Kindergarten PAVEd for Success (K-PAVE): Increasing Vocabulary Knowledge of Low-Income Kindergarten Students.

Kindergarten PAVEd for Success (K-PAVE) is a kindergarten vocabulary instruction program designed to supplement regular classroom literacy instruction, targeting the improvement of students' vocabulary knowledge. K-PAVE has a standard protocol and materials for training and supporting teachers, and it is built around 240 target words introduced in 24 weekly units of 10 target words per unit. The target vocabulary words are explicitly taught to students and then reinforced through repeated exposure in multiple contexts, including storybook reading, extension activities, and classroom conversations and discussion. K-PAVE is built around three instructional components: Explicit Vocabulary Instruction, Interactive Book Reading, and Adult-Child Conversations. The program provides guidance to teachers on the ideal frequency of reading aloud with students and encourages teachers to engage in extended conversations with individual, pairs, or small groups of students to help them develop strong oral vocabulary skills. The teacher training and support protocol includes an initial large group training, three small-group follow-up telephone conference calls, and up to three rounds of classroom observation to document whether the key elements of K-PAVE were being implemented as intended, with follow-up remediation discussions with teachers about elements rated as not fully implemented.