Week 3 Blog - Research that Benefits Children and Families

Building ELL’s Literacy Early is Crucial

I found an article published in Education Week that talks about a Dual Language Academy in Tulsa Oklahoma.  It noted how 50 percent of children are English-Learners and the student are taught in English and Spanish.  Tulsa has provided prekindergarten students free classes that teach literacy to children.  The article also spoke about the long-term study that was conducted by Georgetown University.  For decades they have Tulsa has been providing this service to children and it has shown that as children progress to kindergarten they come academically prepared for school.  So Georgetown University found that children come prepared to school months ahead of their peers who did not enrolled in Pre-K.  It was also determined that after spending 15 years studying Tulsa’s efforts, the data indicated that English learners are the student group who has benefited most from the access to free pre-K classes. 

I believe this is a great opportunity for other districts to implement the same program so children can be prepared when they enter kindergarten. 

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/05/11/building-ells-literacy-early-is-crucial.html

My Personal Research Journey

           

         I remember coming to the United States without knowing the English Language.  I learned very quickly that I would need to learn English in order to be able to obtain a job.  I started to take English as a second language courses at the community college.  I have to confess that learning English was challenging because I would try to read as we read in Spanish and I found out that words in English have pronunciations that many letters are do not sound for example the one word I had trouble with was ‘receipt’.  I wanted to read it and pronounce it with a the ‘P’ as well but the ‘P’ is silent.  That is why I say that English was challenging for me to learn because of the many silent words.  So, when I read in English, I made many mistakes in being able to pronounce words correctly.  I know that for children it is easier to learn the English language however when I think of children attending preschool there is more than just learning English but adapting to a new way of learning and much more.

            My research will be based on How does Literacy Development support children that are Early Language Learners?