Building Language Throughout the Year: The Preschool Early Literacy Curriculum

For children from low-resource backgrounds, a literacy-rich preschool experience with a skilled and engaged teacher can make all the difference—it can offset risk factors and lay the groundwork for lifelong academic success. Now schools can ensure effective early literacy instruction with this field-tested, research-based curriculum for children 3 to 5 years of age.

These 41 one-week lessons—each built around a theme with associated vocabulary lists and fun activities—are just what teachers need to enhance children’s phonemic awareness and vocabulary development throughout the year. This proven curriculum

• Helps teachers succeed by explicitly showing them how to deliver curriculum content effectively.
• Engages children through structured and unstructured activities—including dramatic play, art, and music—that reinforce new words and concepts.
• Specifically addresses the needs of children from low-resource backgrounds and helps them catch up with their peers.
• Aligns with every part of the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes framework, so teachers know their curriculum is addressing the right areas.
• Is easy to use with existing programs and makes use of inexpensive supplies most teachers already have on hand.
• Helps parents continue the learning at home with reader-friendly sheets that explain what their children are learning and include easy activities for encouraging literacy development.

For each of the one-week lessons, teachers will get everything they need: a general lesson plan for the entire week, an overview of language concepts and goals, and detailed lesson plans for each weekday. “From-the-trenches” vignettes share other teachers’ success stories, and the useful observation forms help teachers track the growth and variety of children’s vocabulary and prove that students are making progress.
See how this product helps strengthen Head Start program quality and school readiness.

Dr. Armstrong began working at Leap Learning Systems in 1998, after completing her Clinical Fellowship Year. She received her Master of Arts degree from Hampton University in 1997, with an emphasis in communication disorders in multicultural and diverse populations.

Dr. Armstrong has been a Language Specialist and training coach with Leap programs, helping to develop programs and write curricula. In that capacity, she has carried out a variety of innovative programs in ethnically and economically diverse Head Start settings. She also has participated in a number of other Leap programs, including the innovative Language for Scholars Program and Vocabulary Improvement Project. Dr. Armstrong is a participant in curricula development and played a major role in developing the Building Language curriculum. She is an accomplished presenter, having made a number of presentations at national conferences including the American Speech-Language- Hearing Association, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and National Black Child Development Institute.

Dr. Armstrong left Leap to pursue a doctorate from the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Her interests remain strong in the area of language and diversity issues.

Kristin Evans Techmanski has worked at Leap Learning Systems since 2000, after completing her Clinical Fellowship Year. She received her Master of Arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1999, with an emphasis in communication disorders in multicultural and diverse populations.

Ms. Evans Techmanski has been a Language Specialist with Leap Learning Systems programs and has implemented a variety of innovative programs in ethnically and economically diverse preschool, school-age, and adult settings. She also has participated in a number of other Leap Learning Systems programs, including the Language for Scholars Program. She had an important role in developing a training component for this program, extending benefits to teachers and youth leaders working with high needs populations. Ms. Evans Techmanski has made a number of presentations at national conferences including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and National Black Child Development Institute.

Ms. Evans Techmanski is a trainer and participant in curricula development. She helped Leap develop curricula in other areas, including an after-school language-based tutoring program. This innovative Kids' Club program brought a speech-language pathologist's perspective to the critical deficits faced by many children in low-performing schools. Ms. Evans Techmanski continues to consult for Leap Learning Systems.

Dr. Gottfred received her doctorate in speech pathology from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1979, and founded Leap Learning Systems in 1988. She has teaching and clinical experience and has held numerous positions in the field's state and national associations; a few of note include President of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Legislative Counselor to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Council on Professional Ethics and Ethical Practices Board. She also served as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Vice President of Governmental and Social Policies. Dr. Gottfred is extremely active in professional and community affairs in the areasof language, multicultural education, and ethics. She serves on the boards of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation, the Chicago Charter School Foundation, the Advocate Charitable Foundation, and DePauw University's Board of Visitors, and she is a former member of the Executive Board of the American Speech and Hearing Association. Dr. Gottfred was the 2007 President-Elect of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

As the Curriculum and Research Director of Leap Learning Systems, Dr. Lybolt oversees early childhood language enrichment program development for Leap partners in Chicago and across the country. He directly supervises Leap Learning Systems staff members and teachers involved in language-based curricula. During the past 10 years he has developed language- and literacy-based curricula that have had a direct impact on Head Start teachers' professional development at a variety of Chicago area sites. He has been instrumental in building collaborative relationships with public school administrators, Head Start administrators, site directors, and teachers by leading teacher-training seminars in the areas of language and literacy.

Dr. Lybolt has taught classes in language development and has been instrumental in developing speech and language classroom curricula for National-Louis University in Chicago. An expert in the area of school-based speech and language instruction, Dr. Lybolt has been a contributor in teleconferences presented by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. He has presented at national, state, and local conventions on the need for trained urban and rural preschool teachers in the area of language and literacy. The language- and literacy-based preschool programs that he has developed have been used in Head Start sites in selected Chicago Youth Centers, by child-parent centers in Chicago Public Schools, and in early childhood classrooms around the country.