StoryFriendsClassroomKitExcerpt.pdf

Program Overview

What Is Story Friends?

Story Friends™ is a research-based, supplemental Tier 2 intervention program for use in preschool

and kindergarten classrooms. The program includes interactive storybooks and audio recordings

used together to develop vocabulary, concepts, and comprehension skills. At small group listening

centers, children listen to recorded stories and lessons that encourage interactive responses. During

each 10- to 15-minute session, children listen to a story, engage in vocabulary activities, and respond

to comprehension questions that promote critical thinking.

Story Friends Is Easy and Fun to Implement in Your Classroom!

The Story Friends program is designed to work in the preschool or kindergarten classroom by fitting

into a typical early childhood schedule and requiring minimal advanced preparation—the instruction

is all prerecorded. Simply add the program to your daily center rotation or small group time. Children

will enjoy the stories, likable characters, and colorful illustrations.

Story Friends Employs Best Practices to Accelerate Skills Development

Children who participate in Story Friends develop oral language skills and acquire challenging

vocabulary. They also practice listening comprehension by responding to questions about stories and

characters to help develop their critical thinking skills. In addition to vocabulary growth, children gain

experience with academic activities common in preschool and kindergarten settings that employ best practices for learning.

Skills Best Practices

Research Base

Children’s Vocabulary Acquisition

for Story Friends

Using the Jungle Friends Series

Although Story Friends has wide appeal to

young children, the embedded lessons in the

stories are designed to promote language development among children who are at risk

for reading difficulties due to underdeveloped oral language skills. Thus, the research focused

on the effects of the program on vocabulary

and oral language development with at-risk

prekindergarten populations. Also, teachers have implemented this curriculum with

kindergarten children who are exhibiting delays in oral language development with good

success.

Number of Words Mastered

■ Nonparticipants
■ Participants

Before Series
After Series

From Research to Practice

Years of research show and experts agree on how curriculum best meets the needs of early childhood

Preschool Developmental and Programmatic Needs Story Friends Delivers
Language skills Program vocabulary words with picture supports in each storybook provide child-friendly definitions, multiple opportunities to say the words and definitions, meaning from context, and examples from daily experiences.
Comprehension, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills Inferential questions from each story challenge children to think critically and problem solve. Intervention lessons model responses, and think-alouds explain reasoning.
Listening skills Small group listening centers provide opportunities to practice listening skills; visual cues guide children to stay on task and focus their attention.
Phonological awareness Rhyming story text facilitates learning of an important aspect of phonological awareness.
Concepts of print Explicit instruction guides children to follow the words of a book's title, turn pages, point to elements in images, and manipulate book flaps on cue.
Social-emotional development A recurring cast of characters fosters children's social awareness and develops their sense of empathy as they relate to everyday occurrences and social situations.
Explicit teaching and modeling Child-friendly vocabulary definitions are stated explicitly, and modeling and think-alouds provide context and examples of reasoning for appropriate responses.
Multiple exposures to new vocabulary and language Children receive four vocabulary and two concept words lessons, as well as guided instruction on three comprehension questions, for a total of nine explicit lessons for each 10- to 15-minute Listening Center session.
Repeated readings Children listen to each storybook three times to ensure multiple exposures to instruction.
Recursive instruction Intervention lessons model and guide the acquisition of language skills. Children can listen to other responses and have time to reflect on their own, and children can try out new learning during individual progress monitoring opportunities.
Assessments Children's progress is monitored during Listening Center sessions to ensure that listening and responding occur appropriately. Individually administered assessments evaluate acquisition of vocabulary and concept words.
Professional development Teachers have access to multimedia modules to ensure program implementation with fidelity.

Program Components

Student Components

Storybooks

The Story Friends program provides two series of storybooks, Jungle Friends and Forest Friends.

The Story Friends storybooks showcase:

Multiple Opportunities for Practice

The Story Friends program is designed to promote active responding. Children participate by answering
questions, pointing to pictures, lifting flaps, and using gestures during pantomime activities.

Audio Recordings

Vocabulary

Story Friends provides explicit
instruction for embedded vocabulary
within storybooks. High-level
vocabulary develops oral language at
an accelerated pace to get children
on-level. Each vocabulary lesson
includes:

Comprehension

Interactive story questions help
develop critical thinking and
comprehension skills, such as
predicting and inferring. Each
comprehension lesson includes:

Discovery Flaps

Discovery flaps promote natural
curiosity as children respond to

prompts and interact with images.

Explicit Instruction

Wanda the Word Wolf, the program
narrator, appears within storybooks
to indicate explicit instruction at

Teacher Components

Teacher Guide

The Story Friends Teacher Guide provides everything you need to know about the program and its implementation.

Program Implementation

Story Friends supports staff development by providing multimedia Program Implementation Modules. These modules illustrate helpful tips for implementing the program with fidelity, ensuring that children in your classroom get the support they need to help them get on-level.

Friends Story™ USB Content

The Story Friends USB includes the MP3 audio files and full audio scripts that correspond with each of the storybooks. Wanda the Word Wolf narrates each story in the Story Friends series to the children and leads them through the intervention. The USB also contains reproducible and fillable assessment and tracking forms to help monitor children’s progress and log children’s attendance and pacing of program implementation.

Assessment

Assessment

The Story Friends progress monitoring assessments appear in the Teacher Guide and on the USB
and include Unit Vocabulary and Concept Words Assessments.

Implementing Story Friends

An Easy Three-Step Model!

The Story Friends program makes it easy for you to implement its Tier 2 supplemental intervention curriculum in three easy steps:

➊ Identify. ➋ Implement. ➌ Assess.

STEP 1 Identify.

Identify children who will benefit from using Story Friends.

The first step in implementing Story Friends is to identify children in your classroom who will benefit from using the program. These will be children who have limited oral language skills or are demonstrating delays in oral vocabulary and comprehension. Information from universal screening and progress monitoring assessments can be used to identify children who are good candidates for using the Story Friends supplemental curriculum.

STEP 2 Implement.

Implement the intervention at the Listening Center.

The Story Friends intervention is delivered at the Listening Center in 10- to 15-minute sessions. A facilitator—a teacher or another adult such as an assistant teacher, paraprofessional, or parent—is present to guide and monitor children. At the Listening Center, children follow along as they listen to storybooks and participate in interactive vocabulary and comprehension lessons.

STEP 3 Assess.

Administer progress monitoring assessments.

In Story Friends, learning of instructional targets is assessed using curriculum-based measures. There are two measures for vocabulary. Vocabulary acquisition is measured using Unit Vocabulary Assessments, administered after four weeks of instruction, and Concept Words Assessments, administered before and after each book series, Jungle Friends and Forest Friends.

Program Pacing

Story Friends contains 26 storybooks, each used across a five-day period. Children listen to each storybook three times—one listening session on each of the first three days of your week. Repeated readings of each book ensure that children receive multiple exposures to the rich vocabulary and

comprehension instruction.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
1st listen 2nd listen 3rd listen Make-up Make-up

Key Program Elements

Important Components of Story Friends Instruction The Story Friends program provides intensive instruction to maximize children’s learning. Lessons are designed to include multiple exposures to content, explicit teaching and modeling, and many opportunities for engagement and practice.

Focus on Vocabulary, Concepts, and Comprehension

Skill Load Teach Review
Vocabulary Two vocabulary words Two introductory lessons Two review lessons
Concept Words One or two concept words One introductory lesson One review lesson
Comprehension Three comprehension questions Three lessons