ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

employed speech pathologist met to discuss how to improve the literacy and numeracy benchmarking data. At the end of 2004, the Early Years Literacy and Numeracy Coordinators, in consultation with the speech pathologist, designed the Oral Language Basic Concepts Program (OLBCP). Program characteristics Results from longitudinal studies have shown the significant correlations between spoken and written language development in students (e.g., Bishop & Adams, 1990; Dickinson, Anastapoulos, McCabe, Peisner-Feinberg, & Poe, 2003). Many basic oral language concepts are important literacy concepts (Justice, Invernizzi, & Meier, 2002; Justice, Kaderavek, Fan, Sofka, & Hunt, 2009). For example: • the concepts of “start”, “end”, “same” and “different” are important for learning phonological awareness skills such as rhyming that have been identified as key foundation skills for reading. For example, “Listen for the sounds that are the same at the end of the words” (Justice et al., 2002); • the concepts of “left”, “right”, “top” and “bottom” are important for learning the directionality of English words and sentences when reading (Justice et al., 2002, 2009); • the concepts of “big” and “little” are important for learning the difference between upper and lowercase letters for reading and writing. For example, the teachers talk about “big” vs. “little” letters once these concepts are established (Justice et al., 2009; Justice & Ezell, 2004).

Many of these basic oral language concepts are also important numeracy concepts in the areas of number (counting and ordering), space (shapes and locational language) and measurement (comparing and contrasting) (Fleer et al., 2006; Pasnak, MacCubbin, & Ferral-Like, 2007). For example, the concepts of “big”, “little”, “same” and “different” are important for learning the concept of number, as in “Is 4 the same as 3?”, “Is 2 bigger than 1?”. The size concepts of “big” and “little” are used in the teaching of ordering in numeracy, as in “Group the teddy bears from little to big.” (Fleer et al., 2006). Program implementation The OLBPC was implemented in 2005 and was the only major change in teaching practice in the early years at this school in this academic year. The OLBCP consisted of two streams of specific strategies. One stream focused on professional development of the teachers in basic oral language concepts (Dickinson & Caswell, 2007) and on the development of an oral language concept folder. The professional development was delivered by the speech pathologist at fortnightly meetings attended by the preparatory teachers as well as the Early Years Literacy and Numeracy Coordinators. The meetings concentrated on the basic language concepts and included information related to their developmental sequence and assessment practices.

Table 1. Concept planner: “top” and “bottom” Literacy Directionality Numeracy Positional language

Resources Books

Other Playground Top/bottom of the slide Body parts Top of your head Bottom of your legs

Fitness Directions Run to the top of the mound. Slide to the bottom of the slide.

Ten apples up on top! (Geisel & Geisel, 1989) Songs/rhymes Simon Says: Put your hands on top of your head

Numeracy Here is something big, find me something little – comparison Bigger than/smaller than – sheets attached Sorting into big /little using hoops as Venn circles. Comparing students’ size to teacher Work sheets attached Vertical algorithms – what number is at the top, what number is at the bottom? What is on top and bottom of the pile? Ahmed your hat is at the bottom of the box. Please put the box on the bottom shelf.

Reading – show me where to start, look at the top of the page, page number – is it at the top or bottom of the page? Handwriting Instructions – Start writing at the top of the page.

Extension word: middle

Table 2. Concept planner: “big” and “little” Literacy Oral language: Choose a big/little book

Resources Books Big and little . (Meadows, 1995) We’re going on a bear hunt (Rosen & Oxenbury, 2006) The bear concepts (Foster & Foster, 2001), pp. 21–24 Songs/rhymes

Fitness Big/little balls Obstacle course – big/ little slide

Other Computer KIDPIX – select paintbrush, choose picture, click & drag to alter size

Other words for big/little Big/little letters, upper/ lower case, capitals Activity sheets attached First names – capital letters Brainstorm big/little – students naming objects – obvious objects that provide maximum contrast (elephant/ant) Use this list to make a class book

“John had great big waterproof boots on” “Five little ducks”

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing