KSELA3: Language and Word Study - The purposes of language and approaches to analyzing language; the pronunciation of English phonemes and their graphemes; the developmental progression of phonological awareness; vocabulary development and its relationship to literacy acquisition; the developmental stages of spelling and morphological analysis
Evidence 1: Building Blocks for Literacy Workshop, Sterns Center, 2014
Description: Building Blocks offers research-based strategies derived from recommendations of the National Research Council and National Early Literacy Panel into preschool and childcare settings which include phonological awareness, language development including vocabulary, shared book reading and speech-to-print connection including alphabet knowledge and early writing.
Analysis: This workshop introduced all pieces of this competency. The information that I found most helpful included a detailed discussion of Piaget's stages of cognitive development which included the progression of phonological awareness. First children experience prelinguistic vocalization and develop the phonology of their first 50 words, followed by single morphemes (sounds) and the production of each. At age four children complete their phonetic inventory, produce simple words, and begin to use longer words. By seven, children begin to learn about the structure of language and begin to acquire morphophonemic rules of language. This leads to an increased ability in spelling.
Evidence 2: Sounds Abound Program
Description: This program helps meet the needs of children with varied levels of phonological awareness. Sounds Abound targets the following skills: rhyme recognition, completion and production, syllable segmentation and deletion, phoneme isolation and segmentation, phoneme deletion, substitution, addition, and blending, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
Analysis: This program provides many classroom activities that aid children in rhyme recognition and completion, syllable segmentation and deletion, and various skills involving phonemes. The activities involving phonemes have children practicing initial sound recognition, initial sound production, segmentation, deletion, substitution, blending and phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
Evidence 3: Introduction to Early Childhood Education, ECE 105, Community College of Vermont, Fall 2001, Transcript
Description: This course was an overview of early childhood education . We examined historical, philosophical, and practical issues related to the education of children from birth to age eight. Topics included early childhood learning, behavior, and motivation; curriculum models and materials; observation techniques; and instructional issues.
Analysis: Young children experience a rapid acquisition of new vocabulary. According to our text from this class, young children learn an average of ten words per day, and the average three year old has a vocabulary of 900-1000 words, while just three years later at six, this same child will have a vocabulary of 10,000 to 14,000 words. Literacy, much like oral language development, emerges in a natural way. It needs a language-rich environment to encourage further development. Children who are exposed to a more extensive vocabulary, and who are provided with meaningful and enjoyable experiences with language will be encouraged in their literacy development.
