Every Child Ready

The SEEDS of Learning model hinges upon the creation and maintenance of relationship-rich environments with positive interactions between adults and students. SEEDS is an acronym for Sensitivity, Encouragement, Education, Development of Skills through Doing, and Self-Image Support that provides the roadmap for high-quality intentional interactions with students. 

• Sensitivity: Being aware of children’s thoughts, abilities, and feelings through looking, listening, and asking questions.
• Encouragement: Creating a positive learning environment for children through use of intentional affirmations and positive non-verbal communication.
• Education: Children engage in daily routines to develop language and literacy skills, including all the Big 5 early literacy predictive skills, as well as social-emotional skills.
• Development through Doing: Children explore their world through hands-on learning, including conversation, reading, writing, and play interactions.
• Self-Image Support: Children feel loved, respected, and capable because the adults provide a balance of the other four elements.

These qualities are woven into every interaction with students throughout the day, big or small. SEEDS educators are given a toolkit of activities, scripted interactions, and interventions so they can choose the specific strategies that align with each child’s needs. The model first focuses on social-emotional learning and how to build positive relationships with students to set the foundation for safe, trusting relationships between educator and child, and helps mentally prepare students for thinking and learning.

The SEEDS model can be integrated into any early childhood classroom, no matter which curriculum is used, and informs all daily interactions with students. SEEDS classrooms and schedules focus on learning literacy through play as a means of increasing the number of words children hear, the number of words in their vocabulary, and their ongoing ability to use their words to describe the world around them. Teachers create and integrate multiple interactions and activities throughout the day that help students develop the “Big 5” early literacy predictors: oral language and comprehension, phonological memory and awareness, book and print concepts, alphabetic knowledge, and vocabulary and meaning.

These literacy activities are always coupled with quality interactions to help develop warm, positive relationships between teachers and their students. Each day, all students in the classroom can expect to engage in activities such as:

• Strive for 5 conversations: Teachers greet students as they enter the classroom and ask open-ended questions that encourage 5 or more communication exchanges. These conversations provide opportunities for comprehension, vocabulary, and oral language, while also teaching social skills such as eye contact and taking turns.
• Repeated read aloud: Teachers read the same book multiple times. Each day, children hear the full story with a different instructional focus that helps them learn new vocabulary, make predictions, recall information, and watch and hear fluent readers.
• Large group circle: During this time, students gather together to do full-group activities, such as singing literacy-focused songs (Rhyme Song), engaging in the “What is it?” Bag activity (i.e., the teacher pulls theme-related objects out of a bag to support vocabulary, background knowledge, and oral language interactions), or having themed conversations that help children develop and extend their vocabulary and background knowledge (e.g., talking about basketball).
• Sign-in activities: Each student writes their own name – usually with the assistance of an adult – to increase print awareness and letter recognition.
• Transition songs: Students sing songs together that are grounded in early literacy skills, such as rhyming, alliteration, and letter names.

Each daily activity is purposefully chosen to infuse joy, play, and reciprocal engagement between adults and children to help students develop their reading skills.

The SEEDS of Learning model is designed to support all learners. For SEEDS educators, this means understanding individual students’ skills and knowledge by tracking formal and informal data on each student, and providing the necessary scaffolding to help each student build foundational literacy skills. Some students will benefit from Tier 2 interventions that are remedied through small groups and regular progress monitoring. A few students will benefit from Tier 3 intensive one-on-one learning plans.

Instruction in Tiers 2 and 3 builds on the activities and lessons learned during Tier 1 instruction. Because there are fewer students, teacher are able to provide more individualized support to students as they learn the target skill. Scripts with introductions, group and individual practice, and corrections are provided to teachers to help them chunk lessons with fidelity.

During Tier 2 and 3 instruction, teachers focus on a smaller skill within one of the Big 5 literacy predictors. Students engage in different activities based on their current skill level. For example, for phonological awareness, the teacher might be targeting rhyming as the skill for the day. After singing a rhyming song together, a student might match two words that sound alike (e.g., “you” and “shoe”) by giving a thumbs up or down if they match or not. A second student, who has already mastered matching, might point to pictures that sound the same at the end, and a third student might be asked to say two words that rhyme.

Tier 3 interventions are intended to be one-on-one for 5–10 minutes each day. These interventions may take place before or after school hours, outside during recess, or during play centers, and may include family support. Teachers use intervention scripts that focus on students’ individual needs. Tier 3 intervention activities and scripts are often very similar to Tier 2, but completed in a one-on-one setting.