Exploring a World of Words

Photograph by David Sherman

A zigzag found in a picture book presents numerous opportunities for children. They can walk in a zigzag pattern, draw it, find the funny shape in the alphabet, and try to detect it in ordinary objects. In St. Paul, where more than 300 preschool youngsters are enrolled in a pilot program called Words Work, words like zigzag are the center of attention.

The program, administered by the Saint Paul Foundation in cooperation with two charities, aims to excite children about the world of words and give them the building blocks for reading. Focusing on a different book each week, literacy lessons are incorporated into a wide variety of classroom activities by teachers who are trained in the program, and those lessons are reinforced in home visits by literacy experts with parents each month.

More than half of the students, many from immigrant families, know little or no English when they start Words Work, which is operated in 10 Head Start classrooms. By the time they graduate, they can identify and write at least 13 letters of the alphabet, write their names, call out different shapes, and count to 10 with an understanding of the value of each number. They also learn to handle a book — from identifying where the title is to knowing that reading goes from left to right.

The kids start kindergarten as “confident learners,” says Claire J. Chang, a senior program officer at the Saint Paul Foundation. “They feel good about being in school.”

The program’s expenses — approximately $750,000 annually — are met largely by the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, also in St. Paul, and the Saint Paul Foundation.

Here, Chue Yeng, a Hmong child, proudly displays his writing under a sample provided by his teacher for him to copy.