Building Language for Literacy Plus

Project ExCEL (Excellence in Cultivating Early Literacy) is an Early Reading First project (U.S. Department of Education) funded for $1 million per year for three years starting October 1, 2005. The Building Language for Literacy Plus (BLL+) curriculum provides systematic, intensive, and on-going training to the staff of full-day classrooms of five high-quality Head Start programs (13 classrooms at 11 sites) in Oregon through a blend of two strong research-based programs: Building Language for Literacy (BLL) (Scholastic, Inc.) and Tools of the Mind (TOM) (Leong, 2004). BLL+ integrates the research-based best practices in literacy development with those in the development of self-regulation and effortful control, to assure that effective literacy content instruction is well implemented. Training on BLL+ gives teachers the skills to use a variety of effective instructional strategies, such as the use of explicit alphabetic instruction in one-on-one interactions through scaffolding. BLL+ training also includes the effective use of screening and on-going assessment data to individualize instruction, the development of print-rich environments, among other topics.

Educators receive intensive, on-going training, technical assistance, and support through annual institutes (6 days per year), site visits from a literacy coach (3 visits per month), videoconference meetings, and electronic communications, materials and resources. Extensive use of videotape analysis of classroom instruction is used as a key instructional strategy. Multi-method, quasi-experimental research (using 5 comparison classrooms) is being conducted to provide evidence of the project’s effectiveness.

For more information contact Steffen Saifer, Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator (saifers@nwrel.org) or Lena Ko, Project Manager (kol@nwrel.org) of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.