Pedagogical Framework of Say Say Oh Playmate The pedagogical framework is based upon the following principles: Using Everyday Experiences to Teach Sight Vocabulary Making Instruction Culturally Responsive Providing Contextualized Guidance Motivating through meaningful goals Just in time contextualized guidance Learning through failure Opportunities for creative expression Using Everyday Experiences to Teach Sight Vocabulary One way to teach children about the relationship between written and oral language is to help them build a sight vocabulary that includes the words in their oral vocabulary. As children develop a sight vocabulary, the connection between written and oral language becomes clearer since each word in their sight vocabulary represents a word in their oral vocabulary. Making Instruction Culturally Responsive Learning is most efficient when students can draw from their own experiences when trying to learn new knowledge and skills. Often, instructional strategies and materials do not reflect the needs of minority groups. MEDAL's approach addresses the low motivation and low achievement in reading associated with minority students by making their familiar everyday experiences the foundation of instruction. Say Say Oh Playmate was developed especially for young African-American girls whose knowledge of clapping songs and routines allows great opportunity for teaching reading skills. Another MEDAL application, Rappin’ Reader targets African-American boys. Providing Contextualized Guidance Say Say Oh Playmate’s friendly guide, Sam, helps students complete tasks when help is needed. Her hints and feedback on students’ actions are specially designed to use appropriate teaching strategies. She acts as a coach who gently pushes students to discover their own errors. When students have difficulty recognizing a particular word, she can give aural cues, phonemic hints, and spelling hints. Contextualized guidance can give the specific help students need without out having to give students the answer. Motivating through meaningful goals The most effective learning occurs when students are motivated by goals they care about. In Say Say oh Playmate, a young girl named Sam, invites the student to join a neighborhood clapping troupe. A few of the younger kids on the block need to learn some new songs, and Sam asks the student to do the job. The student picks song she likes, then puts together the lyrics and clap patterns for the "learners" to follow. Just in time contextualized guidance Students will benefit most from guidance if it is given right after making a mistake. When a student has trouble recognizing the correct word for a lyric, Sam provides aural cues, phonemic hints, and spelling hints. For example, if the student incorrectly places the word play instead of playmate, Sam would focus on the phoneme pl, and suggest that the student find other words that have the pl sound. Learning through failure To teach the song lyrics to the learners, the student must "write" the lyrics on the sidewalk in chalk. All the words, plus some distractor words, are written on leaves, with which the student must "reconstruct" each line of the song by arranging leaves in order. To remind the student of the lyrics she already knows, Sam sings the line. More importantly, she also sings the lyrics as reflected in the student’s arrangement of the leaves. When the student discovers a mismatch between the lyrics she has arranged and the sound of the lyrics, the student realizes her mistake and can then try to fix it. Opportunities for creative expression Learning opportunities in Say Say Oh Playmate extend beyond reconstructing known clap routines. With help from the electronic dictionary, the recorder, and from Sam, students can create their own versions of clap routines. These can be uploaded to the Say Say Oh Playmate web site for other students to enjoy!