The after school program provides unique opportunities to support students' oral language development. The informal nature of most programs, coupled with smaller class size, means this setting is generally better suited to oral language than most regular school day classrooms.

Daily Oral Language Experiences

An oral language experience refers to an opportunity for students to talk in different situations to achieve specific purposes. For example, students might talk informally to one another during snack time. A very different oral language experience might involve students in conducting a planned presentation about a book in front of the entire class. Although these two oral language experiences require very different skills, they both contribute meaningfully to students' language development.

Informal Language

Informal oral language development refers to conversations among students or between students and teachers that are not a part of regular instruction. For example, while students are eating snack, staff members should engage students in conversations. Simple strategies for initiating conversations include commenting on something related to the student by saying things like, "Your shirt has Mickey Mouse on it. Have you been to Disneyland?". It helps to end conversation starters with a question to prompt student responses.

Guided Oral Language

A guided discussion in a small group is a powerful way to build student language skills. Most after school programs could easily include 10 or more small group or partner discussions each day. These can be very brief, a minute or two, and focus on a single prompting question. For example, after reading a story, staff could ask each group or pair an open-ended thinking question that relates to the story. The instructor then encourages the group to discuss the question and prepare a one-minute response. At the end of the discussion period, the staff person invites each group to present their response.

Oral Presentations and Performances

Oral presentations and performances are another great way to encourage oral language development. Drama and language games can be easily incorporated into the after school setting to provide instruction in the elements of good oral language presentations. For example, students can take leading the game Simon Says to practice speaking loudly and clearly.

The skills that students develop in a setting where they are taught and can practice the skills of strong oral presentation are many: ideas, organization, sentence fluency, voice or style, word choice, and conventions or grammar. These skills are invaluable. They will serve students well in a wide variety of situations in every stage of their education and in every stage of thier lives.

For more information on Afterschool strategies, Homeschool strategies and engaging, high-interest curriculum, go to: www.litart.com.

Paul Ahrens-Gray is the Founder and President of Global Learning Inc., a leading developer of high-interest literacy curriculum for Schools, After School Programs, and Homeschoolers. See the award-winning LitART Literacy Curriculum and download free storybooks from our popular new Bo Bug Shared Reading Program at Global Learning's website: http://www.litart.com.

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