| Working one-on-one with these preschoolers, Jumpstart is making a difference in each child's life of engagement and learning in preschool. Research has shown that critical periods of learning start when we are children. Preschoolers, specifically, need attentive adults to help facilitate their learning. It is more difficult for children in low-income environments to enter kindergarten prepared to succeed due to various factors affecting their lives and learning. Children in low-income environments are statistically not up to the learning level compared with mid-income children. Interviews with teachers also prove that the teachers' desires to meet the needs of all the children are difficult due to the fact that the teacher to child ratio is not large enough. Research only proves how difficult it is for low-income preschoolers to enter kindergarten prepared to succeed. The need for attention and adult facilitators in learning is a factor that affects young children's future. Jumpstart is a school readiness program that tries to focus on these at-risk children and help prepare them for their very first days at school. In the Jumpstart site at Madison we have a site manager, team leaders, Corps members, volunteer coordinator, and research facilitators. There are four Jumpstart teams composed of a team leader and five or more Corps members. These four teams are stationed at three different preschool centers in Madison. At these sites, the Corps members are paired up with a preschool child where the Corps member works one-on-one with a preschool child and focus on emergent language and literacy skills. Children are picked by the preschool teachers and evaluated to see if they may need extra attention and help. Then parents give consent for the preschool child to participate in the program and the one-on-one attention from Jumpstart begins. I am a Corps member. Two times a week for a total of four hours at the preschool center, I engage in one-on-one learning with my partner child Zachary2 in what is called a Jumpstart session. Every activity that we do in the session incorporates what we call the School Success Outcomes. The School Success Outcomes are the Jumpstart curriculum in which the Corps members incorporate to improve our partner-child's success in learning. For example, the first activity my partner-child and I do in session is sign into his own little notebook where he practices writing letters and emergent writing. The School Success Outcome is "Beginning Writing." I still remember the first time my partner-child wrote the letter Z in his name. He looked at me with sparkling eyes and a great huge smile. "I did it!" Next, all of the preschool children in the Jumpstart program and the Corps members join the team leader in what is called circle time. During circle time, we sit in a circle and learn songs and interact with other Corps member and their partner child. We go through the Jumpstart routines and introduce group activities that incorporate more School Successes. Finally, the team leader introduces a book and helps the preschool children transition into reading time. For one-on-one reading, my partner-child and I read for 10 to 15 minutes. This is where Zachary and I go pick out books and sit in a corner of our own. My partner usually picks out books about trains and cars. I use the Dialogic Method to read to Zachary. This method is where I point to the words while reading and ask open-ended questions about what is occurring in the story. My partner-child gets really excited and sometimes takes the book away from me and start to "read" the book to me while asking me questions. This is a great model for progressing in one of our School Successes, Knows How the Books Work. Zachary knows that there are print on the page and actually is pointing to the words even though he does not know how to say the words. After one-on-one reading, the Corps member and their partner-child are transitioned to go "make a plan" in their notebooks. During this process, the child draws or "writes" down what they would like to do for what is called choice time. During this process, the Corps members implement writing, making choices, and many other School Success Outcomes. Next, the child and their Corps members go and do what the child wrote down or other activities. At the end of the day, the parents come to pick up the preschool children. When Zachary's mom comes in, his face brightens up as he runs to embrace his mother. I would ask him, "Zachary, tell your mom what you read today." He answered, "Clifford!" I would then ask, "What did Clifford do?" He said, "Fire!" Clifford was a fire dog. This part of the session is called "recall." We help the child tell his or her guardian what he or she did that day in Jumpstart. After the Jumpstart preschoolers are picked up to go home, the Corps members plan their next session and incorporate more School Successes to help the preschool children implement more learning. These Jumpstart sessions are the intervention that makes a major life impact on the preschoolers' future. Jumpstart is a non-profit school readiness program that is recently serving 22 states and 60 sites all over the nation. In 1993, Jumpstart started with two Yale students, Aaron Lieberman and Rebbecca Weintraub. These two students were working at a camp with children and noticed that the bond between the children and themselves and other adults were growing. After camp came to an abrupt stop, these two students were empowered to continue the bond between the children and the adults. This is when Jumpstart started. From the dorms of the students to the outskirts of the nation, Jumpstart has sparked so many preschoolers' lives. Looking to the future, I know that Jumpstart and teachers have a great goal ahead of them. So every time I read the quote, I know that our work is never done because we "work towards the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed." Phueng Cha can be reached at phuengcha@wisc.edu. |
| Spark a Life in Madison Jumpstart's impact by Phueng Cha |
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| "Jumpstart's goal is to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed." (Jumpstart1) Now replace the word Jumpstart with your name. Inspiring, isn't it? Every time I read this quote I am reminded of the reason why I am involved in the program. Jumpstart is a new program in Madison this year and it has been eliciting emergent learning in the Madison community. This school readiness program focuses on the diverse communities of low-income preschoolers -- who are most likely to enter kindergarten significantly less prepared than their peers. |
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