Transporting Pedagogy: Implementing the Project Approach in Two First-Grade Classrooms

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy B. Hertzog
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
School Context ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Gifted Programs ◽  
Project Approach ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Project Approach

This study explores how a project-based approach, based on gifted education pedagogy, was implemented in a public school program where the majority of students were from low-income families. The 2 first-grade teachers in this study were able to change their teaching practices to include more strategies commonly found in gifted programs such as brainstorming, creating surveys, and collecting data. The teachers also indicated a greater comfort level with a child-centered and project-based approach to curricular units over the course of the study. In addition, classroom observations indicated students were better behaved when engaged in project and small-group activities, as seen in classroom observations. This paper also highlights several challenges to implementing project-based approaches in the early childhood classroom. Teachers in this study perceived barriers to implementing the project approach that they had been taught in their professional development course. They felt constraints from their school context, as well as from their own beliefs and assumptions about their students. They often had difficulty assuming the role of facilitator and releasing control of learning to the students. However, as the teachers in this study implemented the new approaches, they were able to overcome many of the internal and external limitations that they expressed prior to beginning the units. This study has practical implications for reform initiatives related to the identification of strengths and talents in students who are typically underserved in gifted programs.

Emotion knowledge in economically disadvantaged children: Self-regulatory antecedents and relations to social difficulties and withdrawal

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID SCHULTZ ◽  
CARROLL E. IZARD ◽  
BRIAN P. ACKERMAN ◽  
ERIC A. YOUNGSTROM
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Emotion Knowledge ◽  
Children's Emotion ◽  
Low Income Families

We examined the relations of verbal ability and self-regulation in preschool to emotion knowledge in first grade, and concurrent relations between emotion knowledge and indexes of social functioning in 143 children from low-income families. After controlling for children's verbal ability in preschool, teacher reports of attentional control and caregiver reports of behavioral control in preschool predicted children's emotion expression knowledge and emotion situation knowledge 2 years later. After controlling for verbal ability and attentional and behavioral control, children's emotion knowledge predicted concurrent teacher-reported social problems and social withdrawal. Results suggest that low levels of emotion knowledge co-occur with many important aspects of children's early social adaptation.

scholarly journals Home literacy activities: Accounting for differences in early grade literacy outcomes in low-income families in Zambia

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Chansa-Kabali
Keyword(s):  
Early Literacy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Home Literacy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Teaching Letters

Inequalities on child cognitive outcomes exist as children enter the first grade. These differences are even wider for children in low-income families. This article aims to examine the extent to which home factors account for variation in early literacy outcomes in the first year of schooling. A total of 72 first graders and their parents from low-income families in Lusaka, Zambia, participated in the study. A self-reported home literacy questionnaire was used to collect home literacy data − parental education, home possessions, reading materials, language awareness, print experience, writing activities, reading activities and teaching letters. Children’s early literacy skills were assessed using four measures: orthography awareness, spelling, vocabulary and math tests. These tests were measured at two points: at the beginning and at the end of the first grade. Results showed that teaching letters was most predictive of literacy outcomes both at the beginning and end of the first year. The study concludes that formal teaching of letters at home is the parents’ greatest strength for supporting literacy in low-income families. Thus, energies for parental involvement should be directed in ways that are culturally practised and manageable by parents for better literacy outcomes.

Parenting practices focusing on literacy: a study of cultural capital of kindergarten and first-grade students from low-income families

2017 ◽  
Vol 189 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-512
Author(s):  
Kathryn E. Bojczyk ◽  
Heather Rogers Haverback ◽  
Hye K. Pae ◽  
Marcy Hairston ◽  
Christa D. Haring
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Low Income Families

Learning in Classrooms

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Berk
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Writing Center ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Writing Centers ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Science Center ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Typical Day ◽  
Reading Center

A visitor entering Tamara’s combined kindergarten/first-grade classroom is likely to be struck by its atmosphere of calm purposefulness, given that so much is happening at once. On a typical day, twenty-two 5- to 7-year-olds are busy working on diverse activities throughout the room. At ten o’clock one Tuesday, several children were in the writing center—one preparing a thank you note and four others collaborating on making a list of the names of everyone in the class. In the reading center, five children were browsing the shelves or reading books, in pairs and individually. At a table next to shelves filled with math materials, four children worked in pairs on a problem requiring them to choose items from a restaurant menu without exceeding their budget. Yet another pair was immersed in an interactive computer activity about plants as sources of foods. Tamara was seated at a table, reading and discussing a story with a cluster of six children. The children in Tamara’s class come from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. About three-fourths live in the middle-income neighborhood surrounding the school, located in a midsize Midwestern city. The rest are bussed from a housing project for low-income families several miles away. Two children have reading disabilities, and one has a speech and language delay. Several times a week, a learning disabilities teacher and a speech therapist come to the classroom to assist these children. Tamara’s students present great variations in experiences, knowledge, and academic skills. She uses this diversity to enrich their learning. The classroom is organized into seven clearly defined activity centers. The largest is the reading center, which doubles as a class meeting area. Others are the writing center, the math center, the life science center, the physical science center, the art center, and the imaginative play/extended project center. Computers can be found in the life science and writing centers. All centers are brimming with materials—on shelves and in boxes and baskets, clearly labeled and within children’s easy reach. And each center contains a table to serve as a comfortable workspace for collaborative and individual pursuits.

scholarly journals Science-Literacy Integration: Equity and Learning in First-Grade, Urban Instructional Contexts

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela J Stefanski ◽  
Nicole M. Martin ◽  
Melinda A. Zurcher
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Science Literacy ◽  
School Context ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Science Integration ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Instructional Contexts ◽  
Context Specific

Previous research demonstrates that integration of science and literacy instruction in primary grades has positive outcomes for students’ science and literacy development. However, variations in how science and literacy are enacted suggest integration may not be sufficient to meet the literacy and science needs of all students in an equitable manner. The purpose of this study was to examine two first-grade teachers’ science integration during literacy instruction in one high- and one low-income school context within one urban district. Analysis of field notes, transcripts of lessons, and interviews revealed that expectations to integrate science during time set aside for literacy instruction without consideration of contextual factors perpetuated and concealed ongoing inequities in science education for students from the lowest income school. Further, this study adds to evidence from prior studies demonstrating that reading of science-related texts alone, as a substitute for instruction in science as a discipline, does not provide students with the resources needed to learn to think, talk, and act as scientists. Findings from this study require researchers and policy-makers to address the context-specific factors that shape instructional contexts in ways that limit or expand the potential of integrated science–literacy instruction in urban schools.

Demonstrating Nutrient Cost Gradients: A Brooklyn Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Karp ◽  
Gary Wong ◽  
Marguerite Orsi
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Food Selection ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Caloric Density ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Introduction: Foods dense in micronutrients are generally more expensive than those with higher energy content. These cost-differentials may put low-income families at risk of diminished micronutrient intake. Objectives: We sought to determine differences in the cost for iron, folate, and choline in foods available for purchase in a low-income community when assessed for energy content and serving size. Methods: Sixty-nine foods listed in the menu plans provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for low-income families were considered, in 10 domains. The cost and micronutrient content for-energy and per-serving of these foods were determined for the three micronutrients. Exact Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparisons of energy costs; Spearman rho tests for comparisons of micronutrient content. Ninety families were interviewed in a pediatric clinic to assess the impact of food cost on food selection. Results: Significant differences between domains were shown for energy density with both cost-for-energy (p < 0.001) and cost-per-serving (p < 0.05) comparisons. All three micronutrient contents were significantly correlated with cost-for-energy (p < 0.01). Both iron and choline contents were significantly correlated with cost-per-serving (p < 0.05). Of the 90 families, 38 (42 %) worried about food costs; 40 (44 %) had chosen foods of high caloric density in response to that fear, and 29 of 40 families experiencing both worry and making such food selection. Conclusion: Adjustments to USDA meal plans using cost-for-energy analysis showed differentials for both energy and micronutrients. These differentials were reduced using cost-per-serving analysis, but were not eliminated. A substantial proportion of low-income families are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies.

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