• Work with children who are exposed to Spanish at home, are 4-5 years old, and enrolled in an early learning program (e.g., Head Start, center, TK).
• Be comfortable conducting daily book reading lessons in English.
• Get approval from an early learning program/school supervisor, site director, or other administrator.

• You can still sign up for the study (with administrative approval) but will not be able to officially confirm your participation until you are sure that you will have at least 4 children who are exposed to Spanish at home for the 24-25 school year. 

• No! TRML fits into any curriculum or language model. Whether you only speak English in the classroom, speak English with Spanish support, or follow a formal dual language model (e.g., 50-50; 90-10), TRML can easily be integrated into your classroom! We do ask that some portion of instruction during the school day is conducted in English even if it's only 20 minutes a day.

• To start participating, teachers must review and sign a consent form.
• At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, teachers will be asked to share a list of the children in their classroom who are from Spanish-speaking households. 
• Throughout the 2024-25 school year, teachers will be asked to:
  • Pass out child consent forms to parents and coordinate with the research team, as needed.  
  • Participate in 2-3 professional development sessions to support classroom book reading practices. 
  • Implement daily book reading in the classroom.
    • A group of teachers will also be asked to fill out a 1 min. daily lesson log and send provided books/parent activities home.
  • Videotape three book reading sessions and upload them to a secure portal.
  • Fill out a brief survey about your classroom in the winter/spring of 2025.
  • Distribute and collect parent surveys in spring 2025, as needed.

• Teachers will: 
  • Have access to online professional development to support instruction; 
  • Build capacity in evidence-based, effective shared book reading practices; 
  • Receive high-quality books and materials for use in their classroom (either during or after the study)
  • Be compensated $300 for participating.

• Parents/caregivers will be asked to review a short consent form in the Fall of 2024 and approve their children to participate in the study. 
• Parents/caregivers will then be asked to complete a short survey about their language use in the Spring of 2025 and receive a $35 gift card upon completion.  
• Parents may be asked to engage in book reading at home in Spanish. 

• Children with parent/caregiver approval will participate in language and early literacy assessments.* 
  • Assessments include a picture book and game-like activities and will be done in the fall and the spring of the school year. 
  • Each assessment session lasts no longer than 30 minutes. 

*Teachers are not responsible for conducting the assessments. Our data collection team will coordinate with school staff to schedule the assessments with the children.  

• Provide approval for teacher participation.
• Assist with scheduling data collection activities, as needed, or appoint a staff member who can assist with coordinating data collection visits from the research team.

• The study will take place during the 2024-25 school year.

• Researchers at the American Institutes for Research and the University of Notre Dame. 

• The U.S. Department of Education funds this research study.

• Spring-Summer 2024: Sign-up for the study
• August-September 2024: Confirm participation and classroom enrollment, including sharing student rosters.
• October 2024: Round 1 of child assessments
• October 2024-April 2025: Online PD for teachers, implement book reading in classrooms, and distribute family materials.
• April-May 2025: Round 2 of child assessments.