The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
can I tell you my story?
Preschool initiative at Little Lighthouse Learning Center in Lorain shows promising results
Aleyna sits in an Author’s Chair at Little Lighthouse Learning Center on 20th Street in Lorain and shows a cover of a book she penned and illustrated to her 4-year-old peers.
Though it’s their first experience in the program, the children participate in the third year of a Lorain County preschool literacy initiative, “Can I tell you my story?”
Preliminary results tracking earlier groups of preschoolers through kindergarten readiness tests and into kindergarten show promising results, said Patricia O’Brien, executive direc- tor of The Stocker Foundation in Elyria. This month school officials are evaluating more test results.
The Stocker Foundation funded the initiative with a grant of $137,882 over three years that involves more than 700 children in six preschools — Little Lighthouse Learning Center, Elyria School Preschool, Neighbor- hood Alliance in Lorain and Elyria, Lorain City Schools, and Park Place Early Learning Center in Elyria. The data collection takes five years.
Nancy Sabath, who is coordinator of “Can I tell you my story?” formerly served as director of the
Oberlin Early Childhood Center, and as a consultant in an early learning initiative for the Ohio Department of Education.
Now a contractor, Sabath counsels on program implementation, monitoring, licensing, and Step Up to Quality requirements.
“Parents want to do the best for their children whether they earn $5,000 a year or $500,000 a year. I think teachers are the pivot in making a difference and they have to link up with those families,” Sabath said. “There have been excellent responses from those parents.”
The “Can I tell you my story?” initiative begins each year with 20 teachers and preschool administrators who attend monthly workshops. They choose a classic children’s book author to feature, and discuss ways to engage the children and families.
Children learn language by hearing words, and early literacy flows from vocabulary.
“Researchers found there is a 30 million word gap among preschoolers by the age of 3 and the traditional preschool years from poverty to middle to upper levels of income,” Sabath said. “There’s a difference in the number of words they have heard. There is a 30 million word deficit. They’re now finding if children haven’t met the development skills by the end of kindergarten, they may never catch up.”
In “Can I tell you my story?,” teachers read the same book every day for a week. The teacher starts with the cover, and asks the children what they see on the cover. Then the teacher introduces the author and book title.
With each turning page, the teacher shows a picture and asks the children what they see. The teacher points to items in the picture and names them, and asks children what they think the story is about.
Every time a book is read, children notice more and go more deeply into the story, Sabath said.
Arts opportunities to reinforce learning include creating murals that illustrate the story, bringing visitors into the classroom, and field trips.
After the teacher models telling the story with published books, they ask children to think of their own story, draw pictures to illustrate it, and “write” the words, even though most of the children do not know letters yet.
At Little Lighthouse Learning Center in Lorain, Executive Director Palma Stipe said the impact of the initiative has been tremendous.
“It’s just amazing what our children are doing,” Stipe said. “It’s their words and pictures they have created. It’s about recall. The children develop recall. It’s about memory. It’s wonderful brain research. The children don’t get bored with the book.”
In the classroom, Lead Teacher Nilda Ramos and Linda Pineiro asked a group of 4-year-olds if anyone was ready to tell their story.
Aleyna Morales went first. Ramos moved Mr. Oso, a large stuffed bear, from the Author’s Chair so Aleyna could sit and show drawings of her house and her cousin’s house as she told her story.
The entire group listened attentively to Aleyna, and applauded when she finished.
Then Lucy Coteff told of planting a sunflower with her dad and his “sticking up hair,” and Kumari Thomas told about her old house and new house.
A fourth child finished her book, but was not ready to tell her story yet, so Ramos did not force it. The telling of the story should be a positive experience, Stipe said.
“There is a lot of good brain development theory in this initiative,” O’Brien said.
And a child’s environment plays a part in development, Sabath said.
“They’re like little sponges, but negative and positive,” Sabath said.
Educators involved in the initiative are evaluating its effectiveness by looking at the language and literacy portions of kindergarten assessments.
“We’re starting to see the scores coming through,” Sabath said. “Are these children coming out of the project scoring higher than the average child in Lorain City Schools and Elyria City Schools? And they are.”
“When you have quality programs and you have teachers who are willing to commit themselves to the work we’re doing,” Sabath said, “the children score higher across the board.”
Sometimes changes in a child are so dramatic, teachers don’t need to wait for a test. During one series of children’s books, the group of teachers chose to showcase books by author Leo Lionni.
“There was a little boy who wasn’t engaged at all,” Sabath said. “He wouldn’t talk at school or at home. One day his mom came in and asked, ‘What are you doing at this preschool?’ He was going home and telling his mom about Leo Lionni books. So for his gift for leaving preschool — and she didn’t have much money – she went to used bookstores and bought the whole series of Leo Lionni books for him, since he loved them so much.”
Each child matters to The Stocker Foundation, which focuses grant awards on programs to raise achievement in literacy in areas of poverty.
“What we do is to ensure from the earliest ages from preschool to kindergarten they have skills they need, so when they do get to school they are on track,” O’Brien said. “If you talk to anybody they will tell you it’s a lot easier to do prevention than remediation.”