Early literacy support programme

untimely literacy aliment political plat inventThis sm every last(predicate)-scale check go erupt taperes on The Early Literacy jump forbidden (ELS) syllabus (DfES, 2007) within an urban primary winding enlighten. Over the past fewer years there has been a erect amount of investment provided by the establishment to help extract fryrens learning in literacy. As a leave al maven, additional personnelener computer programs and discourses check been developed. The ELS Programme is an incumbrance produced by the National Strategies suffered at course 1 peasantren, who with additional prevail, should r distri providedively or exceed cont leftover on related expectations in literacy.AimsThis investigate aimed to study the ELS architectural plan to identify how minorren argon selected to participate in in the political platform and to investigate the staff and childrens perceptions of the intervention and ext curio tos as a result of the plan. This in vestigate examined three diagnose questionsHow is Early Literacy Support back up childrens special(prenominal) emergencys?What ar the perceptions of commandment staff on how Early Literacy Support has repaired on childrens fun, victimisation and attainment in literacy?What be the perceptions of the children on Early Literacy Support and their entertainment and development in literacy?RationaleI beat a keen interest in literacy and am kindle in learning almost different rooms to support children who difference of opinion to easily acquire literacy skills within the mainstream schoolroom. The main reason for conducting inquiry into this theatre was to modify me to gain a better aw beness of literacy interventions for young children, which get step up ultimately join on my understanding and inform my early practice as a teacher. The class where I was on placement had a long number of children who requisite additional literacy support, so it seemed the ideal opportunity to still investigate the literacy interventions that children were touch in. Further much, although query has previously place the positive tinct of ELS and other phonics interventions, there is no documented search quantifying childrens or adults trip ups on the programme. The present interrogation aimed to address this literature gap.Literature Review learning to read, print and firearm atomic number 18 among the most critic on the self-colouredy important and empowering skills that children forget learn at school (Pumfrey Elliott, 1990, p. ix). Literacy skills provide the grounding for education and future life, provided, a large proportion of children in the education system follow up literacy difficulties. infantren who struggle to acquire literacy skills atomic number 18 a continuing educational carry on in todays modern society (Pumfrey Elliott, 1990). Browne (2009) identifies that teachers largest concern is surrounding children who hold up to make get on in breeding and compose. There are a wide variety of possible causes of childrens literacy difficulties, for causa language delay, visual impairment, absence seizure of books at home and general learning difficulties (Browne, 2009). It is thusly essential for teachers to judge the pupils difficulties and identify underlying causes in order of magnitude to provide support that is shipshape towards their one-on-one necessitate.At Key Stage 1 in 2009, 84% of children fulfild direct 2 or above in rendition and 81% of children achieved level 2 or above in makeup (DfCSF, 2009). These figures remained comparatively st subject surrounded by 2007 and 2009. Although the mass of children are achieving age- pass judgment levels, there is still a proportion of children who are under-achieving in literacy during their early school years. The gap between children who are struggling in literacy during their early years of schooling and their progressing peers beque ath widen as children relate through their school life, which depart befuddle a negative impact on their self-esteem as tumefy as educational attainment (Moore Wade, 1995 rise, 2006). Graham (2008) states that approximately 35,000 children (6% of Year 6s) each year are leaving primary school with literacy levels below their age expected potential. Moore and Wade (1995) highlight that difficulties in literacy will as well impact attainment in other areas of the curriculum, as reading and frame are critical skills. It is accordingly essential that children receive suitable, individualised support as early as possible to prevent later, exacerbated difficulties (Moore Wade, 1995 Graham, 2008). Rose (2006) argues that childrens reading and paper difficulties tummy be avoided through early assessment and by implementing impound interventions to support their individual needs. The use of early interventions bathroom be seen as a preventative approach to avoid later difficu lties (Burroughs-Lange Douetil, 2007 boisterous Carless, 2008). This view has been recognised by the Government and schools are in a flash form all toldy ingestd to provide foc utilise support to children forwards Year 3 (Graham, 2008). pursuance the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy in 1998, the Government introduced additional initiatives with the aim of alleviating literacy difficulties in todays young population, in order to raise attainment (Shiel, 2003 Soler Paige-Smith, 2005 Graham, 2008). The Government instigated three waves of support to help schools plan and implement adequate provide for every child (DfES, 2007 Graham, 2008). tramp 1 describes the provision of Quality inaugural Teaching which consists of systematic phonics and a rich language environment that all children should receive within whole-class literacy lessons. The DfES (2007) argues that good command is the most effective way to raise childrens achievement (p.9). Wave 2 is de sign-lan guage(a) to help children who urinate experienced quality program line but are still skunk their peers, although they befuddle the potential to reach age related expectations. This level of support is in addition to daily literacy lessons and usually consists of host work interest a structured programme that is delivered by a teaching partner. Wave 3 is designed for children who prevail Special Educational Needs and require personalised one-to-one support (DfES, 2007 Graham, 2008).A new focus in schools has been on Wave 2 interventions, with the aim of helping children to make progress in literacy (Rose, 2006). A commonly enforced Wave 2 intervention is The Early Literacy Support (ELS) Programme (DfES, 2007) produced by the National Strategies. The approach is used for children in Year 1 (age 5-6 years) whose literacy skills are developing slower than expected during their first term in Key Stage 1 (Shiel, 2003 Graham, 2008). The children identified to participate in ELS a re expected to progress to, and possibly exceed, age-related expectations chase small, focussed group sessions (DfES, 2007 Hatcher et al. 2006a). A teaching assistant delivers the group sessions in close collaboration with the class teacher, which is essential for in(predicate) application of the programme (DfES, 2007).The ELS programme consists of planned, systematic sessions that work alongside the Primary Literacy Strategy and incorporates aspects of earn and Sounds (DfES, 2007). The sessions focus on supporting and developing childrens phonological skills, helping them to tie-in sounds to graphemes, decode lyric poem and subsequently improve their reading, magic spelling and writing (Hatcher et al. 2006a). This is essential, as studies assessing a variety of interventions have repeatedly identified that successful literacy interventions focus on phonological knowledge as a outset draw a bead on to reading and writing (Hatcher et al. 2006b Savage Carless, 2008). Ehri et a l. (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of 52 intervention studies and conclude that phonemic awareness was the most signifi slewt contributor to reading and writing development. Rose (2006) stresses that effective interventions must build upon phonic work that the children have experienced within the mainstream classroom. Furthermore, he argues that interventions will only be successful if the work completed in the sessions is sustained and built upon back in the classroom when the intervention stopes (Rose, 2006). seek has shown that the ELS programme has positive impacts in improve childrens literacy skills, particularly reading (Burroughs-Lange Douetil, 2007). Soler and Paige-Smith (2005) documented that children who were experiencing mild difficulties in acquiring literacy skills, progressed in literacy following the ELS programme. Further evidence comes from Hatcher et al. (2006a), who evaluated the effectiveness of the ELS programme compared to a nonher reading intervention. They establish that the reading skills of 6 year olds were raised in chore with their peers by the time they had finished the programme. However, in this study there was no unseen control group, so results chiffonier non be compared to children with low literacy skills who did non occupy in the programme (Hatcher et al. 2006a).On the negative side, a constraint with the ELS programme is that the sessions are delivered by teaching assistants, rather than trained teachers. Researchers have argued that children who are struggling should be taught by skilled professionals who have knowledge of how to support and improve childrens attainment (Stainthorp, 2000) However, research has consistently shown that interventions delivered by teaching assistants can be effective in improving childrens literacy attainment (Hatcher et al., 2006b Savage Carless, 2008). Rose (2006) highlighted that successful interventions were regularly carried out by teaching assistants who worked effectively w ith groups of children. prove comes from Hatcher et al. (2006b) who assessed the effectiveness of a reading intervention and lay down that the mass of children had caught up with their peers by the end of the programme, although a proportion of children still required spear carrier support. They concluded that teaching assistants are more than capable of successfully teaching a group intervention in order to raise attainment. additive support comes from a longitudinal study conducted by Savage and Carless (2008). They found that the majority of pupils who had engaged in teaching assistant tell interventions in Year 1, achieved national average results at the end of Year 2.Research to date stresses the importance of early interventions and highlights the success of teaching assistant directed group sessions. However, an important plowation regarding additional support is ensuring that the type of intervention given is related to the childs special(prenominal) needs in order to raise attainment (Bradley, 1990). Furthermore, although research has previously investigated the effectiveness of ELS, there is a insufficiency of research that has examined the teachers, teaching assistants or childrens perceptions of the intervention and subsequent impacts. The present research aimed to further examine the ELS programme to address this literature gap by studying the intervention in an urban primary school, where staff had of late implemented the programme in order to raise literacy skills for a group of Year 1 children (see Appendix 1 for project plan).The research aimed to investigateHow is Early Literacy Support supporting childrens specific needs?What are the perceptions of teaching staff on how Early Literacy Support has impacted on childrens usage, development and attainment in literacy?What are the perceptions of the children on Early Literacy Support and their enjoyment and development in literacy?In order to answer the above research questions, ELS ses sions were sight and staff and children were interviewed. Furthermore, childrens literacy repoints were obtained and their reading and writing levels were compared from before and during companionship in ELS.MethodologyDesignThis small-scale research project employed a case-study design, examining the ELS intervention within one urban primary school. Demetriou (2009) identifies that case studies enable researchers to collect and record in-depth info within a real-life context.ParticipantsA purposive sample (Burton et al. 2009) of three Year 1 children from an urban primary school were recruited for the study as they had been selected by their class teacher to participate in the ELS programme. The sample also consisted of the Year 1 class teacher and teaching assistant who delivered the programme.Data collection methodsA mixture of qualitative and denary data collection methods was used in this study. Mason (2006) recommends use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative resear ch methods to enable a work out view of the data. Furthermore, Evans (2009) highlights that utilize different categories of participants (teachers, teaching assistants and students), alongside a get of data collection methods enables triangulation and therefore enlarges validity and reliability of the methods and data collected.The majority of the data collection involved qualitative research methods, in order to gain rich, detailed data regarding individuals beliefs and opinions surrounding the ELS programme (Evans, 2009). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the class teacher, teaching assistant and three children who participated in ELS. This form of interview enables the researcher to move to interviewees answers to gain more detailed information (Burton et al. 2009). A set of key questions were planned (Appendix 5, 6 and 7) and additional questions were asked during the interviews depending on the participants response. Open-ended questions were asked to enable p articipants to articulate their own opinions, leading to more detailed, in-depth data (Burton et al. 2009). All interviews were recorded employ a dictaphone and later set down.Three sequential ELS sessions were directly observed, with the observer as a non-participant. Although this is a time consuming method, Burton et al. (2009) argue that observation can be one of the most powerful tools in research (p. 95) as it can yield rich, real-life data that can be essential for the research. The observations were illustrious using a continuous narrative and were also recorded using a dictaphone to picture objectivity.Quantitative methods were used to examine childrens literacy targets and attainment levels. youngsterrens literacy levels before participating in ELS (Autumn Term 2010) were compared to levels after completing a few weeks of the programme (Spring Term 2011). This data was also compared to adults and childrens perceived improvements as a result of the programme.Data ana lysisObservations and interviews were transcribed and coded using the open label method, by identifying emerging codes from the data related to the key research questions (Burton et al. 2009). The observations were transcribed and coded according to the ELS session activities that the children engaged in, such as sounds, spelling and writing sentences (Appendix 8). All interviews were transcribed and systematically coded according to themes related to the key questions, for example childrens needs, development, enjoyment and attainment (Appendix 9).Ethical considerationsBefore conducting the research, an ethical consideration form was completed (Appendix 2) using Bera (2004) guidelines, which was signed off by my MA Tutor. As the research was being completed in a school, the research design was explained to the Head Teacher and she gave informed consent for the research to be carried out in her school (Appendix 3). As the research involved children under 16 years of age, parents o f the three children involved were sent a letter explaining the research and asking for their permission for their child to be interviewed and observed. All parents returned the letter signed (Appendix 4). The research was also briefly explained to the children and they were informed that they didnt have to answer each questions if they didnt want to. consultations with two(prenominal) staff and children were completed at a at rest time for the participants and were kept short so as to not impact on their usual school/work routine. Interviews with children were conducted in a unperturbed room that children were familiar with to ensure that they were comfortable. Furthermore, observations of ELS sessions were conducted during normal timetabled sessions to minimise intrusion or distress for children. All data collected was coded to ensure confidentiality and anonymity. Once the data was transcribed and reported, all interview recordings were deleted (Bera, 2004).ResultsObservati ons of ELS sessions are shown in Appendix 8. Interview transcripts with the class teacher (CT), teaching assistant (TA) and three children (A, D, and E) are shown in Appendix 9. The three childrens writing targets are shown in Appendix 10 and their literacy levels from September 2010 to April 2011 are shown in Appendix 11.How is Early Literacy Support supporting childrens specific needs?Childrens needsDuring the interview, the class teacher (CT) stated that the ELS programme was implemented at the school as there was a need in Year 1, particularly to raise the levels in writing. The three children were selected to participate in ELS as they were working on a W level in literacy and they lacked confidence in reading and writing. She said they all have potential, they are blood to use their sounds but need more comment with decoding words to read and seem out words to spell.independently they werent able to produce a sentence on their own. Furthermore, child E had a great deal of time off school so was selected in order to fill the gaps in his learning that he had missed.The childrens writing targets preliminary to starting the programme (Table 1), were all focused towards using sounds to spell and writing a simple sentence with correct punctuation independently. The teaching assistant (TA) said she was unaware of the childrens literacy targets, but knew the children has been selected for the programme to increase their confidence in reading and writing.Table 1 Childrens writing targets.Writing Targets January 2011Child ATo use full stops and capital letter in my sentences.Child DTo use a Thrass chart to help me spell.Child ETo write a sentence on my own.ELS session activitiesDuring a exemplary ELS session, the TA stated that they look at letter sounds, apply an follow through to each sound, learn key words and write simple sentences using the key words. She said a lot of the sounds and words we use in the sessions are also Thrass words, and the childre n often recognise that. During ELS observations (Appendix 8), the majority of the activities observed were focused on sounds and spelling. Session 18 incorporated writing simple sentences using the sounds and spellings that they had learnt in the previous sessions. Children were occasionally required to read key words, however there wasnt a specific reading activity incorporated into the observed sessions. Both the CT and TA stated that the ELS programme is followed strictly and not tailored according to the childrens specific needs or individual progress. However, the CT said that a feedback and assessment procedure is currently being implemented whereby the TA records a brief summary of the sessions to pass on to the CT.What are the perceptions of teaching staff on how Early Literacy Support has impacted on childrens enjoyment, development and attainment in literacy?EnjoymentThe CT and TA both identified that the largest impact of the ELS programme has been on the childrens confid ence in reading and writing, both in the ELS sessions, whole class lessons and at home, which has increase their enjoyment in the subject. CT said they now believe they can write and seem to enjoy writing. Furthermore, she stated that the children are also starting to write things at home and show them to the rest of the class, which they never used to do. deep down whole class lessons, she has also observed that the children are more involved during discussions and are definitely more positive towards their work, especially child A.The majority of the children seem to enjoy their extra literacy sessions. However, the TA storied that child A slightlytimes seems frustrated because she is missing out on class work, but otherwise she is enthusiastic in the sessions. The CT said that the children always come back from the session with a big smile on their face, which highlights their enjoyment of the ELS sessions. Furthermore, when in the classroom, the children are now showing pride and pleasure in their literacy work. The TA stated that children come over and say look at all the work Ive done, or can you read my writing. tuitionDuring interviews, both the CT and TA were very positive regarding the impact that ELS has had on the childrens literacy skills since starting the programme in January. Children are now confidently answering questions, they are able to write sentences independently and use their sound knowledge to spell and read words. CT stated they can now write a sentence independently without getting stressed out and they are beginning to spell all the simple words correctly. She also identified that children are more focused on their class work and are able to confidently complete writing tasks independently. CT described child E who was previously not focused on his work, whereas this week when he wrote about the school trip he wrote half a page on his own, which he would never have done before. This development has also been noted by the TA duri ng ELS sessions, with child A now willing to screen any activity, child D can correctly sound out words and child E has caught up with peers after a lot of time off. The TA stated that all children have definitely benefitted from the programme already.AttainmentAs shown in Table 2, all of the three childrens levels in reading and writing have increased from W levels (not yet accessing the Year 1 curriculum, so assessed against P scales) in November 2010, to at least a level 1c in April 2011 during the flow that ELS was implemented. The greatest improvement has been in writing, with child A and E achieving a level 1c+.What are the perceptions of the children on Early Literacy Support and their enjoyment and development in literacy?EnjoymentDuring interviews with the children, it was clear that all children enjoy the ELS sessions, however child A stated that she didnt want to be in the group anymore as she doesnt think she needs to be in it. All three children stated that they enjoy sounding out letters in the sessions and described how much they enjoy helping finish up the puppet with her sounds. Child D said I like it when we berate to Pip and help her sound out letters and likewise child E stated I like sounding out letters and reading things. Writing was consistently the activity that children enjoyed the least as they found it the most difficult. However, when describing her favourite piece of writing, child A stated I enjoy writing lots of things because I know how to write now.DevelopmentWhen describing what the children thought they had improved at in literacy, all the children identified that they can now sound out letters to help them with their reading and writing. Child A felt that she had got better at sounding out letters and stated this was because she had been practising with the TA. She also talked about finding writing difficult in Foundation Stage and said now I just flirt with how to write a word and can write it down. Child D said Ive g ot better at my reading because I can now sound out words to help me read. I am on List 9 hotwords already. Child E stated I have got better at writing. I always make the sounds for the letters and words to help me to write.DiscussionThis research aimed to investigate how the ELS programme is supporting childrens needs and assess adults and childrens perceptions of the programme. Interviews, observations and obtaining childrens targets revealed that the ELS programme is at present supporting the childrens specific needs. Furthermore, overall both staff and children expressed positive opinions regarding the ELS programme.The ELS session activities focused in the first place on sounds and spelling, with writing a simple sentence incorporated into some sessions. This links directly with childrens needs before starting the programme and their individual writing targets, which Bradley (1990) argues is crucial in order for an intervention to be successful. Furthermore, the phonics cover in the session was linked to Thrass, which is the phonics programme that children experience in the mainstream classroom. This is crucial, as Rose (2006) argues that it is essential for children to have continuity to enable them to transfer their skills from the classroom into the session and vice versa. Although the sessions at present are supporting childrens needs, their targets will change over time and it cannot be concluded that the sessions will continue to support their needs. The ELS programme is followed strictly, with no room for incorporating work to specifically target the childrens individual needs if they are not covered by the programme. This is therefore in contrast to the view held by Bradley (1990). Although the programme must be followed, it might be beneficial if the TA knew the childrens targets so she could focus on those particular skills, within the planned sessions.Both the adults and childrens perceptions of the programme were very positive. The adults ha ve seen improvements in childrens literacy skills during the past few months, particularly with the childrens confidence in all aspects of literacy. The adults stated that the children are now more confident at sounding out words and will independently complete writing tasks that previously they struggled with. The children were able to identify what they felt they had improved at, which were in line with the adults opinions of the childrens development. This increase in confidence appears to have had an impact on the childrens enjoyment in aspects of literacy, although writing was consistently their least favourite aspect. Only one child expressed her frustration with being involved in the group as she felt she was missing out on class work. The ELS sessions are timetabled for 20 minutes at the same time each day, meaning children are always missing foundation subjects as part of their topic work. Although the intervention is clearly aiding childrens development, the children are p otentially missing out on crucial learning experiences within the mainstream classroom. It would be interesting to investigate whether childrens opinions of the intervention were more positive if the interventions were timetabled on a rotational basis to ensure that children were not always missing the same lessons.The adults positive opinions surrounding the impact of ELS are back up by the increase in childrens progress and attainment in literacy. The childrens attainment in both reading and writing had increased from W levels, to at least a 1c during the period that ELS was implemented. The current research therefore supports previous findings that have documented improvements in childrens literacy skills and attainment following participation in the ELS programme (Soler Paige-Smith, 2005 Hatcher et al. 2006a Burroughs-Lange Douetil, 2007). However in this study, it cannot be concluded that increase in literacy attainment is solely attributed to the ELS programme, because othe r variables were not controlled. Alongside the intervention, children were also experiencing quality teaching during their whole class sessions, with reading and writing supported across the timetable. Furthermore, the school has recently implemented the Read Write Inc. phonics turning away to use during the literacy lessons, which focuses heavily on sounds and spellings. Therefore, it may be a combine of the ELS intervention, quality first teaching and literacy phonics schemes that have led to an improvement in literacy skills and subsequently an increase in reading and writing attainment. Further, controlled studies need to be conducted to assess the specific impact that the ELS intervention has on childrens literacy skills.Additionally, the present research only assessed a snap shot of the intervention and did not assess the impact of the programme on literacy skills and attainment in the longer term. Although the research documents an increase in skills and attainment, it cann ot be concluded that the programme helped children to reach or go beyond age expected levels in literacy by the end of a school year. It would be interesting to conduct longitudinal research to see whether children participating in ELS during the spring term of Year 1, achieve age-related expectations of at least a level 1b by the time they finish Year 1. Although Savage and Carless (2008) conducted a longitudinal study of ELS and assessed results at the end of Year 2, research has yet to assess childrens attainment across the whole of Year 1.The current research also supports the literature that suggests that teaching assistants can deliver interventions successfully in order to raise attainment (Hatcher et al. 2006b Savage Carless, 2008). However, prior to starting the programme the teaching assistant received no training and simply had to deliver the programme following the session plans. She was not confident in using Thrass as she had had no phonics training. In balance with Savage and Carless (2008), it can be argued that to further improve childrens attainment, teaching assistants who are delivering interventions need to be trained in phonics programmes and should be aware of approaches to support childrens learning.As this was a small-scale case study conducted in one urban primary school, the findings from this research cannot be generalised to other children or schools (Demetriou, 2009). Furthermore, case study designs have been criticised for being influenced by the researchers subjectivity (Demetriou, 2009). However, to castigate this issue, the present research adopted multiple research methods and recording approaches in order to ensure objectivity, which therefore increases the validity and reliability of the findings (Burton et al. 2009). A strength of the research was that observations of ELS sessions were conducted sequentially over a 3 day period in order to increase reliability and observations were noted and recorded to ensure objectivi ty. However, the researchers presence may have influenced the children and staffs behaviour, meaning the observed sessions may not have been a true reflection of typical intervention sessions (Wilson Fox, 2009). Furthermore, the interviews yielded highly valid, in-depth data, however once again the results cannot be generalised as the answers were specific to the children and staff interviewed (Wilson Fox, 2009).ConclusionIn conclusion, this small-scale study revealed the positive benefits that the ELS programme has had both on the childrens confidence and their attainment in literacy. The research has increased my understanding of literacy interventions to support childrens learning and increase their attainment. Interventions would be something I would consider implementing in my own classroom if there was a need to boost childrens literacy skills. Furthermore, I would carefully consider the timing of the interventions so as not to greatly impact of their learning in other subje cts that the children may enjoy.The recent changes being proposed in the Education Bill currently going through Parliament, has led to a period of uncertainty with regards to the curriculum, National Strategies,