Commonly used early childhood curricula were
examined to consider the degree to which they support
research-based instruction for phonological awareness
(PA) and phonics. A content analysis was completed for
two types of curricula widely used in Head Start: overar￾ching general curricula and lesson-based curricula, which
usually provide more explicit teaching instructions. Both
types of curriculum demonstrated the same pattern of
findings; while all curricula included some content aligned
with standards, programs differed greatly in the number of
objectives and instructional strategies included for PA and
phonics instruction. Overall, curricula were most likely to
address earlier developing PA skills (e.g., rhyming, allit￾eration) with more limited attention to advanced skills that
are closely linked with reading development (e.g., seg￾menting and blending of phonemes). Phonics instruction
was not included often in any of the curricula studied, and
opportunities for individualizing instruction were rare,
particularly for children with special needs. Results suggest
that instructional recommendations for PA and phonics in
most of these commonly-used Head Start curricula, even
those curricula which typically provide more explicit in￾struction for teachers, do not align with the instruction
provided in effective intervention studies, and therefore
may not be powerful enough to influence children’s read￾ing trajectories.

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Tersedia

• A Content Analysis of Phonological Awareness and Phonics in Commonly Used Head Start Curricula

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