Der Handlungsleitfaden dient als Arbeitsgrundlage für die Leitungskräfte und pädagogischen Fachkräfte der Kindertageseinrichtungen in unserem Landkreis und soll kontinuierlich auf die Entwicklungen angepasst, aktualisiert und ergänzt werden. Der Handlungsleitfaden wird auf die Homepage des Landkreises gestellt. Für die Richtigkeit und Vollständigkeit des Inhalts kann keine Gewähr übernommen werden, Haftungsansprüche sind ausgeschlossen.

Das Spiralcurriculum strebt die effektive Vernetzung von Bibliotheken mit anderen bildungsrelevanten Einrichtungen an. Es soll die Zusammenarbeit all dieser Einrichtungen nicht nur gewährleisten, sondern diese auch inhaltlich optimal gestalten. Seit knapp zwei Jahren gehört das spiralcurriculare Angebot der Leipziger Städtischen Bibliotheken nun fest zu den Leistungen der Veranstaltungsarbeit mit Schulklassen. In Form einer Broschüre listet es übersichtlich und zielgruppenspezifisch das Angebotsspektrum für Bibliotheksbesuche der 1. bis 10. Klassenstufe auf – ein Service, der die Schüler langfristig auf dem Weg hin zur Informationskompetenz begleiten soll. Da das modulartig angelegte Programm vor allem regelmäßige und aufeinander aufbauende Veranstaltungen vorsieht, war die Herausgabe des Leipziger Spiralcurriculums im Frühjahr 2012 ein sehr wichtiger Schritt in Richtung einer stabilen Bildungspartnerschaft zwischen Bibliothek und Schule.

Following implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and Common Core Standards, play experience opportunities by kindergarten students have been compromised. Prior research indicates that how teachers make sense of play is most likely reflected in educational practice. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to gather the lived experiences of 5 kindergarten teachers from northern New England on the nature of play through pre-reflective description and reflective interpretation. Guided by Vygotsky's social constructivist theory as the conceptual framework, the goal of this study was to describe lived play experiences of kindergarten teachers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to answer the main research question about the essence of play as expressed by teachers. Interviews were transcribed, reduced, coded, and analyzed for common thematic elements and essences regarding the impact of how play manifests in curriculum planning and classroom arrangement. Three themes emerged: community building, creative learning, and engaged excitement. The findings revealed that although kindergarten teachers experienced the nature of play differently, play naturally and unequivocally seemed to promote social skills and cooperation, language and concept development, and motivated and self-directed learners. Additional findings showed an incompatibility between the lived world interpretations of kindergarten teachers and the district curriculum expectations. This study influences positive social change by opening educational discussions about kindergarten pedagogy, leading to improved classroom practice.

Some children struggle to learn the academic skill of reading. Providing effective assistance to struggling students, especially to English Language Learners (ELLs), can be a challenge for teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of childcare programs on the reading achievement of ELLs in kindergarten and first grade. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory along with developmentally appropriate practices constituted the theoretical framework. The overarching research question examined differences in overall reading achievement of ELLs based on the completion of formal childcare programs. A causal-comparative design was used with a cluster sample drawn from a United States federal database of 3,214 ELLs divided into 2 groups: children who participated in formal childcare (FC) programs and those with no formal childcare (NFC). Four independent-samples t tests were performed to compare reading achievement of FC and NFC participants from the fall 2010 kindergarten class (FC n = 1,348, NFC n = 1,414), spring 2011 kindergarten class (FC n = 1,485, NFC n = 1621), fall 2011 first grade class (FC n = 650, NFC n = 698), and spring 2012 first grade class (FC n = 1,482, NFC n = 1,622). Using the Bonferonni method to reduce Type I errors due to familywise analyses, the a priori alpha level decreased to 0.0125. ELL students who participated in formal preschool childcare programs achieved higher scores in reading throughout kindergarten and first grade. Based on these findings, a project was developed for family childcare providers to use to facilitate literacy development. Positive social change may result from ensuring that more children begin kindergarten and first grade with a foundation of reading skills needed for ongoing learning and academic success.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether or not a significant relationship exists among daily writing and student growth in phonemic awareness. The study also considered the impact of writing on the phonemic awareness development of students at different literacy levels. Although studies exist on the importance of phonemic awareness development in reading acquisition, a deficit exists examining the correlation among daily writing and the phonemic awareness development of students representing different literacy levels. Forty students in an experimental group engaged in daily writing opportunities, while 37 students in the control group engaged in less frequent writing opportunities. Data included pre- and posttest results from The Phonological Awareness Test. Descriptive statistics were chosen to describe the demographic variable of group, gender, and ability level and inferential statistics included the two-sample t test. Results were statistically analyzed using SPSS 13.0 and concluded that a significant relationship does exist among daily writing opportunities and the phonemic awareness development of kindergarten students. Daily exposure to writing had a significant impact on students in the low-risk experimental group. Although a significant difference was not found in the some/at-risk groups, the experimental group had a larger average increase on the phonemic awareness measure. Results will fill the existing gap between research and practice concerning the correlation among daily writing and phonemic awareness, and the reciprocal impact this correlation has on students' literacy development. In addition, results may influence early childhood educators to implement daily writing opportunities as a method for increasing students' phonemic awareness development.

Although numerous studies have documented the connection between early language and academic achievement, there is much less information available about the effects of teacher/student relationships on language development. Based on Vygotsky's theory that all learning takes place in the context of relationships, this quasi-experimental study examined language scores for students in an early education classroom who stayed with the same teacher for 2 years compared with those in a classroom with two different teachers for each of the 2 years. Pre- and posttest scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III) and language scores on the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-3 (DIAL-3) were compared using an independent samples t test. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for the effects of student gender, family income, maternal education, teacher education, and teacher years of experience. The results revealed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Future studies should include examination of possible associations between qualitative aspects of student/teacher relationships and language development. The current study contributes to social change by raising awareness of the importance of relationships in early childhood and by encouraging educators in the development of environments that most effectively support early language development for students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Very little research has been conducted on the impact of the Imagination Library, a Tennessee based reading program, on student reading achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this cross-sectional explanatory study was to test whether Imagination Library program participation had an impact on reading achievement for kindergarten students from 3 rural elementary schools. The theoretical basis for this study was Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the process of scaffolding, and language learning models. ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis that reading achievement for participants was significantly different from nonparticipants and was also used to test the hypotheses of relationships between reading achievement and gender and socioeconomic status. Spearman correlation was used to test whether a relationship exists between the reported frequency of read-aloud sessions and achievement as well as a relationship between the length of time in the program and achievement. Findings from this study supported an achievement gap by socioeconomic status. However, findings failed to support a gender achievement gap and that program participation, length of participation, or the reported frequency of read-aloud sessions significantly impacted reading achievement among kindergarten students. A conclusion from this research is that just sending free books to children is not enough. Recommendations for action include registering more lower-income households, enriching the program with supplemental information or materials, and providing opportunities for parent education workshops. The implications for social change include greater awareness of early intervention strategies for reducing the achievement gap and enhancing literacy at an early age.

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act required that early intervention services for young children from birth to age 3 take place in their natural environment. However, limited research has been conducted on the impact of this requirement on the actual service providers who work within the home environments. Lewin's field theory on behavior, individual person, and the environment formed the theoretical framework for this descriptive case study, which examined the perceptions of developmental therapists on how their service is influenced by the inner-city home environment. Ten developmental therapists in a midwestern metropolitan city were interviewed about their beliefs and experiences on working within this environment and the influences of those beliefs and experiences on service delivery. Participants were members of a developmental therapy association of a Midwestern U.S. state who provided services in the inner city. Participant responses were transcribed, put into categories and assessed for themes. Five common elements within the inner-city environment were found to influence service delivery: (a) traffic of nonparticipants: (b) noise from TV, radio, and so on: (c) safety while traveling: (d) transient families: and (e) need for professional development. In addition, this study examined the providers' perspectives on their educational preparation to work in this setting. The results identified from this study provided the basis for a much-needed reform to the current professional development model and identified professional learning communities (PLC) as the guide to implement change. Incorporating PLCs can equip inner-city therapists with the ongoing support and training that is needed to provide services in a variety of environments, which increases the effectiveness of their service delivery while providing measurable outcomes and continuity of services for children. This study influences change at local and federal levels by reviewing current practices to effectively implement meaningful professional development.

Early childhood development programs enhance children's development of knowledge, skills, and processes. Despite efforts to improve early childhood education in the United States, poor student performance in early literacy and kindergarten achievement is still occurring, and questions remain unanswered about the utility of early childhood education programs. Drawing from the theory of constructivism, the purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental, retrospective study was to determine the effectiveness of early childhood programs on the literacy achievement of kindergarten children. The research question addressed the differences in literacy achievement of kindergarten children based on the early childhood programs they attended. Using repeated measures analysis of variance tests for 501 student test scores, no significant interaction effects existed between program participation and gains across time for prewriting (F [2, 998] = 0.87, p = .42), cognitive (F [2, 998] = 0.84, p = .43), or language (F [2, 998] = 1.26, p = .28). However, using the Pearson correlation coefficient, younger participants had significantly more gain from pretest to posttest for prewriting (r [499] = .14, p = .002) and cognitive (r [499] = .21, p = .001) but less gain for language (r [499] = .10, p = .03). Knowing that literacy achievement can be improved in an early childhood setting contributes to the knowledge base on the effects of early learning. Educators could benefit from these findings when implementing early childhood policies and adopting effective practices to help develop successful readers in kindergarten and beyond.

Many researchers have documented that reading fluency scores continue to be a national concern for the United States and have suggested that early reading failure has long-term detrimental effects on society. However, much less is known regarding specific interventions that could reduce this concern. Investigators in other studies have suggested the development of early school-home partnerships to improve reading scores. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a systematic school-home intervention to improve reading fluency scores. Following the theoretical foundation of emergent literacy theory and Joyce Epstein's framework, the research question focuses on the association between reading fluency scores and early school-home communication. The intervention consisted of using informative memos, regular mailings of information to home address, and monthly newsletters to parents. Participants represented four kindergarten classes in a diverse northeastern US community (n = 85). Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) was used to gather data. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that there was a significant statistical difference in the reading fluency scores between the control and treatment groups. Based upon the observed increases in reading scores, the early school-home intervention was effective. It is suggested that schools apply this school-home communication intervention particularly in the early grades and encourage parent participation. These findings make an important contribution to social change by providing schools, parents, and school leaders with a systematic method to enhance reading performance by targeting students at an early age and their parents to promote long-term student success and enhance academic learning.