Reading aloud to children is a ubiquitous practice in early childhood settings. While there are many recommendations for how educators should conduct these experiences, little research in the past decade has examined how read-alouds are actually accomplished. Using anthropological and sociological theories of learning, literacy and research, our…

LGBTQ+ identities complicate the ways in which #OwnVoices can be deployed in literary analysis and author studies. Recognizing LGBTQ+ identities in literature is about more than just the text; it is about the visibility and success of LGBTQ+ authors as well. Through a discussion of reader response theory and politics of recognition, the author…

In kindergarten classrooms (5 to 6 year olds) in the United States, interactive reading aloud has long been considered an important part of a comprehensive emergent literacy program. However, while individual components of interactive reading aloud (for example, teacher activity, student activity and text) have been studied, researchers have…

The aim of this study was to identify and characterize children's perspectives on a picture book's themes and characters by examining their drawings. The study was conducted over a five-month period in a public kindergarten in southern Taiwan, with six children aged 5-6 years. Picture book appreciation activities focused on eight picture books.…

During her first two years of teaching, a kindergarten teacher (first author) developed a writing program grounded in five instructional strategies that repeatedly appear in emergent writing research--modeling, Scaffolded Writing, invented spelling, word walls, and reader response--and in the overarching principle of Gradual Release of…

Grounded in theory and best-practices research, this practical text provides teachers with 40 strategies for using fiction and non-fiction trade books to teach in five key content areas: language arts and reading, social studies, mathematics, science, and the arts. Each strategy provides everything a teacher needs to get started: a classroom…

Although there is evidence that the use of picture books affects young children's achievement scores in mathematics, little is known about the cognitive engagement and, in particular, the mathematical thinking that is evoked when young children are read a picture book. The focus of the case study reported in this article is on the cognitive…

This study examines how teachers' use of affective strategies (voice intonation, dramatization, personal involvement comments) during the reading and discussion of books influence young children's affective reactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language play comments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, two fiction and two…