Thinking outside the box

Thinking outside the box is a cliché we have all heard in recent years in various work environments.  It definitely applies to teachers and parents, as well. This past week I was a substitute teacher for an elementary school’s Head Start program for 3 year olds.   Thirteen out of fifteen students were Hispanic and throughout the day most of the children spoke Spanish to me and the para-educator.  Since this is the second month of preschool for these children they are still learning daily routines.  I was interested to learn there are obvious goals for math and language arts and a lot of encouragement from the teachers for the children to listen, see, and speak  English as much as possible.   The math curriculum involves sorting things by size, shape and color and counting to five.  The language arts curriculum relates to oral language development, speaking English and learning manners, basic concepts of print related their names, plus labels and signs in the classrooms, acquiring and applying new vocabulary and the literacy learning process.  This last aspect, the literacy learning process involves each student’s ability to listen and respond to various books and poems, their request to have books read to them, and their ability to choose to look at books and pretend to read when instructed by the teacher.  The literacy unit so far has been about home, fall and the change of the seasons.  The children are starting to sing familiar songs, (such as “Old MacDonald had a Farm”), listen to stories (about pumpkins, apples, and farm animals) and participate in daily learning centers. 

Communication with parents is very important for all the students in this predominantly Hispanic community.  Each day the teacher sends home a folder that holds important papers written in English and Spanish.  The teacher also sends home a monthly newsletter written in English and Spanish to communicate what the children are learning throughout the month and student/parent reminders.  In addition, the teacher requires each student take a book home each night for reading at home.  Each day after the children arrive, they unpack, and take the book from their backpacks and return it to either the English or Spanish book bin. Then each student pick outs another book to take home.  The kids seem to enjoy bringing the books home and it is becoming part of their daily routine at school.  Timothy Rasinski and Nancy Padak (2008) state that while “stories, or narratives, are important and perhaps the main entry point for reading at home”, teachers need to embrace a “wider palette of materials that count as texts for reading” and “help parents see that these other types of materials are legitimate forms of reading” (page 582).  Rasinski and Padak highlight environmental print, lists, rhymes, poems, songs, newspapers, magazines, mail, and technology.  They recommend that teachers send this list home with suggestions for reading the mail, singing songs, developing lists, etc. and encourage parents to use some of these alternative texts on a daily basis with their children.  Making it part of their daily routine at home will have it become a normal part of family life.  I definitely agree and think these suggestions from Razinski and Padak would be very helpful to parents of ESL students in Head Start programs and other preschool classes, as well.

Source:

Rasinski. T., & Padak, N. (2008) Beyond Stories.  The Reading Teacher, 61, 582-584.