Over this last year, I have had the honor to work with some pretty amazing early educators teaching in Head Start programs that serve American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children around the country. Recently I had a conversation with a seasoned teacher about how she combines culture and language development in her classroom. We discussed at length the importance of building solid vocabulary in young learners as well as using stories that accurately represent the Native American cultures of the children we are reading to.
Shared reading of stories from books can help children identify common themes and make associations to cultural experiences. These associations help form relevant connections, which can deepen an understanding of previously unfamiliar words.
There are a wealth of storybooks that provide unlimited exposure to new vocabulary while sharing native cultures. However, it’s important that depictions of Native Americans in books are represented accurately and do not perpetuate negative stereotypes. So, how does a teacher choose books that can culturally enhance the classroom and provide solid vocabulary opportunities?
- Dr. Cathy Gutierrez-Gomez has listed guidelines to help teachers evaluate materials and identified ways for incorporating these ideas classroom practice.
- You’ll also find great resources and information, including a list of American Indian children’s literature and a list of books by age group on the American Indians in Children’s Literature website.
All children can benefit from consistent use of books in the classroom, but this is even more important for young children experiencing poverty. Current research tells us that young children living in poverty will enter school with fewer words than young children from more advantaged backgrounds. Betty Hart, PhD, and Todd R. Risley, PhD's, study found extraordinary disparities between the number of words spoken, as well as the types of messages conveyed, between children from advantaged backgrounds and young children from low-income backgrounds. Children from high-income families were exposed to 30 million more words than children from families living below poverty. Quality books that provide children with opportunities to connect words to their own lives can show them that words can be a useful part of their vocabulary. Uncommon words and their definitions can shape children’s understanding and create wonder about word meanings.
Teachers can take intentional steps to expand children’s vocabularies and evaluate the books they plan on reading. Here is a list of tips that might help you think through how to incorporate novel words into your shared readings:
- Pre-Read – Pre-read the books you have selected. While creating lesson plans think about how you will support the new words you want to teach and how many new words you can introduce.
- Identify – Identify key words from the text and mark those words (use sticky notes). Think about words that are critical to the story but are not necessarily explained in the text.
- Explain – Stop and explain those words to help children deepen their understanding. Brief explanations (one or two sentences) when presented while reading the story can help children make initial connections between new words and their meanings (Biemiller & Boote, 2006)
- Repeat – Think about words that children will continue to encounter and provide opportunities for children to use those words again. Repeated exposure to new words, either within the text of a single book or through repeated readings of the same book, facilitates children’s learning of those words (Elley 1989; Penno et al., 2002; Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Senechal, 1997)
The CLASS tool can provide an important measure of teachers’ interactions in promoting language development. The dimension of Language Modeling provides specific observational opportunities on how that teacher is facilitating and incorporating the use of new words with her students.
Teachers play a critical role in narrowing the 30 million-word gap low-income children face. A language-rich classroom can be an important supplement to the language children hear in their home environment and provide valuable opportunities for children to use and learn new words. Storybooks can be a learning tool in the classroom and valuable resources for sharing native cultures. Teachers need to make thoughtful decisions about the books they are sharing and think about how those books can be best utilized to increase vocabulary.
