[00:00:00] Olivia: Welcome to Schoolutions, where listening will leave you inspired by solutions to issues you or others you know may be struggling with in the public education system today. I am Olivia Wahl, and I am happy to be here with my friend and colleague, Dr. Wendy Bunker. We are going to be having a conversation around the 4th Literacy Brief that was published by New York State, uh, these Briefs again are written by Dr. Nonie K. Lesaux and Katie Carr, M.Ed. This Brief, in particular, is called The Science of Reading: The PreK Years. And PreK is something near and dear to my heart. Wendy, I know we've talked about this often. Um, and we had said we wanted to kick the conversation off with a quote at the top of page one. Um, The PreK Years Laying the Literacy Foundation. And this quote, um, speaks to, “at this stage, children are building their foundational pre-literacy skills, critical thinking, social emotional skills, and their identities-all of which support their literacy learning in the primary grades.”
[00:01:10] Olivia: Um, and, you know, I believe that play, unstructured play, is what should be happening most of the preschool day. And so, the notion of this Brief, um, it pulls at my heartstrings in different ways, and so we're going to unpack it, but I just need to give the disclaimer up front that I believe that children learn about the world around them through play, um, and need lots of time for that, um, learning how to interact with others and, and, um, to really understand, um, human nature. So, um, jumping into that next section, um, the Cultivating the Big 6 for Lifelong Literacy. I'd love for you to restate what that, that idea of the Big 6 is.
[00:02:05] Wendy: Sure, well, the Big 6 is the, um, current understanding from moving from the Big 5 that were identified by the National Reading Panel
Report 2019, which are phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. So to those 5, we've now added a 6th, which is oral language. And so, um, the, the, um, the thinking around the inclusion of play as a learning platform, let's say, is that children are constantly communicating with each other. They're talking to themselves while they play, and so that development of oral language, the development of the ability to understand one another, and the communication that goes on, um, the opportunity to play with language, to play with sounds, all of those things I think are incorporated in that, that idea of play-based learning.
[00:03:16] Olivia: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and interestingly, we've been alluding to the high-impact practices. Um, this Brief, Brief 4 around PreK, Brief 5 around the elementary years, as well as Brief 6 around secondary years; all outline beautiful high-impact practices that we can embrace. Um, and so we're going to jump into those and I loved our discussion before we pressed record.
[00:03:48] Olivia: Um, we were looking at the section on the top of page two, high-impact practices in action, how much exposure, how often, and I know we've studied the graphic that's below that section, um, across the three grades, but you've helped me to make sense of what that means. And I think it would be really helpful for listeners as well.
[00:04:14] Wendy: Absolutely. Um, so it's a kind of a bar graph, I would say, um, and it does talk about the high-impact practice distribution in PreK, and there are five high-impact practices. So there is, um, and let me, before I say that; they’re each one; the bar graph, the way I am envisioning it, is a percentage out of 100. So the thing that we need to remember is that these Briefs are not prescriptive in that they are saying what must be done, but they're a guide. So, within that 100%, these five practices are broken down to 25%, 50%, or 100%. But that's 100% of a variety of options. It may be a day. It may be a week of instruction, it could be a month of instruction, or it could be an entire unit's worth of instruction.
[00:05:14] Wendy: So, out of any of those possibilities, these are percentages of that total time. So, the first practice would be collaborative and culminating projects, performances, and celebrations. And for PreK years, that's about 25% of whatever given time you're talking about. The next, which is 50% of your time, which is a pretty good chunk of time, is text-based discussion and writing opportunities.
[00:05:47] Wendy: And I think we probably both would envision this being shared reading, um, shared writing, writing in response to something that we've listened to, but also talking, we can't forget about the importance of talking with peers, talking with a teacher about content. 100% of the time, so no matter what we're doing, we're always thinking about having students be being engaged with a variety of high-interest, diverse and complex texts. And I love that, in particular, because it also takes us to the CR-SE, the culturally responsive and sustaining education and to SEL. which are so important in these Briefs and so important in education for kiddos.
[00:06:38] Wendy: Um, 25% of our time, which is a small amount, we think, but when we think about what's going on for preschool students in terms of phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, word study, and skill building, these kids are still at the early stages of emergent literacy. And so the, the more, um, school-based literacy skills, early reading skills are still new to these students.
[00:07:12] Wendy: So 25%of the time really is appropriate. And then 50% of our time is going to be spent on fostering understanding of print conventions, print features, and the functions of print. And so the last two really go hand in hand. We're learning about the world around us in terms of our text base, um, building comprehension, building language, and that's really the focus of, of the, um, those specific, more specific literacy skills, I would say.
[00:07:49] Olivia: And I know we've talked about this before, that when we close our eyes and picture a PreK classroom or preschool classroom, they are steeped in print. I can picture labels all over the room in multiple languages, perhaps. And so when we think about that fostering understanding of print conventions, features, and functions, you've, we've talked about this, that you've said to me; but Livi, that's the, they're being aware of the print that's all around them in the room. Um, and I also think of, you know, when children are read to voluminously, they almost seem to memorize some of their favorite books. And so they can pick a book up. You had spoken, uh, about one of your granddaughters reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and it, and it's almost like she's memorized it, and she's not necessarily having that one-to-one print correspondence.
[00:08:43] Olivia: But it's because she's heard that book read aloud so often; she has different pieces of it tucked away in her memory. And so it's beautiful. Um, now we have talked a lot about the graphic at the bottom of page two, um, that speaks to high-impact practices in action, which school and classroom structures and processes, we just think it's too darn difficult to try to describe. So we always tuck a link to the Brief itself and a link to all of the Briefs in the show notes. Um, I would say the one piece is that we, we really need to keep in mind that every learning environment needs to be at its highest quality. And this offers some great enabling structures and processes for the high-impact practices to be uplifted, um, for our children.
[00:09:38] Olivia: Those structures and processes: “purposeful play for active engagement and consolidation; um, comprehensive knowledge building units; inclusive curriculum and assessments; screening and process monitoring for risk; differentiated and culturally-responsive sustaining pedagogy; and protocols and routines for collaborative and independent study.” Even though I just rattled all of that off, the graphic actually is beautiful because it has the high-impact practices revisited with those structures, um, as well as what we would all hope and dream: “welcoming and affirming environment, education, educator support and development, high expectations and rigorous instruction, um, and strong community and family engagement.” That's important at every level, I would say.
[00:10:28] Wendy: This graphic really is all-encompassing as well. I mean, you mentioned the play. It covers, um, the, what we would want to use for instruction for assessment for, um, building students’ skills: interpersonal skills and communication skills. So it's really a well-rounded, um, snapshot of what a classroom environment would be.
[00:10:56] Olivia: It is, and I know, um, we've had the gift of being able to unpack these Briefs in person, um, with, you've been doing some workshops with large communities, um, and then we've also jumped into some department meetings with high school teachers, and I know we're focusing on PreK right now, but my favorite page, if you can have a favorite page in the Briefs, it's I really appreciate page three. That is that graphic, um, High-Impact Practices in Action. What do these look like in PreK settings? Uh, I think one of the most important things with these Briefs is that they're applicable to the classroom and I could read them as a PreKindergarten teacher and say, what does this look and feel like in my classroom? Um, I know you were going to just give a breakdown of what this graphic includes, um, for listeners. So what do you think?
[00:11:51] Wendy: And I agree with you. I think it's a really, um, concise look, but it also takes the broader graphic that you just, that we kind of just discussed on page two and it funnels it for instruction. Um, so we do have what it looks and feels like in PreK settings. We have the PreK skills that are fostered for each of the five areas and then the high-impact practices to be specific and then also the structures and the processes that are needed in in a PreK literacy setting. So it helps a classroom teacher set up the classroom, set up instructional practices, set up the ways kids are going to interact with each other, with text, with any sort of learning that's going on. And I also love the fact that it's what it looks and feels like in PreK settings. So we're really thinking about the student perspective as well as the teacher and the instructional perspectives.
[00:13:03] Olivia: Absolutely. And I, you know, instead of us giving all the examples on this page, I, again, anyone listening, anyone watching, please read this Brief, unpack it, um, use our conversation as a reference point. Yes. But talk about it. I've, we've actually talked about quite a bit is zooming in on phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, and word study skill building. This one section, it was interesting to me because it speaks to that happening, “in a playful manner with songs, chants, and structured activities, PreK learners are exposed to the relationship between letters (graphemes) and their sounds (phonemes).”
[00:13:46] Olivia: And that sparked, it just boomed in my mind because there's the article that came out on February 26th, 2024. Um, it was The Hechinger Report, one of them; PROOF POINTS: Controversies
within the science of reading. And I have been sharing this article widely because it's a big deal, beautiful compilation of different meta-analyses and the overall findings, um, “…in January, five researchers from Texas A&M University published their findings online in the journal, uh, Scientific Studies of Reading.” Um, and so what this found built upon the shoulders of the National Reading Panel's, uh, meta-analysis of 52 studies.
[00:14:33] Olivia: And it showed that “phonemic awareness instruction was almost twice as effective when letters were presented along with the sounds.” You have so clearly defined phonemic awareness as the manipulation of sounds. And it's very well known that it's typically only auditory. There's no visual representation of the grapheme typically, but this is saying it actually is helpful for when the sounds are being introduced and manipulated for children to have that visual cue. And I've said to you, then what's the difference between phonics and then phonological awareness? And you've helped me see that. And I think it'd be a helpful, um, description.
[00:15:20] Wendy: Sure. Well, phonological awareness, of course, is the umbrella term. And then within that, we have phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is that that, um, section underneath the umbrella. So, um, some people use the term interchangeably. But then phonemic awareness is that it's much more specific. Um, it's much more, um, targeted at the, the discrete sounds, as opposed to phonological awareness would be rhyme, it can be, um, segmenting into syllables. So it's, that's the difference between the broad and the more narrow phoneme awareness. So phonemic awareness. is the ability to play with sounds. The reason we start to want to link letters, graphemes with the phonemes is that we're then learning The Alphabetic Principle. So we're learning that the sounds are represented by letters of the alphabet, which helps us bridge to phonics.
[00:16:30] Wendy: And so, we have to learn phonics because that's, those are the rules for the, our, the way that we use letters, graphemes, to represent sounds so that we can spell, so that we can produce print to, um, represent the words that we're saying. When we only dwell in phoneme awareness, we're not helping kids make that association with the alphabet.And we have to do that.
[00:17:01] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:17:01] Wendy: So, um, the, the, um, introduction of graphemes is that bridge that we all need.
[00:17:10] Olivia: Yeah, and I think it's just exciting. Yeah, and the article actually says, “on the surface adding letters to sounds might seem identical to teaching phonics. But, some reading experts say phonemic awareness with letters still emphasizes the auditory skills of segmenting words into sounds and blending the sounds together. The visual display of the letter is almost like a subliminal teaching of phonics without explicitly saying this alphabetic symbol, “a” makes the sound /a/. Others explain that there isn't a bright line between phonemic awareness and phonics and that they can be taught in tandem.”
[00:17:51] Olivia: So the research is ever-evolving. I just found this piece fascinating. I'll tuck a link in the show notes. Um, and then you're going to bring us home. With the last page, page four, um, around supporting developing readers with identified needs.
[00:18:13] Wendy: And so there we're talking about both ELLs, emerging, uh, English Learners, and students with, um, identified disabilities. And, um, I think the powerful piece of this section is that it's based in the principles of Universal Design for Learning, which many people use just the acronym UDL. And the reason I say that it's so powerful is because within that UDL framework, we are presenting information and content in different modalities, which we know hits all learners, but is especially helpful for students with disabilities, dyslexic students, students with dyslexia. And, um, it provides more of a concrete base in many cases, which is helpful for many ELLs. It also ensures multiple means of engagement and representation. So it's that multiple modalities again, and then, um, we're using supportive digital learning tools and flexible class spaces to promote choice and investment.
[00:19:27] Wendy: And so there we're talking about, um, engagement and, um, high-interest. And I think just feeling comfortable within a learning environment. So, um, all of those things, again, address Social Emotional Learning. That Culturally Responsive, um, and Sustaining Teaching and, um, a note here is that it's also, um, addressing the needs of the Multi-Tiered System of Support, which is helping all learners.
[00:20:05] Olivia: The idea of Emergent Multilingual Learners, um, and students with dyslexia, they may need more time for phonemic awareness. And so I think a lot of the studies we've talked about, um, they don't always discern between students with disabilities or students with identified needs and a student that may be deemed average picking up on so that's important to consider when we're talking about research.
[00:20:34] Olivia: Um, I just wanted to bring back some oldies book goodies from my bookshelf before we go Um and some of my absolute favorites when it comes to PreK and preschool Um, I have Renee Dinnerstein's book, Choice Time (there's the cover of that, um) How to Deepen Learning through Inquiry and Play PreK-2nd Grades.
[00:20:55] Olivia: That is a magnificent book. Of course. I have teacher Teacher Tom’s First Book, Teacher Tom’s Second Book: teaching and learning from preschoolers. Here's the cover of his 1st book. Teacher time second book. You cannot go wrong. And one of my absolute favorites that I've had for many, many years. It's well-tabbed Tools of the Mind: The
Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education by Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong. And here's this, um, Wendy, it's always a gift to be in conversation with you. And I know we believe that. Preschool, Prekindergarten is the foundation of igniting joy, um, with children when it comes to a school experience. And for me, that joy comes from play and interacting in unstructured ways. Um, and I'm hoping that when we're talking about the science of reading and PreK, it is all within that caveat that there has to be joy. Um, there has to be fun involved with this, um, in, in order for children to want to pick books up and read is lifelong learners. So -…
[00:22:07] Wendy: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:22:08] Olivia: Yeah. Well, I can't wait to have our next conversation. That will be the Science of Reading: The Elementary Years. So stay tuned for that listeners.
[00:22:17] Wendy: Zooming through the school career.
[00:22:20] Olivia: Yeah. Take care. Schoolutions is a podcast created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Special thanks to my friend and colleague, Dr. Wendy Bunker. Also, a big thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music that's playing in the background. I would love for you to share the podcast far and wide. Leave a review, subscribe on YouTube, and follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook @schoolutionspodcast. If you'd like to become a Schoolutions sponsor or share episode ideas, leave me a SpeakPipe voice memo at my website, www.oliviawahl.com/podcast, or connect via email at @schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Please keep listening. Let's continue finding inspiration together.