Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book A Media-Rich Curriculum for Improving Early Literacy Outcomes of Low-Income Children written by William R. Penuel and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Described here is a study on the efficacy of a digital media-rich curriculum based on the idea that children can learn best from "media synergy", that is, when children have opportunities to learn skills by engaging in repeated practice with them in many different formats and media (Neuman, 1995). The study is part of the "Ready to Learn Initiative", a program to develop educational television programming and outreach activities that increase school readiness for 2- to 8-year-old children living in low-income households. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Education awarded one of two Ready to Learn programming grants to the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The study took place in early childhood education centers in the New York City or San Francisco metropolitan areas, where researchers were located. The results show that digital media, including public television programming, can support early literacy skills when thoughtfully integrated with teacher-led interactive activities. Although children in each group improved their literacy scores, children in the early literacy condition showed significantly more improvement than those in the science condition. As a point of comparison, the magnitude of the estimated effects of the literacy curriculum was larger than the magnitude of effects reported in the recent U.S. Department of Education-sponsored review of 15 preschool programs (Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Consortium, 2008). In that review, reported effects of curricula on phonological awareness ranged from -0.16 standard deviations to +0.32 standard deviations. For 13 of the programs reviewed, estimated effects on these skills were lower than the effects estimated for this curriculum.