Explicit Support for Oral Language Development

The Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and Teacher Handbook provides support for oral language development in the following ways:

Langauge of Instruction

Each content area chapter contains a section entitled "Language of Instruction" containing sample vocabulary terms that knowledgeable and competent individuals generally use to talk about the given subject. Although not exhaustive, the lists provide a starting point—a suggested sampling of the precise vocabulary to which young children should be exposed.

For instance, effective teachers use vocabulary such as "color," "artist," "museum," "creativity," paint," and "technique" when talking with young children about visual arts.

A Comprehensive Oral Language Chapter

The "Oral Language" chapter of the Preschool Sequence includes a comprehensive list of skills and guidelines for language stimulation, and support strategies to help teachers foster children's oral language skills.

Oral Language Skills Distributed Across Content Areas

Each content area chapter contains a subset of the oral language skills that have been selected for their alignment with the content in these chapters.

For instance, oral language skills in the "Mathematical Reasoning" chapter include naming specific colors and using specific sensory attributes and spatial words.

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