Karla Rosas Wilson

Mano a Mano Project

Oral Language Project

Introduction

This course project is designed to develop an effective way to implement new strategies into our oral language program in Pre-Kinder at the American School Foundation of Guadalajara. It is also designed to experiment and discover the best way to document the individual development of oral language of the child in both Spanish and English. By developing oral language strategies and techniques we can implement and include them in the early childhood curriculum. We will for the first time also be able to document and record student progress throughout the year as they develop language skills in both languages.

Next year the curriculum focus in our school is Language Arts. The early childhood section will be carefully looking at the Language Arts curriculum in general with a focus on emergent writing and story telling. The Early Childhood section currently has oral language curriculum objectives, but they were developed and based on the experience our past teachers have had, with little research based. These exit objectives are based on experience, but with a bit of proper research, brainstorming, and experimentation, we should be able to expand and fully support the exit objectives. At the same time specifying specific techniques and tools that can be used in the classroom to further the students oral language development in both language and document their progress for both parents and school community.

The reason for currently implementing this project is because all three Pre-Kinder teachers will be new to this age group and this will give us an opportunity to embark on a project together that will support the Language Arts focus and really spotlight oral language which is much more relevant to language arts curriculum at this developmental stage. We can work together to analyze the reading material, discuss techniques and strategies for the classroom, and compare and contrast our teaching styles and documentation process to obtain the best way to enhance our oral language program and documentation system for demonstrating the oral language progress in Pre-Kinder at our school.


Resources

Reading Materials:

A New View of Language Acquisition

By Patricia K. Kuhl

Reading supplied by Mano-a-Mano course

Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Language Acquisition Theories

By Evienia Papadaki-D’Onofrio

Reading supplied by Early Childhood Director, Tina Carstensen

Culture and Development in Children’s Play

By Hyun, E.

Making Sense of Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Education. New York: Peter Lang.

Early Childhood Bilingualism in the Montessori Children’s House

By Michael Rosanova

Reading from On-Line Mano-a-Mano course

Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code

By Patricia K. Kuhl

Reading from On-Line Mano-a-Mano course

Intercultural Communication Concepts and the Psychology of Intercultural Experience

By David s. Hoopes

Multicultural Education: A cross cultural training approach

Ed. Margaret E. Pusch

Preparing children for a multicultural world: Diversity leaders share strategies for weaving the value of difference into early childhood.

by Melia Franklin

Sept-Oct. 1999 Children’s Advocate Newsmagazine

www.4children.org/news/999divrs.htm

Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity

A position statement of the NAEYC

www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/psdiv98.pdf

Teacher Materials for: Documenting Young Children’s Work

By Judy Harris Helm, Sallee Beneke, Kathy Steinheimer

Pg. 1-8, 13-15, 23-26

Supplied by Early Childhood Director, Tina Carstensen

Windows of Learning: Documenting Young Children’s Work

By Judy Harris Helm, Sallee Beneke, Kathy Steinheimer

Chapters, 6, 7, 10 and 11

Supplied by Early Childhood Director, Tina Carstensen

Human Resources:

·  Pre-Kinder Teachers and Teacher Assistants.

·  Early Childhood Director, Tina Carstensen, will be included in some round-table discussions of specific techniques to be applied.

·  Early Childhood Psychologist, Martha, Valdez, Ph.D. will help provide possible tips for specific activities to be implemented.

Material Resources:

·  Early Childhood classroom for meeting.

·  Refreshments supplied by the Early Childhood section office.

·  Classroom computer available for PowerPoint presentations.

·  Whiteboard or chalkboard in Early Childhood classroom.

·  Specific supplies from school supply store includes: pens, markers, erasers, pencils, binders, separators, paper, whiteboard markers, chalk, large white paper, etc.

·  Three small tape recorders for individual classroom supplied by the Early Childhood office

·  Individual classroom computer for teachers to keep notes, recordings, journals, etc.

·  One digital video camera to be shared by the three pre-kinder classrooms and supplied by the Early Childhood office.

·  Copies from the school copy center to photocopy articles, forms, and share recording and notes.


Timeline

Dates

/ Objective /

Activities

/ Resources / Evaluation / Homework
Mid August / Familiarize teachers with program design and introduce current brain research on language acquisition / ·  Ice breaker
·  Introduce and explain the goal of the program.
·  Present brain research related to language acquisition
·  Questions and answers. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles and Presentation
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst.
Director
Psychologist / Ask teachers to describe in one or two sentences the program introduced. / A New View of Language Acquisition
By Patricia K. Kuhl
Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code
By Patricia K. Kuhl
Mid Sept. / Introduce possibilities of how we want to document children’s language development. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Reflect on readings of brain research and language acquisition.
·  Discuss formats for documenting students language development / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles and Presentation
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director / Ask teachers to sketch a picture without words on how we obtain language acquisition works in the brain. / Windows of Learning: Documenting Young Children’s Work
By Judy Harris Helm
Teacher Materials for: Documenting Young Children’s Work
By Judy Harris Helm, Pg. 1-8, 13-15, 23-26
End Sept. / Decide on forms of documentation and recording student language development and strategies implemented. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Discuss formats: oral language records and teacher self-reflections.
·  Conclusion / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director / Each teacher chooses three forms of documentation and name them out loud. / Early Childhood Bilingualism in the Montessori Children’s House
By Michael Rosanova
Mid October / Choose points from article that could be included in our program / ·  Ice breaker
·  Discuss article and brainstorm ideas for implementation. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers / Each teach should name a point that was chosen. / Make a list of how you would individually implement them in your classroom.
Document current techniques.
End October / Present ideas and obtain a list of specific techniques or activities to implement into the classroom. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Introduce our choice explain why.
·  Questions and answers
·  Feedback. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director
Psychologist
Teacher Asst. / Ask teachers to list a specific technique they plan to implement. / Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Language Acquisition Theories
By Evienia Papadaki-D’Onofrio
Mid November / Share documentation of students using language. / ·  Ice breaker
·  How do we feel and what have we done.
·  Share ideas. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers / What did they like from someone else’s document. / Culture and Development in Children’s Play
By Hyun, E.
End November / Define how play influences language. / ·  Ice breaker
·  How do we record play and demonstrate language develop.?
·  Share ideas. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director / Each teacher name one point they enjoyed from the article. / Preparing children for a multicultural world: Diversity leaders share strategies for weaving the value of difference into early childhood.
by Melia Franklin
Mid January / Decided and define how culture influences in language development / ·  Ice breaker
·  Discuss the article read about cultural influence, how does this effect our school directly?
·  Share ideas for making changes. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director
Psychologist / Name one positive change you can make in your classroom. / Intercultural Communication Concepts and the Psychology of Intercultural Experience
By David s. Hoopes
End January / Discuss how cultural awareness has directly influenced activities in your classroom. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Share positive changes and make a list of what works. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst. / Name a something new suggested by a co-worker / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children.
Mid Feb. / Share types of documentation / ·  Ice breaker
·  Share positive changes you have seen in children and documentation process. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst. / Share your favorite oral language technique suggested by a co-worker and how you would implement it in your classroom. / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children.
Windows of Learning: Documenting Young Children’s Work
By Judy Harris Helm
End February / Share types of documentation / ·  Ice breaker
·  Share positive changes you have seen in children and documentation process. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst. / What did you gain from this meeting? Answer the question. / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children.
Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity
A position statement of the NAEYC
www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/psdiv98.pdf
Mid March / Discuss possible changes in curriculum document / ·  Ice breaker
·  Share positive and negative points about document.
·  Brain storm specific activities and objective to be added. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst. / Name a specific change you see that needs to be made and a specific addition. / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children.
Take home curriculum document and make notes.
End March / Decided what will be changed in curriculum document. And what documentation will support it. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Share personal notes and notes from earlier meeting.
·  Come to a consensus. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Director
Psychologist
Teacher Asst. / Name the changes to be made. / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children.
End April / Decided on final changes in curriculum document and process for documenting oral language. / ·  Ice breaker
·  Make notes for final document and details of presentation to EC staff in general. / Material:
Whiteboard
Markers
Copy of Articles
Binders
Pencils
White paper
Refreshments
Human:
Teachers
Teacher Asst. / CELEBRATE / Continue documenting oral language techniques used by teacher and language development of children until end of school year. To see complete development