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PreK On My Way Case Study Report
RQ2. What Are PKOMW’s Strengths and Areas for Improvement? In this section, we share the perspectives of teachers, district leaders, and center staff members on PKOMW’s key strengths and weaknesses.
Key Strengths of PKOMW
Key Reported Strengths • Extensive guidance for teachers • Access to new high-quality and culturally and linguistically diverse reading materials • Both academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate
Respondents described three key strengths of the PKOMW curriculum: 1) extensive guidance provided to teachers for the various curriculum activities, 2) access to new high-quality and culturally and linguistically diverse reading materials, and 3) both academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate instructional materials. Each of these strengths is described in more detail below.
1) Extensive Guidance Provided to Teachers . More than half of respondents ( n = 5) valued that the PKOMW curriculum provides extensive guidance to teachers, such as providing different levels of questions on the back of the small-group cards and clearly articulating the purpose of each lesson. They reported that PKOMW lessons provide a clearly articulated script to guide teachers’ instruction al activities while also allowing for teacher autonomy to differentiate to the individual needs of different children within their classroom. They stated that this scaffolding was particularly helpful for new or first- year teachers.
2) Access to New High-Quality and Diverse Reading Materials. Half of respondents valued that the PKOMW curriculum provides teachers with access to new, high-quality, and culturally and linguistically diverse reading materials, especially because these reading materials included representation of different ethnic minority groups. A center director described this
“I enjoy the big books. The diverse literature. I like that the illustrations represent the students in the classroom …. In the illustrations, some of the children have the skin color that we do.” – PreK Teacher
literature as “age - appropriate, relatable, and informative.” A PreK teacher named Fire Drill and How to Help a Dinosaur Get Well Soon as books that the children particularly enjoyed. Similarly, another PreK Teacher shared that her children enjoyed Follow that Garbage and I Got the Rhythm . These respondents described cultural and linguistic diversity as being key to the success of the PKOMW curriculum. A PreK teacher mentioned that she liked that the illustrations were representative of the diversity of children within the classroom.
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