Acquiring Literacy Skills in St. Laurensia Kindergarten School
Teaching children to read, write and speak well is part of the literacy
training here at Santa Laurensia Kindergarten School. We strongly believe that without these skills, children will have a difficult time in school as well as in later life.
Every English language learner needs to be involved in social interactions with speakers of English. Keeping this in mind, we provide the preschoolers in our care ample opportunities to interact with their teachers and classmates in English. We plan lessons to ensure that every child is included in every activity at a level that he or she can manage. We make our lessons interesting and fun, but at the same time challenging enough to help them make progress during their kindergarten years.
From the very beginning we motivate our learners to talk using whatever English they have already learned. Children who have not learned any English at all are encouraged to produce single words or short phrases as modeled for them. To help them acquire fluency in language, we use colorfully illustrated, theme-related Talk Cards. Children are asked to look at the pictures carefully, talk about what they see and predict what will happen next. Depending on their language level, children can answer using single words, short phrases or complete sentences.
To encourage learners to read, we provide them with a lot of reading books. Our English program includes eight curriculum-based Big Books through which teachers help children develop the vocabulary, structures and background knowledge they need to understand the language of the classroom. In addition, teachers choose story books that have repetitive pattern and predictable texts for daily reading. We have observed that as children listen to repetitive text, they begin to recognize words and eventually read those words by themselves.
Participation in choral recitations of poems, chants, songs and rhymes help even the most shy
children begin to use the language. Therefore, we have included poster poems, chants, songs and rhymes as part and parcel of our literacy program. Moreover, by listening to these poems, songs and rhymes, children become aware of sounds and develop phonemic awareness. Eventually they use this phonemic awareness to write the letters that stand for the sounds. Thus they begin to acquire writing skills.
After undergoing our two-year kindergarten program, our children leave us ready and prepared to undertake the challenges of Grade One.
(Ms. Linda T. Bravo)