Increasing Preschoolers' Vocabulary Development through a Streamlined Teacher Professional Development Intervention [Story Talk book reading with “story maps” vs. book reading without “story maps”]
Wasik, Barbara A.; Hindman, Annemarie H. (2020). Early Childhood Research Quarterly v50 p101-113. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED611720
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examining474Students, gradePK
Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: June 2022
- Practice Guide (findings for Story Talk book reading with "story maps")
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a cluster randomized controlled trial with low cluster-level attrition and individual-level non-response.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test IV (PPVT-IV) |
Story Talk book reading with "story maps" vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
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129.79 |
124.43 |
Yes |
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|
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Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test - 4th Edition (EOWPVT) |
Story Talk book reading with "story maps" vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
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62.00 |
56.58 |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
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Child use of target vocabulary (Wasik et al, 2020) |
Story Talk book reading with "story maps" vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
42.80 |
6.13 |
Yes |
-- | ||
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Taught Words (Wasik et al, 2020) |
Story Talk book reading with "story maps" vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Sub-sample of 10 randomly-selected children, different sample at each timepoint;
|
63.71 |
51.87 |
Yes |
-- | ||
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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6% English language learners -
Female: 50%
Male: 50% -
Urban
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Northeast
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Race Black 83% White 8% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 9% Not Hispanic or Latino 91%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in an urban, high-poverty school district in the Northeast. There were thirty-five general education pre-kindergarten classrooms across fifteen schools included in the study.
Study sample
The age of the children in the fall was fifty-five months. The sample was evenly divided by gender. Six percent of children were dual language learners. Community demographics show that the majority (eighty-three percent) of children are African American, while eight percent are white and nine percent are Hispanic/Latino. In addition, eighty-seven percent of children receive free or reduced lunch, and fifteen percent of children have identified special needs.
Intervention Group
The Story Talk intervention provides whole-class instruction in vocabulary, drawing on book- and play-based activities. Story Talk classrooms are provided with materials, training, and progress monitoring of children, all focused on a series of target words. Story-talk has 10 preschool themes that covers 3-4 weeks of daily instruction. The target words used in story-talk have to be unfamiliar and important for story comprehension. Story maps has 3-4 open prompts that can be used for discussion before reading groups begin. Teachers presented the target words using picture cards and other prompts.
Comparison Group
Teachers in the comparison condition received the same books as the intervention teachers but not the Story Maps. Teachers in the comparison condition attended district professional development instead of group trainings for the same amount of time. Teachers in the comparison condition did not receive the coaching.
Support for implementation
Teachers received four, three-hour sessions of group training distributed across the school year. The training targeted how to implement the Story Maps with fidelity in their classrooms, interpret and use progress monitoring data, effectively encourage conversations with children in order to extend their language and vocabulary, and effectively manage classroom discourse, including through turn taking and active listening. In addition, individualized coaching of teachers was conducted twice per month, including an onsite observation for approximately sixty minutes of the instructional day during teachers’ book reading and center extension activities. The coach videotaped the instruction and used the teacher fidelity measure and field notes to gauge what teachers are doing well and to identify problem areas.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
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A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
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Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).