Oral Language Project Boosts Preschoolers' Vocabulary in St. Louis

During the 2013-­­14 school year, pre-­­K teachers in the St. Louis Public Schools participated in a pilot project, co-sponsored by NYU's Steinhardt School and the Albert Shanker Institute, designed to increase the oral language development of their students. Using an engaging set of fiction and non-­­fiction books, the teachers introduced new vocabulary to the children, built lessons around topics in science and social studies and watched as children began to incorporate the new words into their own play. The project is informing pre-­­K teachers’ practice across the district and serves as a model for other schools looking to create language-­­ and content-­­rich early-­­childhood classrooms. To learn more about this initiative read the paper below, from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.