Goldstein story friends sampler.pdf
Introduction
Story
An Early Literacy Intervention for Improving Oral Language
What Is Story Friends?
Story Friends is the first comprehensive, research-based Tier 2 intervention program designed for 4- to 6-year-olds who need extra help with early language and literacy skills. Through interactive animal-themed storybooks and lively, engaging audio recordings, Story Friends effectively boosts oral language and vocabulary development and teaches children key concepts they need for social and academic success.
How does it work?
At small-group listening centers, in 10- to 15-minute sessions, children listen to recorded stories as they follow along in printed storybooks. Each book has a cast of likeable animal characters and colorful illustrations kids will love. As children listen to the story, the narrator prompts them to interact with the book by participating in vocabulary activities and responding to comprehension questions. This expands children’s early language and literacy skills and promotes critical thinking.
How can busy teachers work Story Friends into their schedule?
Teachers will find it easy to work Story Friends into their everyday classroom routine. A supplemental curriculum that works with any existing program, Story Friends is specially designed to fit into a typical classroom schedule with little advance preparation. The instruction is all prerecorded, so it’s simple to add the program to a daily center rotation or small group time.
How will we know it’s working?
Story Friends includes pre- and post-tests that make it easy to track children’s progress and compare their skills before and after the intervention.
Turn the page to learn more about the specific benefits of Story Friends.
Benefits of Story Friends
There’s nothing else like Story Friends. Based on best practices in early childhood education, this one-of-a-kind program is a proven way to help children improve oral language and vocabulary skills and prepare them for reading success.
Top 5 Reasons to Choose Story Friends:
- Addresses the greatest predictors of later reading success: oral language, vocabulary, and comprehension skills
- Expands other important academic and social skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and empathy
- Answers the call for proven, research-based interventions—Story Friends was developed by leading early childhood researchers from the federally funded Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC)
- Hooks and holds young attention spans with colorful illustrations, rhyming text, interactive story components, and appealing narration from Wanda the Word Wolf
- Requires no special training—just follow the simple implementation guidelines in the Teacher Guide and the online professional development modules
Oral language skills: critical to reading success
“Early oral language has a growing contribution to later reading comprehension . . . Improving young children’s oral language development should be a central goal during the preschool and kindergarten years.”
—Timothy Shanahan & Christopher Lonigan, “The Role of Early Oral Language in Literacy Development,” Language Magazine, languagemagazine.com
Benefits for Children and Teachers
Children
Story Friends helps children develop key skills they need for academic and social success:
Teachers
| Key Areas of Development | How Story Friends Helps |
|---|---|
| Language skills | 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 helps children with a key 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 during everyday occurrences and social situations. |
Research Says . . . Story Friends Works!
Many curricula claim to be evidence-based. Story Friends backs it up with multiple research studies. Between 2010 and 2014, five experimental studies were conducted on the Story Friends program, focusing on how it affects vocabulary and oral language development in at-risk pre-K populations.
The findings were clear: Story Friends was easy to implement, worked well with existing curricula, and resulted in substantial word-learning gains.
Story Friends Components
The Story Friends program provides two series of student books, Jungle Friends and Forest Friends. The Story Friends storybooks showcase:
- Embedded vocabulary
- Colorful, engaging illustrations
- Repeating story characters
- Rhyming text
- “Discovery flaps” that promote natural curiosity and critical thinking
Teacher Components
Teacher Guide
Your complete guide to Story Friends!
- Program overview and components
- Scope and sequence of skills
- Implementation guidelines
- Audio scripts
- Placement and Assessments
- Resource Masters
- Research base
Screener & Assessments
Story Friends includes a screener to identify children who would benefit from participating in the program, plus progress monitoring assessments (Unit Vocabulary and pre- and post-Concept Words Assessments). Picture cards are included for use with the Concept Words pre- and post tests.
Implementing Story Friends in 3 Easy Steps
Using Story Friends is easy as 1 2 3
1. Identify
First, teachers identify children who will benefit from using Story Friends. Teachers can use information from universal screening and progress monitoring assessments, as well as the screening questionnaire included in the Story Friends program.
2. Implement
The Story Friends intervention is delivered in the classroom’s listening center in 10- to 15-minute sessions, with a facilitator guiding and monitoring the session. Children follow along as storybooks are read, and they participate in interactive vocabulary and comprehension lessons.
3. Assess
In Story Friends, learning of instructional targets is assessed using curriculum-based measures. Teachers will administer progress monitoring assessments: Unit Vocabulary and pre- and post-Concept Words Assessments.