Conversations with Children: The Common Thread in Our Work

What's In This Kit?
This training kit is designed to provide teachers with strategies to simplify and integrate many of the demands of their preschool curricula by enhancing their use of rich, authentic conversation with children in all areas of the classroom. It contains:

• Expected training outcomes
• Preparation instructions
• Training strategies and tips
• Implementation steps
• Follow-up activities for teachers
• Follow-up activities for administrators/directors
• A learning assessment
• A training evaluation/further needs assessment
• A resource list
• The article “Conversation: The Common Thread in Our Work” by Karen Nemeth
• A training certificate to award to teachers for attendance and participation
• A certificate for the trainer and other presenters

Who's the Target Audience?
The target audiences for this kit are intermediate and advanced teachers. This kit will introduce teachers to teaching strategies that can be easily incorporated into the classroom to use the power of conversation to accomplish many of their learning goals for the children.

Teacher Skill Level

beginning intermediate advanced

Children's Age Level

infants toddlers preschoolers school-agers birth to 8

Kit Timeline:
Preparation time for this kit is estimated at 1.0 hour. Implementation time is estimated at 1.5 hours.

Training Outcomes:

1. Teachers will implement the elements of high quality interactions and conversation with children.
2. Teachers will explain the value of conversation as a strategy to meet multiple educational goals in the classroom.
3. Teachers will implement strategies from the article for capturing teachable moments with conversation.
4. Teachers will identify new ways to address educational goals and standards by integrating them via conversation throughout the classroom and throughout the day.

These training outcomes address the following:

• 2.D.01, 2.D.03, 2.D.04, 2.D.07, 3.F.04, 3.F.07, 3.G.02, 3.G.07, and 3.G.10 of the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Performance Criteria (2005), www.naeyc.org.
• Standard 1 and 4b of NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation, Initial Licensure Level (2003), www.naeyc.org.
• 1304.21 (a) (4) (i �" iv) of Head Start Performance Standards (Federal Register, Nov. 5, 1996, Volume 61, Number 215), www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/.
• E12, E13, and F2 of the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs, National Association of Child Care Professionals (2005), www.naccp.org.

Note: Downloadable PDFs are only available for download in pdf format. Directions for downloading follow immediately after purchase.