Learning Skills (English)
- Phonological Awareness Screener
- What it means:
- Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. These skills help children sound out words as they begin to read. The set of skills goes from easiest to most difficult:
- Listening - ability to identify words/sounds that are the same
- Rhyming - producing words with the same ending sound (e.g. seat, meat)
- Alliteration - producing words that begin with the same sound (e.g. bat, ball)
- Words in a Sentence - ability to repeat a sentence and show one to one correspondence for each word
- Syllabication - ability to separate words into “parts” and to create words from separate syllables
- Onset/Rime - ability to repeat two parts of a word and blend them together (e.g. /m/ /om/ = mom)
- What can you do to help at home?
- • Play a listening game with your child. Say two words and ask if they start with the same sound or
- not.
- • Read predictable books that focus on rhyming words- have them fill in the rhyming words as you
- read.
- • Have your child complete a sentence with a rhyming word. (e.g. She sat on a _____.)
- • Make a rhyming book. Choose a pattern and for a week, add a new picture each day of a word
- that rhymes with it. (e.g. at, hat, mat, bat)
- • Read books that emphasize alliteration- have your child identify the sound they hear at the
- beginning of each word.
- • Make up tongue twisters using words that begin with the same sound. (e.g. six silly swans swam to
- the sea)
- • Say a word and have your child clap out, or use their fingers, to count the syllables they hear.
- • Say a word in segmented sounds (e.g. s-i-t) and have your child blend the sounds to form the
- word. Start with familiar words.
- • Say a word and have your child identify the beginning, middle and ending sounds.
- Rapid Letter Naming
- What it means:
- Among the pre-reading skills that are tested, the one that appears to be the strongest predictor of
- reading success is letter identification. The alphabet is learned the same way that other concepts are
- learned, through hands-on explorations of the following parts:
- • Letter names • Letter formation
- • Letter sounds • What the letters look like
- What can you do to help at home?
- • Make a set of flashcards with all the letters of the alphabet- lower case on one side and upper case
- on the other. Practice 6-8 letters each week, taking out the ones your child knows at the end of the
- week.
- • Using the flashcards, have your child say the sound of the letter you show them and tell a word that
- starts with that sound.
- • Allow time for your child to practice writing the letters, especially the letters in their name.
- • Show your child a letter flashcard and have then “hunt” for matching letters in a magazine or the
- newspaper.
- Rapid Vocabulary Naming
- What it means:
- Vocabulary development is one of the most important skills required for reading and reading
- comprehension. Children’s vocabulary skills improve dramatically over the course of the Pre-K year.
- What can you do to help at home?
- Using open-ended questions during dramatic play encourages children to use more language than
- questions which require one or two word responses. Open-ended questions require children to think
- critically, express their ideas and feelings and use their imaginations. Some examples of open-ended
- questions are:
- • Tell me about this.
- • What else can you tell me?
- • What could you do with this?
- • What could this be used for?
- • What did you notice about this that is different from that?
- • How are these things the same?
- • Why do you think that?
- • What might happen if?
- • How could we do that differently?
- • How does that make you feel?
- • When you did that what did you do first? Next? Last?
- • Why did that happen?
- Math Screener
- What it means:
- The Math Screener tests early Math skills that will help prepare your child for Kindergarten. It is important to include vocabulary when working with your child such as position words (above, below, behind, beside), number and shape names, and comparing words (same, alike, different, more, less).
- Rote Counting - How high a child can count in order. A child should be able to count up to 120 by the end of the year.
- Shape Naming - Identify shapes such as circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and oval.
- Number Recognition - Identify numbers up to 30.
- Shape Discrimination (Triangle, Square) - Point out all of the triangles/squares in a mixed group.
- Counting - Use one to one correspondence to count a set of pictures.
- Adding and Subtracting - Listening to a problem and add or subtract to get the answer.
- What can you do to help at home?
- • Practice counting using items at home. (e.g. count how many pillows/chairs/windows are in the
- house)
- • Have your child look at household objects and say what shapes they are. Sort objects by shape, size,
- color, etc.
- • Make flashcards with numbers written on them. Show your child a number and ask them to make a
- group of that number (using beans, blocks, pennies, or any other small counter items).
- • Use household items to create adding/subtracting problems. (e.g. place 3 plates on the table. Say “If
- I add one more plate, how many will that be all together?”)
- Observables
-
- What it means:
- The Observables are three pieces that help the teacher build a portfolio (or collection of a child’s work) over a period of time. This helps to provide a good picture of a child’s learning and their progress in particular areas. The Observables include the following pieces:
- Book and Print Checklist - Displays a child’s knowledge of what authors and illustrators do, as well as how to hold a book, where to start reading and which direction to go, and how to turn pages.
- Social Screener - The teacher will observe students over a period of a few weeks, watching to see how a child engages in activities and conversations with peers, how they regulate their behavior and emotions, how they focus their attention on materials and activities, as well as making their wants and interests known to teachers in an appropriate way.
- Early and Emergent Writing Checklist - The teacher will collect writing/journal samples that display a child’s understanding that what you say can be written down. The samples will also show that the child can make letter-like, or actual symbols, can write their own name, as well as words and friend’s names found in the room.