Early Childhood Educators Look to McREL for Services
by April Schmidt, University of Wisconsin-Platteville Public Relations
In 2004, McREL Principal Researcher Elena Bodrova and University of Wisconsin-Platteville Early Childhood Education Professor Gwendolyn Coe, teamed up to help local teachers improve early literacy. After Coe received a $150,000 grant to offer professional development opportunities to 30 early childhood educators over a three-year span, she contacted Bodrova to provide the training. Because of renewed funding for 2006, about 50 more teachers in Southwest Wisconsin will participate in this training over the next three years. In addition, three school districts that took part in the previous three-year grant will receive on-site professional development for teachers to sustain new practices and provide continuity across and within grade levels and to set up three model school districts.
To help teachers better understand early learning at various developmental stages, Bodrova demonstrates how teachers can implement strategies in their classrooms that instill in young children the ability to self-regulate their behavior. According to Bodrova, who is an expert on the ideas of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the best way to prepare children for more challenging academic learning is through dramatic play activities that encourage self-control (emotional and physical), patience, and focusing attention for extended lengths of time.
Teachers also learn ways to support more mature play, and Bodrova emphasizes that children need to develop their oral language skills before they can learn how to read, write, and calculate. She explains to teachers that the best way to ensure children become familiar with their language—the power by which people control their behavior—is through play activities, structured to encourage language use, which allows them to take control over themselves.
After only a month into the program, for example, children at the university’s children’s center could be seen sitting attentively together, helping the teacher spell out words in the morning message and orally describing their goals for their time at the center. Children also planned an activity and followed through with it while adhering to the activity’s rules with little guidance from the teacher.
Platteville kindergarten teacher Jamie Hartwig reports positive results following the professional development: “I incorporated play plans and morning message as part of our morning activities in the classroom. The plans have helped in many areas of our room. All the children seem to have more of an interest in reading and writing. The children with behavior problems seem more focused and on task after completing their play plans.”
The first group of 30 teachers from 2004–05 mentored 25 more teachers in 2005–06, and these teachers will mentor another group of teachers in 2006–07. Because of Coe’s commitment to finding funding and McREL’s Early Childhood Education services, 20 school districts and 55 teachers in those districts will benefit from training through 2007.
This story is excerpted from the article “UWP Professor Receives Renewed Funding for Early Literacy Development in Southwest Wisconsin.” It appeared in the February 19, 2007, Daily Pioneer News.