CULLOWHEE—The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching hosted nearly 50 educators for “Focus Friday: Developing Oral Language in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms” on May 11th.
Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas and feelings. Developing oral language skills is linked to emergent literacy skills. NCCAT offered teachers an opportunity to collaborate with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten colleagues to build capacity for promoting young children’s oral language skills. In this daylong Focus Friday program, they learned the importance of oral language and gained ideas for activities that will engage young learners.
“Developing oral vocabulary in pre-k and kindergarten students was a wonderful workshop,” said Swain County teacher Katrina Turbyfill, who attended the event. “The presenters were engaging and knowledgeable and filled their audience with excitement. The material was useful, and there was information and resources that could be used in classrooms of the participants the very next day.”
The first NCCAT Focus Friday event was held on February 23. It was titled “Focus Friday: A Deep Dive Into Dyslexia.” NCCAT hosted 41 teachers from across North Carolina in Cullowhee to help deepen their knowledge and expertise as it relates to awareness, instruction, and assessment of students exhibiting difficulties in reading consistent with dyslexia.
More “Focus Fridays” are coming soon. Topics and dates will be posted on www.nccat.org.