A better start literacy approach: effectiveness of Tier 1 and Tier 2 support within a response to teaching framework

Gillon, Gail; McNeill, Brigid; Scott, Anne; Arrow, Alison W.; Gath, Megan; Macfarlane, Angus

doi:10.1007/s11145-022-10303-4

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…This study investigated the validity of data gathered from a novel, digitally presented oral narrative (story retell) and narrative comprehension assessment. The task was specifically designed for teachers’ use in monitoring the oral language development of children in their first year at school as part of the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) (Gillon et al, 2022). The teachers of new entrant and year 1 classes in New Zealand involved in this study received relevant professional learning prior to task implementation and were supported by SLTs or literacy specialists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the second cohort of children to enter the study ( n = 154), 151 children (98%) completed Time 1 and Time 2 assessments. Children from this cohort only completed the third assessment if they were identified as requiring Tier 2 small group teaching support (based on the design of the larger study; see Gillon et al, 2022 for more information). A total of 42 children from this group were selected to complete the Time 3 assessment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The participants were drawn from a larger study investigating the efficacy of the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) in New Zealand new entrant and Year 1 classes (Gillon et al, 2019(Gillon et al, , 2020(Gillon et al, , 2022. At study commencement, there were 303 children (51% male, 49% female) with returned parent consent forms to participate in the study, who also met our eligibility criteria of being in their first 20 weeks at school and aged between 5 years 0 months to 5 years 5 months (mean age 62.6 months, SD = 1.61).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task

Gillon

McNeill

Scott

et al. 2023

Child Language Teaching and Therapy

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This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task. The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech–language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part of the Better Start Literacy Approach for early literacy teaching. Teachers administered the task to 303 5-year-olds in New Zealand at school entry and after 20 weeks and 12 months of schooling. The children listened to a story with pictures via iPad presentation and were then prompted to retell the story. The children's spontaneous language used in their story retell was captured and uploaded digitally via iPad audio recording and analyzed using semi-automated speech recognition and computer software. Their responses to factual and inferential story comprehension questions were also analyzed. The data suggested that the task has good criterion validity. Significant correlations between story retell measures and a standardized measure of children's oral language were found. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task, which took approximately 6 min for teachers to administer, accurately identified children with low oral language ability 81% of the time. Growth curve analysis revealed that the task was useful for monitoring oral language development, including for English as second language learners. Boys showed a slower story comprehension growth trajectory than girls. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task shows promise in providing valid data to support teacher judgement of children's oral language development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task

Gillon

McNeill

Scott

et al. 2023

Child Language Teaching and Therapy

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“…We developed BSLA through an iterative process through controlled research trials [1,8,9] research focused on ensuring all children have the best possible start in life [80]. Following consultation and support from school, indigenous, and community leaders, teachers were involved in coconstructing the implementation to ensure development of a feasible and sustainable approach (See [81] for details).…”

Section: Development Of the Bslamentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Children Who Are English Language Learners Succeed in Their Early Literacy Development

Gillon¹

2023

Folia Phoniatr Logop

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Introduction: The Better Start Literacy Approach is an example of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to facilitate children’s early literacy success. It is set within a strengths-based and culturally responsive framework for literacy teaching and is being implemented in over 800 English medium schools across New Zealand. This report focuses on how children identified at school entry as English Language Learners (ELL) responded to the Better Start Literacy Approach during their first year at school. Method: Using a matched control design, the growth in phoneme awareness, phoneme-grapheme knowledge, and oral narrative skills for 1,853 ELL was compared to a cohort of 1,853 non-ELL. The cohorts were matched for ethnicity (mostly Asian, 46% and Pacific, 26%), age (M = 65 months), gender (53% male), and socioeconomic deprivation index (82% in areas of mid to high deprivation). Results: Data analyses indicated similar positive growth rates for ELL and non-ELL from baseline to the first monitoring assessment following 10 weeks of Tier 1 (universal/class level) teaching. Despite demonstrating lower phoneme awareness skills at baseline, following 10 weeks of teaching, the ELL cohort performed similarly to non-ELL in non-word reading and spelling tasks. Predictors of growth analyses indicated that ELL from areas of low socioeconomic deprivation, who used a greater number of different words in their English story retells at the baseline assessment, and females made the most growth in their phonic and phoneme awareness development. Following the 10-week monitoring assessment, 11% of the ELL and 13% of the non-ELL cohorts received supplementary Tier 2 (targeted small group) teaching. At the next monitoring assessment (20 weeks post baseline assessment) the ELL cohort showed accelerated growth in listening comprehension, phoneme-grapheme matching and phoneme blending skills, catching up to their non-ELL peers. Discussion: Despite limitations of the dataset available, it provides one of the few insights into the response of ELL to Tier 1 and Tier 2 teaching in their first year at school. The data suggest that the Better Start Literacy Approach, which includes high-quality professional learning and development for teachers, literacy specialists, and speech-language therapists, is an effective approach toward developing foundational literacy skills for ELL. The important role speech-language therapists have in collaborating with class teachers to support children’s early literacy success within a MTSS framework is discussed.

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“…Funding for the projects was drawn from multiple sources, and enabled the development of the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) from a pilot project with seven schools and 141 5-year-old children in 2015-16 (Gillon et al, 2019 ) to a national implementation with over 700 schools and projected 70,000 children in 2021-23. The Better Start Literacy Approach is an early literacy approach for children in their first year of school (Gillon et al, 2019 , 2020 , In Press ). It focuses on building the critical foundational skills needed for early literacy success, including phoneme awareness, letter–sound knowledge, word reading, vocabulary, oral language and listening comprehension.…”

Section: Context and Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of an Innovative Online Task to Monitor Children's Oral Narrative Development

et al. 2022

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Oral narrative abilities are an important measure of children's language competency and have predictive value for children's later academic performance. Research and development underway in New Zealand is advancing an innovative online oral narrative task. This task uses audio recordings of children's story retells, speech-to-text software and language analysis to record, transcribe, analyse and present oral narrative and listening comprehension data back to class teachers. The task has been designed for class teachers' use with the support of SLP or literacy specialists in data interpretation. Teachers are upskilled and supported in order to interpret these data and implement teaching practices for students through online professional learning and development modules, within the context of a broader evidence-based approach to early literacy instruction. This article describes the development of this innovative, culturally relevant, online tool for monitoring children's oral narrative ability and listening comprehension in their first year of school. Three phases of development are outlined, showing the progression of the tool from a researcher-administered task during controlled research trials, to wide-scale implementation with thousands of students throughout New Zealand. The current iteration of the tool uses an automatic speech-recognition system with specifically trained transcription models and support from research assistants to check transcription, then code and analyse the oral narrative. This reduces transcription and analysis time to ~7 min, with a word error rate of around 20%. Future development plans to increase the accuracy of automatic transcription and embed basic language analysis into the tool, with the aim of removing the need for support from research assistants.

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A better start literacy approach: effectiveness of Tier 1 and Tier 2 support within a response to teaching framework

Cited by 10 publications

References 43 publications

Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task

Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task

Supporting Children Who Are English Language Learners Succeed in Their Early Literacy Development

The Evolution of an Innovative Online Task to Monitor Children's Oral Narrative Development

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