Instructional Conversations in Early Childhood Classrooms: Policy Suggestions for Curriculum Standards and Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions for two early education policy levers proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that can be specifically applied to oral language instructional in the classroom: Policy Lever 2—Designing and implementing curriculum and standards; and Policy Lever 3—Improving qualifications, training and working conditions. First, I de-scribe the efforts the United States has made in terms of oral language instruction, and second I describe a professional development model (the Conversation Compass ©) that trains teachers to use instructional conversations with children age 2 -6.