Story Talk - Interactive Book Reading Program

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Description of Program

The intervention model focuses on training teachers in book reading and oral language strategies. Teachers are provided with prop boxes that include books, concrete objects that represent target words in the books and lesson plans. The props and books are used as part of the book reading and oral language activities. Teacher training lasts 15 weeks while the skills and reading strategies are incorporated into the daily classroom activities throughout the school year. The specific training components are described below.

Book Reading Training: Teachers are trained in three areas of the book reading module: (a) asking questions, (b) building vocabulary, and (c) making connections. In asking questions, teachers are trained to ask open-ended questions that elicit more than one-word (yes/no) answers from the children. In building vocabulary and making connections, the teachers are taught to introduce key words before reading the story and to show children a concrete object (from the prop box or in the classroom) that represents the key words.

Teachers are trained to ask the children questions such as, "What is this?" or "What do you call this?". These questions are followed with conversation builders such as, "What can I do with this?" or "What do you know about this?". Teachers are also trained to ask questions as they read the story to promote discussion. After reading the story, teachers ask questions that allow the children to reflect on the story such as, "What was the part of the story that you liked best?". Teachers are provided with example open-ended questions that relate to the story; however, once comfortable with the story and the strategy, teachers develop their own questions that encourage the children to talk about the book.

As noted earlier, teachers are given prop boxes that contain story books with target key words, concrete objects that relate to the books and key words, a book of pictures with the key words, and lesson plans with suggested art and center activities that relate to the specific topic or theme of the prop box. Teachers are advised to change the theme each week.

Oral Language Training: The oral language training is designed to train teachers how to use conversational strategies that promote multiple opportunities to speak, to actively listen, and to use a varying vocabulary. There are three parts of the oral language module: (a) practicing and promoting active listening, (b) modeling rich language, and (c) providing feedback.

During the active listening component, teachers are trained to listen to what children say by directing their attention to the children, to patiently wait for the child to speak, and to respond in a meaningful way. The teachers are taught to acknowledge what the child said and try to extend the child's language about the concept about which the child was talking. For example, if a child says, "I see a dog." The teacher can respond, "Yes, you see a big black dog. What is the dog doing?". Further, if the teacher uses active listening, this teaches children to also be active listeners.

In the modeling rich language component, teachers are trained to expand their use of vocabulary and to provide elaborate explanations and descriptions of common activities and events. For example, instead of saying "the glue is on the table" the teacher would be trained to say something more descriptive, such as "the glue is on the round table next to the scissors."

In the providing feedback component, teachers are trained in three explicit strategies promoting children's language. One strategy is using "informational talk," an elaborated, rich description of common classroom activities. For example, "You are putting the big rectangular block on the small square block." The next strategy is to expand on the children's language. For example, if a child says "I built a house." The teacher replies, "Yes, you built a house using 10 blocks." The last strategy is to ask questions that encourage the children to use their language skills. Similar to the open-ended questions in the book reading module, teachers are encouraged to ask children questions such as, "Tell me how you did that?" or "What if..." thereby encouraging conversations with children about relatable, everyday occurrences.