Story Talk: A Streamlined Professional Development Model to Guide Preschool Teachers in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Children in Poverty.

Story Talk is a professional development model that guides preschool teachers to employ books and classroom activities to teach vocabulary to young children, particularly those in poverty, in an effort to close the vocabulary gap. The program includes materials such as Story Maps, which contain target words, questions, and center activities, and provides training and progress monitoring of children. Teachers receive four 3-hour sessions of group training and individualized coaching twice a month, which focuses on implementing the Story Maps, interpreting progress monitoring data, encouraging conversations with children, and managing classroom discourse. The program aims to increase the quality and frequency of teachers' vocabulary-building practices, including highlighting vocabulary, asking open-ended questions, and providing meaningful feedback to children.