Tuesday May 1, 2007
At WSU, preschool meets playgroup
BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS
The Wichita Eagle
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At WSU, preschool meets playgroup
They’re not old enough to know about “phonemic awareness,” “literary acquisition” or “multi-sensory writing experiences.”
But the 4- to 6-year-olds in Wichita State University’s Reading Explorers playgroup can tell you all about Sadie the seal, who slides and swims off Seal Island.
They can hold out their arms and rock side-to-side, whispering “ssssssss” as they pretend to surf. They can use their fingers to carve S’s in salt, watching the letter appear and then saying, once again, the sound it inspires: “ssssssss.”
They’re learning to read, says Jennifer Kordonowy, a speech pathologist at WSU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. But more important, they’re having fun.
It is part of a new trend in playgroups and other traditionally informal parent-child get-togethers, in which brain research drives the curriculum, and activities are focused more on learning than free play. Think of it as “preschool meets playgroup.”
“We wanted to give parents a fun way — and a developmentally appropriate way — to get their kiddos started reading and writing,” said Kordonowy, who leads the playgroup. “This is much more than simple story time.”
She and Janette Warne, another speech pathologist, developed the program, which features stories, music, games and other activities aimed at teaching young children to recognize letters and blend sounds into words. The weekly playgroup also serves as a learning lab for WSU students studying early childhood.
Reading Explorers meets for an hour and a half each Thursday. The first course began in January and will end this month, but the university hopes to offer it again during the summer and fall. It is supported in part by the Wichita Scottish Rite Foundation.
During a recent session, Kordonowy gathered the children for a story about Max, an ox, and Felix, a fox, who live in a boxcar that was once filled with wax. (They used an ax to chop out the wax.) And it just so happens, Max and Felix like to relax by boxing socks.
That’s a lot of X’s. And that, said Warne, is the point.
“They hear that letter sound again and again, and the repetition makes it click in the brain,” she said.
But it goes beyond sounds and pictures. During the story, which Kordonowy told rather than read, children glued pictures to a sheet of poster paper. They sang songs. They also made lists.
“Max needed a place to live,” Kordonowy said. “Can anyone tell me a place where an animal might live?”
The kids threw out options — jungle, forest, ocean, birdhouse, beehive, cave, tree, hole — and Kordonowy wrote them down. They counted the list aloud and wrote the total number: 13.
The practice, known as cataloging, helps children build vocabulary, Kordonowy said. Someday, perhaps while reading a book about bears, they’ll call upon that cache of knowledge and remember in an instant that bears live in caves.
“Literacy is not just picking up a book and reading,” she said. “It’s the culmination of a whole set of skills that builds from very early childhood.”
Each story, adapted from Jim Stone’s popular Animated Literacy curriculum, ends with a “gross-motor sign” that ties the letter sound to movement. For “x,” the children crossed their arms in front, then “relaxed,” bringing their arms down and saying the “x” sound: “Ecksss.”
Then they boxed some socks, throwing and punching balled-up socks around the room and giggling uproariously.
Heather Hodson-Kisner, mother of 6-year-old Kaden Kisner, said she signed up for the group because it lets Kaden have fun, socialize and get a little messy while he learns.
“Like the day we painted with mud — that’s something I probably wouldn’t have done with him at home,” she said.
Playgroup participants range from children like Kaden, who reads well, to those with hearing or learning difficulties and children with autism.
“Not only does this program work, but it works for kids at all different levels,” Kordonowy said. “Reading opens up this whole new world for them.”
Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com.
