Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2024
Abstract
Building strong foundational literacy skills in preschool children has influences academic success positively in all curriculum areas, throughout their school years. Developing phonemic awareness skills is the biggest predictor of future reading success. Providing play-based instruction in the preschool environment is developmentally appropriate. However, researchers have shown that without direct, systematic instruction preschool children show little growth in these literacy skills. Studies have shown that the teacher professional development is necessary in their delivery of explicit and systematic instruction that focuses on phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming, segmentation, alliteration, and beginning and ending sounds in words. Following research findings, this school improvement plan focuses on direct preliteracy instruction with teacher and paraprofessional training and coaching support. The purpose of this school improvement plan is to increase preschool students’ knowledge of early literacy skills around phonemic awareness.