Variation in preschool teachers' styles of reading books

Abstract
Three day‐care teachers were audiotaped as they read books to their group of 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds. The books included some read spontaneously and six that we provided. Book‐reading sessions were transcribed and analyzed to discover patterns of teacher‐child exchange and to describe the content of book discussions. While the familiarity and complexity of books affected how books were read, the teachers assumed two distinct styles. Two teachers used an interactive style, engaging children in discussion of text as they read. A third teacher used a performance style, presenting stories in a skillful storytelling fashion with few breaks in the text. Analysis of children's participation and teacher style suggests that different reading styles resulted in the construction of different speech events.

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