Teachers Recret Letter

Appendix S

Appendix S

Teacher Recruitment Letter

September 2007

Dear Kindergarten Teacher:

As the Executive Director for the U.S. Department of Education’s Regional Education Laboratory- Southeast (REL-SE), I am writing to request your participation in a study of an early literacy intervention for kindergarten classrooms. REL-SE is working with the Mississippi Department of Education to implement and evaluate this program, called PAVEd for Success, or PAVE. PAVE, developed by researchers at the University of Georgia, was specifically designed to help promote children’s vocabulary skills by supporting teachers’ use of a set of strategies known to be associated with an increase in vocabulary. The study is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education and will begin just prior to the start of the 2008-2009 school year.

Recent research suggests that early oral language, vocabulary, and other pre-literacy skills are related to later reading skills, including reading comprehension. Thus, the overall goal of the PAVE program is to enhance children’s vocabulary knowledge in the critical kindergarten year as a foundation for later literacy development. Our planned study is intended to examine the effect of the PAVE intervention on: 1) teacher practices in the classroom and 2) student’s vocabulary development.

If you choose to take part in the study, we will provide you with training in how to use PAVE research-based classroom practices to promote children’s vocabulary development; in-classroom support; and instructional materials, including books and lesson-related activities, developed in line with the Mississippi kindergarten curriculum. Depending on your school, you may receive the one-day PAVE training in the summer of 2008 or in the summer of 2009.

During the 2008-2009 school year, we will visit your classroom to conduct one classroom observation in the fall and one in the spring; record a 20-minute segment of a literacy lesson; ask you to fill out a brief questionnaire on demographic characteristics and teaching experience, and conduct child assessments on a sample of children randomly selected from your classroom whose parents have consented to their participation. In the following year (school year 2009-2010), we may observe your classroom once again in the fall.

Your participation will greatly assist our understanding of the PAVE intervention and its effects on children’s vocabulary development. We believe that you will benefit from receiving the PAVE training and curriculum-related books and materials, and will find the study interesting. We will contact you by telephone within the next two weeks to answer any questions you may have and to encourage your participation. However if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to contact either Dr. Joan McLaughlin (Principal Investigator for the study), Dr. Paula Schwanenflugel (the developer of PAVE) or me at your earliest convenience (800/755-3277). Thank you for considering this opportunity, and we look forward to talking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Ludy van Broekhuizen, Executive Director

SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Joan McLaughlin, Principal Investigator

Abt Associates, Inc

Paula Schwanenflugel, Professor

University of Georgia

/Enclosures

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