cultural makeup of the classroom community.
- Provide a variety of texts such as menus, books, magazines, charts, record sheets, recipes, telephone directories, journals, theater programs, newspapers, maps, instruction booklets, movie or music labels, food and product labels (including those in different languages), and store flyers.
- Provide activities that increase awareness of the rhythm of language, such as clapping the syllables in children’s names or other familiar words.
- Provide opportunities for multiple readings/retellings of nursery rhymes or stories.
- While reading to children, ask questions about what may happen next, how the book relates to their own experiences, how the characters in the story are feeling, etc. Encourage children to re-enact stories using dramatic play or puppets.
- Supply a variety of age-appropriate writing tools and materials in all areas of the classroom, including thin short pencils, crayons, markers, whiteboards, glue sticks, magnetic letters, paintbrushes, etc.
- Model proper writing in different ways, such as writing down what children say, labeling their drawings, writing questions that could be asked of a visitor, or making a list of foods.
Core Standards of the Course
Speaking and Listening (P4.SL)
Students will learn to collaborate, express and listen to ideas, integrate and evaluate information from various sources, use media and visual displays as well as language and grammar strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt to context and task.
Standard P4.SL.1:
Participate in conversations with peers and adults, using age-appropriate vocabulary on topics and texts.
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Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions such as listening to others, staying on topic, and taking turns speaking.
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Follow two-step directions.
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Express own ideas.
Standard P4.SL.2:
Speak clearly and audibly in sentences of varying lengths to communicate wants, needs, experiences, thoughts, and emotions.
Standard P4.SL.3:
Use age-appropriate language, grammar, volume, and pronunciation when speaking or presenting.
Reading (P4.R)
Students will learn to proficiently read and comprehend grade level literature and informational text, including seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band, with scaffolding as needed. *Standard R.4 includes an asterisk to refer educators back to the Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges in the introduction of the standards.
Standard P4.R.1:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate concepts of print.
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Correctly hold a book and demonstrate that print is read from top to bottom, left to right, and from front to back.
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b. Begin to identify frequently seen letters and words, recognizing that words are made up of letters.
Standard P4.R.2:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate phonological awareness skills.
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Recognize rhyming words and alliteration.
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With prompting and support, segment words into syllables.
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Identify initial sounds in spoken language.
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Identify the base parts that make up a compound word.
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With prompting and support, blend and segment initial sounds of single-syllable spoken words.
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With prompting and support, blend and segment single-syllable words into individual phonemes.
Standard P4.R.3:
Demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate phonics skills.
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Identify 13 or more of the consonant names and sounds using one-to-one letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle).
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Identify three or more vowel names and short vowel sounds using one-to-one letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle).
Standard P4.R.4:
Begins in kindergarten.
Standard P4.R.5:
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions and make connections about a text. (RL & RI)
Standard P4.R.6-7:
With prompting and support, retell simple texts, including event sequence and characters. (RL & RI)
Standard P4.R.8:
With prompting and support, begin to ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. (RL & RI)
Standard P4.R.9:
Begins in kindergarten.
Standard P4.R.10:
Begins in grade 1.
Standard P4.R.11:
Begins in grade 4.
Standard P4.R.12:
Begins in grade 2.
Standard P4.R.13:
Begins in grade 2.
Standard P4.R.14:
Begins in grade 2.
Writing (P4.W)
Students will learn to write for a variety of tasks, purposes, and audiences using appropriate grammar/conventions, syntax, and style.
Standard P4.W.1:
Standard P4.W.1: Verbally share an opinion and visually represent that opinion using simple drawing and writing (e.g., scribble writing with letter-like formations).
Standard P4.W.2:
Verbally share information and visually represent that information using simple drawing and writing (e.g., scribble writing with letter-like formations).
Standard P4.W.3:
Verbally share a narrative and visually represent that narrative using simple drawing and writing (e.g., scribble writing with letter-like formations). Standard P4.W.4: Participate in shared writing projects. a. Recall information from experiences or learned information and share it with others. b. Interact and collaborate with others. Standard P4.W.5: Print some mock letters, scribbles, or manuscript letters, including those in own name.
Standard P4.W.4:
Participate in shared writing projects.
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Recall information from experiences or learned information and share it with others.
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Interact and collaborate with others. Standard P4.W.5: Print some mock letters, scribbles, or manuscript letters, including those in own name.
Standard P4.W5
Print some mock letters, scribbles, or manuscript letters, including those in own name.
http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education
(USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education
(USHE). Send questions or comments to USBE
Specialist -
Cristina
Barrera
and see the Early Learning website. For
general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director
-
Todd
Call.
These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the
State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced
for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials,
credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These
materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other
format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of
Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah
84114-4200.