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1. NYPL Early Literacy
Professional
Development
Module D
Partnering with Early Childhood Programs

2. Winter 2018 2NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Welcome
INTRODUCTION
As you arrive:
• Make a name tag
In the online module, we learned about the variety of
early care and education programs in NYC. Share at
your table:
• Your most successful outreach strategies.
• Your greatest strength as a partner to early
care and education professionals.

3. Winter 2018 3NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Early Literacy Series Goal and Main Concepts
INTRODUCTION
The goal of Raising the Bar: Integrating Early Childhood Education Training
into Librarian Professional Development is to support children’s librarians in
developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to be confident
early literacy specialists.
Early literacy specialists support children’s healthy intellectual and emotional
development through three core strategies represented in each module:
1. Building strong, lasting relationships with families
2. Modeling and fostering interactions that are responsive to children’s
developmental needs and
3. Creating welcoming and engaging environments for children and their
families to learn and play together.

4. Winter 2018 4NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Early Literacy Professional Development Series
INTRODUCTION
The NYPL Early Literacy Professional Development Series is
comprised of four modules:
• Module A: Foundational Knowledge
• Module B: Family Engagement 1: Storytimes
• Module C: Family Engagement 2: Family Literacy Workshops
• Module D: Partnering with Early Childhood Programs

5. Winter 2018 5NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Module D Objectives
INTRODUCTION
In the module D practice session, we will:
1. Develop a deeper understanding of strong early language and literacy
practices, including:
• Characteristics of high quality early language and literacy practices
• Interactions/activities that respond to the developmental needs of the child,
including:
• Interest–driven learning
• Pre-K for All Units of Study
• How early childhood teachers observe and assess children’s early literacy skills.
2. Learn strategies for outreach and partnership, including:
• Listening to early childhood caregivers and teachers
• Assessing the needs of a partner

6. Winter 2018 6NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Early Childhood Care and Education Programs in NYC
include:
• Family Childcare
• Group Family Childcare
• Center-based Care
• Pre-K for All in District Schools
• Family Shelter Drop-Off Care
• Care in Hospitals and Other Community Settings
• Special Education Pre-K settings
Which types of programs have you visited?
Types of ECE Programs
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

7. 7
ECE Observations
● Have you observed any early childhood classrooms?
● If so, what have you seen?
● What stood out as strengths?
● What stood out as potential challenges?
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

8. Attuned, Responsive Caregivers
• Caregivers and
teachers engage in
responsive, serve
and return
interactions and
have secure, trusting
relationships with
children.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

9. High language environment
• Caregivers and
teachers build
expressive
language skills by
using advanced
vocabulary,
engaging in
conversations with
children, asking
open-ended
questions. They
use song and rhyme
to develop
phonological
awareness.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

10. Interest-Driven Learning
• Children construct their
own knowledge based
on their curiosity and
driven by their
interests.
• The children’s learning is active and follows
a recurring path: awareness, exploration,
inquiry and application.
• Children are provided
with texts related to
their topics of interest
in order to develop
background
knowledge and
listening
comprehension.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

11. Play-based Learning
• Children have many opportunities
to develop expressive language
and narrative skills through
pretend play.
• Caregivers and teachers create
environments and experiences
which support the development of
science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM)
skills.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

12. Print Rich Environment
• Caregivers and teachers provide
children with access to a wide
range of books and printed
materials, including texts in their
home language, to build their
appreciation and enjoyment of
books.
• Environmental print, such as
the Little Miss Muffet poster
here, is used intentionally to
develop print awareness.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

13. Process Art and Emergent Writing
• Caregivers and teachers demonstrate respect for children by
allowing them to experiment with writing and art materials in a
developmental, process-oriented way.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

14. Winter 2018 14NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
BREAK

15. Best Practices for Early Childcare Centers
• Count off 1-5
• Get into 5 groups
• Read Early Childhood Educator scenario
with group
• Use engagement strategies and childcare
settings handouts to determine best way to
engage educators about high quality
interactions and environments
14
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

16. Winter 2018 16NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Family Childcare
Watch a video of toddlers in a family childcare (FCC) setting:
• What strengths do you see in the teacher’s language and
literacy practice?
• Describe how this teacher is supporting the development of
these children’s narrative skills? Why is this important?
• How would you partner with this teacher to extend language
and literacy learning?
Video: Birthday
[Link available by the Videatives Streaming Site]
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

17. 17
The engagement strategies we learned in Modules B
and C also work with early care and education providers!
• Which engagement strategies would you use? Why?
• Which outreach and partnership strategies work best
for FCC providers?
Family Childcare
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS

18. 18
Early Childhood Special Education
Every child with a disability has the right to a Free Appropriate Public
Education alongside their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible.
The NYC Department of Education provides special education services
specially designed to meet individual needs of all children in New York City:
● All special education programs are free
● Programs for children 0-5:
○ The Early Intervention Program (EIP) focus on children birth to
age 3 and is run by the Dept. of Health. Involves a service
coordinator who is assigned to the family to provide necessary
support services.
○ The Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE)
program is for children ages 3 to 5 years old (Preschoolers). All
children have an individualized education plan (IEP) and includes
a variety of special education settings
SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

19. 19
Early Intervention Program
EIP supports families with children ages birth- 3 who have disabilities or
developmental delays.
Program is FREE and available to all NYC families
Who can Refer?
- Anyone- child’s family, doctors, social service workers, child care workers,
community agencies.
- Families can fill out a referral form or call 311
What Happens Once Child is Referred to the EIP?
- A service coordinator will be assigned who explains the program and helps
family choose an evaluation agency
- After eval if child is eligible family receives an Individualized Family Service Plan
(IFSP)
- Family works with a team of early interventionists (teachers & therapists) to
develop goals and a plan that meets their child's developmental needs.
SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

20. 20
Early Intervention Program
SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCES
[Video available by the NYC Health: Early Intervention Program]

21. 21
Preschool Special Education Settings
- Preschoolers with IEPs may be in any ECE settings alongside peers
without IEPs (Headstart, Pre K for All)
- May also be recommended to a Special Class in integrated Setting
(SCIS)
- SCIS classes include preschool children with and without
disabilities and have both a general education teacher and a
special education teacher
- SCIS may also receive related services, assistive technology,
paraprofessional services or other supplementary support services
- Self-contained classrooms in a special education setting “early learning
centers”
- All children in class have IEP
- Small class size and high adult ratio
- i.e 6 children with 2 teacher and multiple aids or 12 children with 1
teacher and 2 aids
- children may have a 1:1 aide
SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

22. Winter 2018 22NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
LUNCH

23. Winter 2018 23NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Pre-K Classrooms
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS
Watch this video of a pre-K classroom.
• What strengths do you see in the teacher’s language and literacy practice?
• How would you partner with this teacher to extend language and literacy
learning?
• Which engagement strategies would you use?
• Which outreach and partnership strategies work best for Pre-K for All
teachers?
Video: English, Spanish & Chinese, too
[Link available by the Videatives Streaming Site]

24. Winter 2018 24NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Interest-Driven Learning
Group 1 Group 2
Which approaches to
learning do you see the
children developing?
Which language and literacy skills do
you see the children developing?
• Curiosity
• Initiative
• Persistence
• Attention
• Appreciation and Enjoyment of
Books, or print motivation
• Expressive language, including
vocabulary development
• Phonological awareness
• Print awareness, including letter
knowledge
• Listening Comprehension
• Narrative Skills
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

25. Winter 2018 25NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Pre-K for All Units of Study
Choose a Pre-K for All Unit of Study from New York City’s
Department of Education to review online.
• How is literacy integrated into the curriculum?
• How else could it be integrated into the curriculum
through your work with the teacher?
• Generate additional ideas in a small group.
PRE-K CURRICULUM

26. Winter 2018 26NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
BREAK

27. Winter 2018 27NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Authentic Assessment
PRE-K CURRICULUM
In high quality programs, teachers use authentic assessment systems to guide their
analyses of observations:
• Authentic Assessment is collecting information about the behaviors of young children
through observation during daily routines. It can include direct observations as well
as collection of child made materials. This information is used to assess child
development and progress in the classroom.
• Observe a video of 4 year olds engaged in narrative play. Focus on the boy, Theo.
Look over the most commonly used authentic assessment rubrics. What do
you notice?
• How would you use the rubric to guide your understanding of the
observation?
Video: Co-constructing Stories[Link available by the Videatives Streaming Site]

28. Winter 2018 28NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Planning with Early Childhood Providers
STRATEGIES FOR PARTNERSHIP
• Listen to how Early Care
and Education providers
from different settings
describe their early language
and literacy practices.
• What strengths do you
observe?
2. 3.

29. 29
Using this example or the example of a teacher you know, think
about how you would introduce your role and discus how you might
partner with the teacher to support their practice.
Key Phrases:
• What have you noticed about your children’s interests?
• What have you learned from your observations of the children’s
language and literacy development?
Use backwards planning form to plan for a partnership with an early
childhood edcator
Planning with Early Childhood Providers
STRATEGIES FOR PARTNERSHIP

30. Winter 2018 30NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
Reflecting on your role as an early literacy specialist
CONCLUSION
We started these sessions with the idea of the librarian as
an anchor of the community. At the close of our work
together, let’s return to the idea of community.
• Stand in a circle
• Toss the ball of yarn, and share one intention that you
have for your community.

31. 31
© 2019 by The New York Public Library. MODULE D: FOUNDATIONAL
is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc/4.0/) except for content otherwise attributed.
The New York Public Library, 2019.