Learning raps was another opportunity for children to develop oral language skills through conversations. Children developed the raps by retelling facts they gleaned from biographies the teacher read aloud in class. Learning raps was another opportunity for children to develop oral language skills through conversations with classmates, with the teacher, and with their families. "As we talk to a child he revises and refines his language, experimenting, making funny errors but gaining all the while in control over the expressiveness and the complexity of the language" (Clay 1991, 69). Jenny, a 4-year-old in Michelle's class, had been quiet since the school year began in September. Michelle and