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Cambridge Little Steps is the perfect preparation for Cambridge Primary Path!
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Cambridge Little Steps
Cambridge Little Steps is a three-level English language and early literacy course that starts to prepare very young learners for a future full of opportunities.
The course has a unique combination of three learning pillars, which helps children take important little steps towards developing the skills needed for successful language learning. A focus on early literacy, oracy and creativity means children can communicate, collaborate and express themselves confidently, laying the groundwork for their next step into primary. Explore beautiful stories with your learners that develop rich, natural vocabulary, along with emotional competencies and values. In each unit, there’s a Big Question to investigate from a variety of angles.
Product Details
Authors: Gabriela Zapiain
CEFR Levels: A0Key Features
Prepare your young learners to start reading and writing, by working on pre-literacy skills through illustrated stories and phonics.Get children used to communicating confidently with their peers and adults, by developing their verbal and nonverbal skills.Start to develop problem solvers, with activities that encourage children to explore ideas, work together and express themselves creatively.Cambridge Little Steps is part of a learning experience that could only come from Cambridge
It's shaped by unique insights from our extensive research and expertise, all to enable teachers to do what they do best - teach - and learners to reach their full potential.
Insights
Pedagogy you can trustWhat skills do learners need to reach their full potential in the 21st century? Together with education experts at the University of Cambridge, and pedagogy researchers at Cambridge University Press we developed a unique programme based on three learning pillars - literacy, oracy, creativity - that helps young students achieve that.
A literacy-based approach
There is compelling evidence that phonics instruction, combined with love of reading are essential in developing reading skills.
"Young learners need to experience different genres of texts, particularly stories so that they see that the ultimate purpose of reading is meaning-based, rather than breaking the code."Developing creative minds
Creativity is not just a domain of Arts. An organised program of creative activities can promote engagement, concentration, ability to view topics from various angles and resilience across schooll subjects. It develops students’ lateral thinking, improves problem-solving skills and makes learning enjoyable.
A unique early oracy program
Oracy research tells us that direct focus on oracy skills, including physical, congitive, social as well as linguistics aspects, improve children's academic attainment. In order to develop very young learners' communicative confidence, teaching needs to focus on voice projection, body posture, eye contact and active listening skills alongside language development.
Content
Emergent literacy and communicative competencyUnlike traditional English programs, Cambridge Little Steps offers a systematic approach to teaching confident communication and preparing very young learners to read and write in a way that nurtures creative thinking.
Develop oracy skills for confident communication.
A unique program designed with a Faculty of Education, Cambridge University focuses on developing students' confidence and strategies to convey this confidence when speaking in English:
- A dedicated oracy lesson in the Pupil's Book and oracy activities in the Teacher Edition for every unit,
- Activities to practice posture, active listening, eye contact, voice projection, in presentation and team work contexts,
- Ground rules activities remind children of good oracy practice in every lesson.
Nurture creativity
Children are naturally creative and playful but these qualities are easily lost if not nurtured. Cambridge Little Steps nurtures lateral thinking with a structured program of creative activities:
- Creative drama
- Music and Games
- Imaginative activities that invite students to demonstrate cognitive flexibility, analytical skills, imagination and curiosity.
Language and literacy for success in school
Cambridge Little Steps exposes students to natural language in the context of best practices from an L1 emergent literacy approach. This, combined with EFL language support help students start to read and write naturally:
- Literature in every unit immerses students in language that features high frequency and more challenging words,
- Systematic phonics work in Phonics Book prepares for writing,
- Dialogic reading activities with every story help deeper understaning of the text,Â
- Scaffolded language and grammar support help children deal with new language,Â
- Pre- and post reading strategies
Enjoyment of learning
Games, videos and story animations captivate children's imagination and enhance learning.
- Captivating videos introduce the unit's Big Question,
- Animated stories delight children and help them engage with reading texts,
- Presentation Plus includes the videos, animations plus interactive routine posters and games for every unit to reinforce language.
Investigating Big Questions and basic concepts
Investigation is a key part of learning. Through Big Questions, Concepts, CLIL and Numeracy students investigate unit topics more deeply.
- At the start of every unit a short video introduces an intriguing Big Question. This sets the theme and context for the unit. Throuhgout the unit students explore the question from a variety of angles as they read, talk and gather information before reflecting on what they learnt with a Project.
- Concepts and CLIL lessons help students understand basic ideas and language needed to understand other subjects, for example shapes, size, comparison.
- Numeracy lessons and Numeracy Book introduce children to numbers 1 to 100.
Results
Confident communicators with inquiring mindsThanks to the unique combination of three learning pillars – early literacy, early oracy and creativity – children begin to gain skills needed to become confident and effective communicators with inquiring minds, who can think laterally and make the most of life’s opportunities in the 21st century.
Confident start to reading and writing
Students start learning to read before progressing towards reading to learn. They develop:
- Print and phonological awareness,Â
- Alphabet knowledge,Â
- Rich vocabulary and narrative skills,
- Appreciation for literature
in order to master basic skills necessary to start reading and writing, appreciating texts, and applying knowledge.
Confident communicators
Focus on developing early oracy skills means students start to communicate in English with confidence. They develop language and qualities such as self-confidence, empathy, self-awareness and resilience needed for communicate effectively. Students are able to project their voice, speak clearly, convey confidence through posture, listen attentively and respond to others - key skills that will benefit them at every step of education and beyond.
Confident learners and confident teachers
Students enjoy learning with plentiful opportunities to apply imagination to open tasks based on arts and crafts. They are also better prepared for school thanks to numeracy programme and knowledge of basic math and science concepts.
Teachers have all the support they need to enjoy teaching.
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From the
World of Better LearningHow to teach remotely with Cambridge Little Steps Posted by Emily White This week we continue our ‘how to’ guides series to support teachers working with our course …
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