Fewer than half of Maryland children show readiness in language and early literacy domains when starting Kindergarten. We have been funded by the Unites States Office of Education to tackle this problem. To help solve this problem, we developed EA-SHELLS (Early Achievements-Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills). EA-SHELLS is designed to strengthen children’s language-based literacy skills through teachers’ delivery of high-quality, evidence-based instructional strategies.
EA-SHELLS was developed in collaboration with pre-K teachers over the course of three years. Teachers easily learned the EA-SHELLS strategies and their pre-K students showed significant improvement in just four months. Now, we are starting a project that will tell us whether children learn faster when their teacher is trained to use the EA-SHELLS strategies compared to when their teacher does not receive such training.
Teachers already have access to excellent approaches that enable children to ‘break the code’ of letters combined to form words. This is called decoding and involves skills such as alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness.
But decoding skills are not enough to become a competent reader. Children also must develop skills that enable them to understand the meaning of words, sentences, and stories that we read to them. Yet there is a gap in proven approaches for teaching these language-based literacy skills to pre-K children. EA-SHELLS is designed to fill this gap. EA-SHELLS is designed to strengthen the four main language-based skills pre-K children need to become successful readers. EA-SHELLS is for pre-K children with and without language delay.
In the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years, we will invite about 60 teachers of inclusive pre-K classrooms and their students to join this research study. Teachers will be randomly (like by a toss of a coin) placed in one of two groups. Teachers assigned to the Teacher Training group will learn the EA-SHELLS instructional approach for teaching early language and literacy skills in group activities (book reading and play). Each week a professional from Kennedy Krieger Institute will coach those teachers. Teachers in the Quick Training group will receive a short version of the training (one workshop and two coaching sessions) about four months after starting the study. By comparing the outcomes of these two groups of teachers and their students, we will learn whether teachers’ use of EA-SHELLS strategies for four months results in greater language-based literacy learning in pre-K children.
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You will receive:
Children will receive:
You will:
Yes! Teachers in both groups should continue to use their curriculum. EA-SHELLS is not a curriculum. It is a set of instructional strategies that may be embedded in any curriculum. Teachers in the EA-SHELLS group also will use evidence-based strategies, drawn from the science of learning, during book sharing and play activities.
Any early childhood educator/provider in inclusive classrooms having students with and without language delays between approximately 3 years, 9 months and 5 years, 5 months of age may be eligible to participate. Programs may include public and private classroom-based child care, Head Start, preschool and pre-K programs. Teachers do not have to be certified to be eligible. We are not able to enroll family child care programs in the project at this time.
EA-SHELLS will run through the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years. Each set of teachers will be in the study for about four months. During EA-SHELLS training, we ask EA-SHELLS Training group teachers to use the EA-SHELLS strategies twice a week during book sharing and a book-related play activity. Teachers in both groups will be asked to complete some questionnaires during the study.
Yes.
Yes. Teachers who complete the project will receive $300. Teachers also receive books and book-related props.
No. EA-SHELLS is for inclusive classrooms where children with and without language delay are enrolled. Our collaborative coaches and specialists have unique expertise in inclusive education and meeting the needs of diverse learners. It is our goal to promote and support high-quality educational environments for all children.
To learn more about this research study, please complete our interest survey. After we receive your information, we will reach out via email to tell you more about the EA-SHELLS project and answer any questions you might have.
Yes. Please complete our interest survey and let us know your role and number of classrooms/teachers. We will then connect with you to learn more about your context.
