Today is National Teacher Day in the US! Where would we be without teachers and the lasting contribution they make in our lives?

To mark this special day, we want to highlight the team aspect of teaching. 

There are many studies that suggest teachers think highly of collaborative teaching and consider it a valuable and effective use of their time.

As the teaching profession evolves, there are new roles created that focus on a single specialty or help manage a number of different activities.

All of such roles ultimately have an unified purpose of providing the maximum benefit to the student. 

The goal is always to raise student success and ensure student well being. 

Despite all the challenges commonly faced by teachers, they are committed to the teaching profession to help students.

It takes an enormous amount of effort and dedication to teach preschoolers, kindergarteners and students in the early elementary grades. That’s why Sprig Learning supports the teaching cause by designing holistic early learning programs for Pre-K to Grade 3. 

For this year’s National Teacher Day, let’s take time to understand each teaching role to truly appreciate them! 

 

The Most Essential Early Childhood Teacher Roles in Pre-K to Grade 3

The foundational years are absolutely critical to a child’s long-term educational success. Listed below are the customary and indispensable roles in early childhood education. 

All early childhood teachers contribute tremendously to the assessing, teaching and evaluation of early learners. 

 

Pre-K Teacher

Preschool or Pre-K teachers both instruct and care for children typically aged two to four years old. They have to prepare their young students for kindergarten.

At this stage, it’s crucial that all early development milestones are reached. 

 

Kindergarten Teacher

Kindergarten is considered to be the start of formal education. It is the starting grade level for the majority of elementary schools in North America.

Kindergarten teachers have to plan and implement lessons for children generally aged five years old. They have to supervise their students, keep them motivated, and guide their development as they develop the foundational early learning skills.

For many school systems, assessments also start at this level. There are best practices to design assessments for early childhood education.

 

Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 Teachers

Early primary teachers (namely in Grades 1, 2 and 3) help children transition into the elementary grades. They ensure learning progress in all the core subjects: language, math, science and social studies. 

 

Teacher Aide/ Teacher Assistant

The teacher aide assists preschool teachers in their work. They perform a variety of tasks such as preparing classroom materials and completing administrative tasks. There are teacher aides in preschool, kindergarten and the early elementary grades.

 

Remediation Teacher/Intervention Specialist

Remediation teachers help children who are struggling with early reading and/or math. They work alongside the student’s regular teacher, and work one-on-one with those students who require the most help.

 

Reading Specialist/Literacy Specialist/ Elementary Math Specialist

Reading specialists teach kids that are struggling with reading and/or writing. They work with students in small groups, and like homeroom teachers, they also plan, teach and evaluate instruction.

Reading specialists have advanced training and experience in teaching reading. They assess literacy performance of readers in general, and struggling readers in particular.

 

Literacy Coach/Literary Coordinator

Literacy coaches work with educators and students to improve literacy scores. They help to develop lesson plans, conduct lesson demonstrations and evaluations, and analyze student literacy achievement data. The coach can also observe the teachers as they present lessons and make suggestions for improvement. 

Sometimes the role can also include leading professional development and collaborating with all teachers to improve literacy for an entire grade or the whole school. 

 

Director of Elementary Education

The Director of Elementary Education formulates and implements a vision for the district’s instructional programs from Pre-K to Grade 6. 

 

Don’t Forget The Home

Parents/Caregivers

Learning happens both in the school and at home. Parental involvement is critical for student success. Parents and other caregivers are able to support the learning journey of the child as they go to school everyday and come back home. 

 

The Need For Collaboration in Early Childhood Education

At a school level, the administrators always want to understand the role of each educator in creating a successful learning program. It’s important for them to understand the relationship between the members of the team.

In kindergarten classrooms that have an educator team consisting of more than one role, it’s seen that the team members have complementary skills that allow them to address individual student’s needs and ensure meaningful learning opportunities. 

In its full-day kindergarten programs, Ontario pairs teachers with early childhood educators, who are trained in child development, observation and play-based learning. 

There has been a lot of research done on the positive influence of teacher collaboration on student achievement. While teacher quality alone is a big factor in determining student performance, working collaboratively enhances teacher effectiveness and expertise.

In light of all the emerging evidence that advocates for teacher collaboration, there is a rise in early childhood educator teams where collaborative planning is a part of the agenda. 

By respecting the unique skill sets each teacher brings to the table, it’s possible to optimize high-quality early learning for every child. 

 

All for One. One for All.

Early Learning Dream Team

Sprig Learning is a purpose-built company that provides early learners, educators and parents with access to the tools needed to build a foundation for lifelong learning.

We produce early learning programs that are culturally relevant, teacher developed, and curriculum aligned. 

Any teacher can quickly be set up with an account on Sprig Language or Sprig Math. They can begin managing their class in no time at all. 

They can access holistic assessments, personalized activities targeting learning areas, and surveys from others to get a better perspective of the student.

When every teacher onboards on the platform, the teaching experience transforms into something even more magical! 

The homeroom teacher, or main classroom teacher in preschool, kindergarten and the early primary grades, can keep track of all students from one platform. They can assign activities that work on all the different learning outcomes outlined in the curriculum. 

The reading specialist or elementary mathematics specialist can closely monitor performance in the different learning domains in language and math. They can group students accordingly to deliver differentiated instruction.

Those students who need even more support can be looked at by the remediation or intervention specialist. They can formulate a one-on-one learning strategy, and take help from classroom resources available in the program, or look at survey results from caregivers for more insight into the early learner’s educational environment. 

The director of elementary education, or any assessment director at the elementary level, can compare classroom performances to see what is working and identify teacher collaborative planning strategies.

Team work really does make the dream work, especially in early learning! To learn more about how Sprig Learning can facilitate team work to raise student achievement, simply reach out!

Again, let’s take this time to celebrate all the different teachers working every day for our early learners. 

To show our gratitude, we have slashed prices at the Sprig Store by 20% for all products. Simply use the promo code Sprigforteachers at the checkout cart. 

The Ontario Human Rights Commission recently released the Right to Read report, which showed the education system is failing children who struggle to read. 

Early learners are not always assessed properly and the interventions are often too few and too late to make a difference. 

Before they know it, the window of optimum learning opportunity passes, and they do not learn the essential literacy skills that are needed to become strong and confident readers. 

Is it only in Ontario? No. Almost two-thirds of all 4th graders in the United States l did not meet the minimal reading standards according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

In certain states, only one out of every four students met the required standard of reading proficiency.  

Literacy is a science, and there is a plethora of things to consider when explaining variances in literacy outcomes. 

For schools, timeliness is especially important in making a difference in building early literacy skills. A stitch in time saves nine. 

In this article, Sprig Learning zeroes in on early literacy skills, and their impact on student outcomes. 

 

Why Is Early Literacy Important?

By itself, literacy is paramount for success.

Learning how to read enables young students to acquire further knowledge. 

Statistics from countless studies show the effect of early learning on future academic and social success.

But it is even more important to develop early literacy! 

By habituating children to read, and educating them on the art of reading before they enter school, their learning potential is maximized. It’s why Sprig focuses on pre-K to Grade 3. 

In the early years of school, a systematic evidence-based learning path can be continued for them throughout their education. 

Such a structured literacy approach is known as the Science of Reading. Studies show that this approach can reduce the number of below-level readers by 25 percentage points. 

 

Structured Literacy vs Balanced Literacy

Simply put, structured literacy focuses on the skill of reading, whereas balanced literacy focuses on the activity of reading.

It does not necessarily have to be an either/or situation. 

But it is highly important that the skills of reading such as phonics, semantics and syntax are taught specifically and systematically, alongside taking part in reading activities. 

The Sprig Language program works all these learning areas and provides activities through which these early literacy skills can be strengthened. 

Structured literacy also has a diagnostic aspect, where instruction is assessment driven. 

It allows educators to identify learning differences in students so the right opportunities can be provided to them to learn a particular area. 

Sprig’s holistic approach to early learning always begins with such an assessment. 

In order to really ensure all students succeed, there is also the need to incorporate early literacy interventions into a system of structured literacy. 

 

What Is Early Literacy Intervention? 

Early literacy intervention refers to the action that is taken to help early learners who are struggling in reading or writing. 

Groups of students or individual students who are not meeting grade-level expectations are identified as needing intervention.

Effective literacy interventions increase accountability for all students.

But if not done in a systematic way or if done only after Grade 3, these programs can be very costly and miss those students who need help. 

 

What Is the Need for Early Literacy Intervention?

Early literacy interventions enable early learners to make the right choices from the get go, when they are first introduced in the education setting. 

Young learners have diverse strengths, needs and weaknesses. 

For example, some children have phonological problems. If not corrected in time, it can lead to further oral language difficulties, which can compound into the inability to read at grade level. 

Other students may have early symptoms of dyslexia, which can be managed with specialized instruction.

 

What Are Early Literacy Skills?

Early literacy skills refers to those foundational competencies required to learn how to read and write. 

By focusing on these skills early on, it’s possible to reduce the number of early literacy interventions needed. 

These skills include vocabulary, print motivation, print awareness, narrative skills, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language development and learning to write.

 

Practices to Establish Early Literacy Skills

There are five main activities that prepare an early learner for reading. 

They are talking, singing, reading, writing and playing. 

The early literacy skills are a product of these practices.

Once an early literacy skill is identified, the appropriate literacy instruction strategy can be selected.

There are so many learning approaches that differentiate learning for students, based on their ability and current skill level. 

But the question should always be asked: what activities are in this approach, and what early literacy skills is each activity working on? 

 

Early Literacy Skills Classroom Best Practices

When instruction is designed for a classroom, it’s best if all the early literacy skills are taught. 

This can be done through interactive activities such as storybook reading, rhyming games, singing songs, etc.

Sprig Language has hundreds of such learning activities that are neatly mapped to curriculum outcomes, and can be done as a whole class, in centers, or individually with each student.

It’s important to utilize a research-backed tool, system or framework that contains activities that teach all the different literacy skills. It helps educators adopt a structured literacy approach. 

The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Literacy Network conducted meta-research to find evidence supporting early literacy best practices that results in improved student achievement.

4 classroom characteristics are explored that are ideal for the successful development of literacy skills.

 

Student-centered: Focus on engagement with the learning material and collaboration between students. 

Knowledge-centered: Focus on understanding the importance of reading and making connections between what is learned and how it applies to reading. 

This includes code-based instruction, which helps children understand the relationship between spoken language and print. 

Assessment-centered: Focus on regularly assessing students via formative assessments that guide learning.

Reflection-centered: Focused on understanding what is being read. Encourages students to learn different content areas using their acquired literacy. 

 

Stages of Early Literacy Development

The five stages of early literacy development are: emergent literacy, alphabetic fluency, words and patterns, intimidating reading and advanced reading. 

By placing more importance in emergent literacy and the earlier stages, it’s possible to create a safety net for students who are at risk of not reading proficiently. 

It is possible to improve literacy in schools in the earlier stages by having a classroom that: 

1. assesses every student to tailor an individualized early literacy experience for them.
2. promotes the joy of learning through activities (balanced literacy). 
3. teaches early literacy skills systematically (structured literacy).
4. empowers early learners to practice every skill learned.

 

What about English Language Learners?

Sprig has a Revitalization program, which promotes Indigenous and other local languages. 

Research shows that English-language development can be accelerated by making a connection between a student’s first language and English. Proficiency gained in the first language can be used to learn a second language. 

By supporting a diverse set of home languages, students are provided with a more culturally responsive educational experience. This allows them to absorb concepts more quickly. 

 

Prioritizing Early Literacy. Not a Magical Solution, but a Change in Focus.

At Sprig Learning, we aim to provide every child a fair shot at success. We know the importance of literacy too well, especially in the early years. 

These considerations provide a preliminary overview into the reasons and benefits for adopting an approach that specifically caters to early literacy skills. By understanding how reading skills unfold for a variety of students, a school can adopt the right approach for their classroom and educators. 

Assessments, early interventions and evidence-based activities targeting specific skills can be seamlessly integrated into the learning process.

Educators have a lot on their hands, and any new approach should support their instructional practices and make their lives easier. 

To stay updated on the science of literacy, please subscribe to our newsletter, Root to Fruit, written for those who value early childhood education. 

Have questions about using intuitive tools that make a difference in building early literacy skills? Contact us.