Everything a preschool teacher needs to participate in this PLC including: an overview of the sessions, the five-step process for each session, a session schedule, self-study readings, activities to complete during and between sessions, slides with space to take notes, reproducible materials, and a glossary.

Everything a facilitator needs to guide a team of preschool teachers through emergent literacy PLC sessions including delivery options, how to prepare for each session, a structured plan for each session, and slides with speaker notes. Given the rich content of emergent literacy instruction addressed in these materials, the ideal facilitator will be an educator with an understanding of emergent literacy, good communication skills, and the ability to relate well to adult learners.

Slides for the facilitator to project during each session. Slides for Sessions 10–12 are included in this PowerPoint presentation.

Video 1: Play-Based Language Interactions

Key Points About the Video

• To prompt a child to say a syntax target:
  • When the teacher's target syntax is time prepositions, she asks "when" questions. When the teacher's target syntax is adverbs, she asks "how" questions. When the teacher's target syntax is location prepositions, she asks "where" questions.
  • When the teacher's target syntax is the conjunction or, she repeatedly asks "which one" will you "choose." Forced choice is used as a scaffold only when the children are unable to produce the target on their own.
  • When the children are drawing, the teacher asks, "How are you drawing the rainbow?"
• When a child does not say the syntax target spontaneously, the teacher provides a forced choice. For example, "How are you drawing—quickly or slowly?" The teacher can also model the response and have the child repeat.
• To ensure that the language interactions stay play-based, the teacher inserts herself into interactions that are already taking place between the children. Interactions included block center, drawing time, and science center. She even follows their lead in those interactions.
• Children with average to above-average language skills will benefit from play-based language interactions and will typically not need more explicit instruction. Children with below-average language skills may need more explicit support through small-group instruction and more frequent opportunities to practice language.

Video 2: Small-Group Explicit Instruction (Sequencing)

Key Points About the Video

• Not all children need small-group explicit syntax instruction. Children who have below average language skills will benefit most from small-group explicit syntax instruction. Most children with average or above-average language skills make appropriate progress from consistent experiences with modeling and play-based interactions without the explicit and systematic small-group instruction.
• The teacher doesn't use the parts of speech labels (noun or verb) because the children don't need to know the parts of speech labels as much as they need to know the purpose and how to use those parts of speech in sentences.
• The teacher emphasizes the correct word, missing word, or the correct way to say the word. She doesn't explicitly point out the error or tell children that they are wrong. For example, when the girl says, "The girl jump in the pool," the teacher repeated the sentence with correct verb conjugation. She said, "The girl jumps in the pool."
• The teacher could scaffold instruction for a child who was able to get the three puzzle words in the correct order and then make a sentence.. For example, if the child got bike, ask, and mouse, the teacher could say, "What did the bike do?" After the child says "ask," the teacher could ask, "Who did the bike ask?" This should prompt the child to say, "the mouse." Then the teacher should put all the words together into a sentence and have the child repeat the sentence after the teacher: "The bike asked the mouse." The teacher also will stress that this sentence doesn't make sense or is silly.

Video 3: Engaging in Multiturn Conversations

Key Points About the Video

• The teacher restated and expanded on children's utterances.
  • A child could not write with a pencil at the writing center, and another child said it needed to be sharpened. The teacher expanded the child's sentence by saying, "It needs to be sharpened. It is dull."
  • During transition to play time a child who has difficulty with language described how she was going to play on the slide. The teacher confirmed what she said and restated it in a complete sentence: "That's true! You can go and sit on the slide and go down the slide and go whee!"
• The teacher encouraged a child to say more about a topic. During arrival time a child talks about how her mom did her hair, and the teacher asked, "Then what happened?" The teacher also commented, "Daddy brushed your hair. Oh, Mommy brushed your hair!"
• At the sand center the teacher assistant asked open-ended questions: Where have you seen sand before? What do you do with sand at the beach?
• Peer-to-peer language interaction opportunities were facilitated. The teacher provided plastic tracks for children to put together during outside play time. The teacher asked, "Can you tell Camille how you put it together?" and "Do you want to hear his idea?" Also, at the sand center the teacher assistant said, "Lewis, use your words and ask Sean, 'Can I get the green one?'" and "Tell Shannon what you are going to do with your sand."
• Conversations occurred in multiple contexts such as outside, transitions, and centers.

Video 4: Interactive Reading

Key Points About the Video

• The teacher prepares for interactive reading by reviewing multiple books that are both expository and narrative. All the books are connected to her classroom theme. The teacher writes down questions related to the target skill that she could ask during the read-aloud.
• When planning for interactive reading, the teacher should consider the classroom theme, key concepts about the theme, and the network of words created around that theme.
• The teacher focuses on cause and effect. Many expository books lend themselves to teaching cause and effect. This book about germs making you sick clearly has a cause for sickness (i.e., germs), and that concept is reiterated many times throughout the book.
• The teacher asks an effect question simply. Then after the children have answered, she says, "Yes, you're sharing your germs when you drink your cousin's soda. Sharing your germs is the effect. Effect is something that happens after you do something. Everyone say effect." She introduces the term effect and has the children repeat it. She does the same thing for cause. Another example occurs when the teacher asks, "What causes cavities?" She responds to the children by saying, "Germs in our mouth cause cavities. Cavities happen because there are bacteria in your mouth. If we don't get the germs out of our mouth, the effect would be cavities."
• After the interactive reading lesson the teacher evaluates how the children responded to the book and concepts being taught. Teachers should ask themselves–was the book too long or too short; were the children engaged; was the information too complex or too simple; and the like. This will help in planning the next lesson.

Video 5: Listening Comprehension (Story Circle)

Key Points About the Video

• The teacher led instruction by explaining and modeling what was expected. She led a discussion about the story grammar (characters, setting, problem, solution) of a book she read aloud to them the previous day.
• The teacher scaffolded instruction by asking, "Where was the character? Where was the caterpillar?" She went to a specific part in the book (the setting). She asked if the leaf was inside the house. Children were then able to determine the setting was outside.
• The teacher supported peer-to-peer interaction by reminding the children whose turn it was to tell a story and modeling good listening skills. She encouraged taking turns talking and listening.
• The teacher modeled and encouraged attentive listening by reminding the children that good listeners pay attention to and look at the speaker. The teacher modeled attentive listening.
• The teacher retold the children's stories and asked follow-up questions that included "What else happened?" and "What kind of food did you butterfly like to eat most?" The teacher also started a reluctant child's story by saying, "Start with once upon a time…" The children also knew that the teacher was listening because she remarked on the big word a child used and restated parts of the story during pauses.