Excerpted from Chapter 11 of Beginning Literacy with Language: Young Children Learning at Home and at School, edited by David K. Dickinson, Ed.D., & Patton O. Tabors, Ed.D.

Copyright © 2001 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Our results indicate clear and consistent patterns of relationship between children's language and literacy development and opportunities for children to engage in extended conversations with their teachers and friends throughout the day, to write and learn about varied topics, and to engage in dramatic play with friends. From the maze of correlational data that we have discussed in this chapter, we can distill some lessons about classrooms as learning environments and important dimensions of how teachers work with children.

Classroom Learning Environments

We gained several important insights into how classrooms support children's learning. One lesson is that teachers such as Ann support children's learning throughout the day by using varied vocabulary, challenging them to think, and stimulating their curiosity and imaginations. This means that teachers have an important role to play during informal times such as mealtime and free play as well as during more formal, structured times like book reading and group time. But teachers cannot use the same conversational style throughout the day; they need to make adjustments in how they converse with children. Adjustments are necessary to allow teachers to take advantage of the constraints of different conversational settings. During group times, children benefit when teachers work to keep the group focused, provide children new information, and engage them as a group in thoughtful reflection on books. In group times, teachers need to follow the lead of those such as Ms. Williams, who takes a directive role in determining the content and direction of the conversation while at the same time being responsive to children's questions and comments. In contrast, in less structured settings such as free play and mealtimes, teachers need to emulate the skill of Ann, who is able to listen to children and encourage them to extend their ideas.

A second lesson is that teachers need to be conscious of the important role children can play in supporting each other's language development. We found that the variety of words that children used when speaking with the teacher was a powerful predictor of the later growth of the children in our study. This finding suggests that teachers can create classrooms in which children freely and frequently use a relatively broad range of words as they converse with teachers and each other. We suspect that teachers could do much to raise children's general awareness of the value of using new words and could find creative ways to reinforce children's use of novel words when talking with teachers and with friends. In addition, by allocating sufficient time and providing the space, props, and support that children need to engage in complex dramatic play, teachers can enable children to practice their language skills through play.

We also found that factors that are beyond the control of teachers can have an impact on how they relate to children. Characteristics of classrooms that seemed to pose challenges to teachers include the presence of large numbers of children learning English as a second language and less favorable teacher-child ratios. On the plus side, we found that in full-day programs and programs with better teacher-child ratios, teachers were more able to listen to and extend children's conversations, pointing to the possible benefits that can accompany deeper teacher-child relationships. Although such environmental issues do play a role in shaping the classroom language environments, they do not appear to be of overriding importance. What is of paramount importance is the teacher — how the teacher views his or her role, how he or she converses with children, and the supports he or she provides children for using language and literacy in varied ways.

Teachers and Teaching in Preschool Classrooms

We found strong evidence that teacher-child conversations play an important role in shaping children's language and early literacy development. One key aspect of how teachers work with children is the extent to which they make themselves available to children. Children benefit from having conversations with teachers; therefore, teachers need to organize their classroom day to ensure that they have time to engage children as individuals, as well as in small and large groups, in extended conversations that encourage children to explore new ideas as they clarify and express their own thoughts.

Running through our data is evidence of the need for teachers to make intentional efforts to push children's thinking and support their literacy development as they converse with children throughout the day, plan their classroom day and the content of the curriculum, and organize their classroom environment. For a teacher to provide children optimal supports in all these areas, he or she must have a deep understanding of what children need, skillful ability to provide appropriate experiences throughout the day, and the willingness to expend the energy needed to support children's development all day long. These are the qualities of intentional teaching.

Chapters 7-10 reported findings showing that relatively few teachers currently provide children optimal support for learning across all settings. Overall use of rare vocabulary was quite low as was the frequency of intellectually challenging conversations. Not only do teachers run the risk of failing to stimulate children's thinking and language, but teachers who are not guided by a clear understanding of their role in fostering children's development also are likely to fall back on ways of relating to children that are shaped more by environmental factors and their perceptions of children than by their pedagogical beliefs. For example, we found that teachers' use of varied vocabulary and their inclination to listen to children were affected by a variety of contextual factors. Also, we found some indication that teachers' use of varied vocabulary may be related to the backgrounds of the children in their classrooms. Everyone's conversations are very sensitive to contextual factors: The words people use, the amount they speak, and the complexity of their syntax all reflect unconscious decisions that are shaped by the context. Our findings suggest that teachers need to elevate their awareness of how such factors shape their language use, become conscious of how they converse with children, and strive to engage children consistently in rich conversations.

In closing, in the chapters examining the preschool classroom experiences of the children in our study, we have explored multiple settings and varied dimensions of how teachers relate to children. Our findings make clear that preschool teachers play a vital role in supporting young children's early literacy development and that the strategies needed for fostering optimal growth require considerable sophistication and energy. Unfortunately, our society has yet to recognize and appropriately reward preschool teachers. It is no accident that many of the teachers we studied were not able to demonstrate the type of skillful, intentional. instruction we found to be most beneficial. Few were highly educated, and no doubt many had second jobs and carried heavy responsibilities for caring for children and parents at home. Finally, like so many other preschool teachers, they tended to have little understanding of the developmental nature of early literacy development, of the place of oral language in supporting literacy, or of the critical role they as teachers play in fostering children's long-term language and literacy growth. Our data make clear the pressing need for pre- and in-service training for preschool teachers — training that provides teachers guidance as they strive to foster children's language and literacy development using methods that engage children's natural interests and skills and provide them needed materials, instruction, and encouragement.