Date of Award/Publication

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MS in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education

Abstract

Many teachers of Head Start struggle to develop and implement a successful early literacy program in their classrooms. I n order to help the teachers, an integrated, inquiry-based Math, Science, and Literacy (MSL) unit was developed and implemented in the Head Start preschool classroom for the period of two weeks. The subjects were fifteen preschool age students and a teacher, a teacher assistant, and a teacher aide. Prior to the implementation of the unit teacher interviews and pre - tests were administered to teachers and students respective ly. Teacher interviews focused on teacher 's background and knowledge of the early literacy instruction techniques, whereas the pretests were meant to determine student's prior knowledge in letter and sound identification. Following the implementation of the unit post - test were administered to students and compared with the pretests in order to discover any growth in letter and sound identification. The results indicated an average increase of four letters per student in upper and lower case letters, as well as, in letter sound identification. The increase in the results demonstrated that the MSL thematic unit was effective at promoting better literacy development in Head Start preschool children.

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