California Preschool Learning Foundations - ECEZero2Three ...

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
48
Organization of the Language
and Literacy Foundations
The preschool learning foundations
in language and literacy are organized
into three developmental strands to
align with the strands for listening
and speaking, reading, and writing in
the California Department of Education’s
English–language arts content
standards for kindergarten. The first
strand, listening and speaking, relates
primarily to language development.
This strand includes the substrands of
language use and conventions, vocabulary,
and grammar. The other two
strands relate to literacy development.
The reading strand consists of the
substrands of concepts about print,
phonological awareness, alphabetics
and word/print recognition, comprehension
and analysis of age-appropriate
text, and literacy interest and
response. The writing strand has one
substrand: writing strategies.
Within each substrand, individual
foundations specify distinct competencies.
Each substrand is divided
into two columns: The column on the
left-hand side focuses on children at
around 48 months of age, and the column
on the right-hand side focuses on
children at around 60 months of age.
The substrand descriptions for children
at around 60 months of age detail
more sophisticated and advanced
competencies than do those for children
at around 48 months of age. In
some cases the difference between the
foundations for the two age ranges is
more pronounced than for the other
foundations. Although two points of a
developmental progression (at around
48 months of age and at around 60
months of age) are specified within
each strand, the order in which the
strands are presented is not meant
to indicate a developmental progression
from strand to strand. Nor is the
order of presentation of the substrands
within a strand meant to indicate a
developmental progression from substrand
to substrand.
Both substrands and foundations
are numbered sequentially. For
example, if a substrand is numbered
1.0, the foundations under that substrand
are 1.1, 1.2, and so on for both
age levels; likewise, if a substrand is
numbered 2.0, the foundations under
that substrand are 2.1, 2.2, and so on,
again for both age levels. While both
substrands and foundations are numbered
sequentially, the order of presentation
does not represent a developmental
progression.
Each foundation is accompanied by
examples that further illustrate the
meaning of the foundation. They provide
behavioral illustrations of how a
child might demonstrate a competency
described in a given foundation. In
some instances the examples may also
clarify the meaning of a foundation.
However, the examples are not exhaustive
checklists or assessment items
and should be used for illustrative
purposes only.
Following the foundations, a review
of the relevant research for each
strand is presented to indicate the
research basis for the foundations in
that strand. This section provides the
reader with a more complete explanation
of each strand. At the end of
this section, a selected bibliography
of research citations is provided for
the entire set of language and literacy
foundations. Brief explanations of the
main points within the strands are
provided next.
Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1 • California Department of Education