Scaffolding Early Literacy Through Mature Play is a method that guides teachers to increase dramatic play materials provided to children in centers during common themes (such as hospital, store, airport). Teachers learn how to develop props, create roles and intervene in ways that differentiate instruction and provide for shared learning.

This workshop is designed to introduce teachers to Lev Vygotsky’s developmental theory including four central concepts: learning leads development, social context and development, central role of language in mental development, and socially-mediated construction of knowledge.   The workshop will focus on the application of these concepts into the classroom with specific activities that develop foundational skills for literacy (including reading and writing) and promote higher mental function.

Objectives
Scaffolding Early Literacy Through Mature Play explains the power of “leading activities” for specific age groups and gives teachers intervention strategies to increase children’s’ competence in literacy and self-regulation.

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Plan activities that develop underlying literacy skills
• Layer make-believe play into all centers
• Develop teacher-made and child-made props for their classrooms
• Manage center time to support children’s self-regulation
• Offer children a variety of external mediators
• Scaffold higher-mental functions in children
• Support mature levels of play
• Assess and monitor children’s early literacy skill development

Outline

• Major Theoretical Concepts of Vygotskian Approach
  • Tools
  • Major principles
    • Children construct knowledge
    • Development cannot be separated from its social context
    • Learning can lead development
    • Language plays a central role in development
  • Higher vs. Lower Mental Functions
• Similarities and Differences between Vygotsky and other current theories (Piaget, Behaviorists, Information Processing)
• Strategies for Development and Learning
  • Zone of Proximal Development
  • Scaffolding
• Leading Activity
• Tactics for Development and Learning
  • Using Mediators
  • Using Language
  • Using Shared Activity
• Classroom Applications

Trainer’s Profile
Dr. Gwendolyn C. is a Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in Platteville, Wisconsin since 1992. She is the Coordinator for Teacher Education in the School of Education.

She completed an M.S. degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Ph.D. from University of Missouri-Columbia. She was the Director of Early Childhood Education for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Director of the France Child Development Center in Kansas City, Missouri. She was also the owner of First Step Preschools in Camdenton, Missouri for more than twenty years serving children ages 3-5.

She co-authored the following articles: Children in Cuba published by NAEYC (2004), The Clubhouse Project published at the Project Approach website (1994), Parental Beliefs About Infant Childrearing in Child Study Journal (1994) and more than forty program evaluations for literacy programs.

She has been providing professional development and evaluation services to Family Literacy Programs in the United States since 1992 as the result of many successfully funded government grants that she co-authored.

Her research interests include teachers’ professional development, early literacy, self-regulation, and second language acquisition.

Methodology
The program includes lectures, audiovisual presentations from actual classrooms, group discussions, and practical “make-it and take-it” activities.

Target Audience
This workshop is specifically designed for teachers of children ages 3 to 8 and for special education teachers who are either pre-service or in-service.

Duration: 2 days, 14 hours
Closing Date: 1 Aug 07