The purpose of this paper is to describe strategies that caregivers use while reading books with young children. Research indicates that caregivers: a) use strategies that simplify or extend book language, b) use prosody, and c) use management strategies so the book reading event is meaningful for children. Then, how teachers of preschool children can use these same strategies to plan meaningful book sharing events for children in preschool settings is described

Kragler, Sherry

Martin, Linda

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and 
Language Arts 
Volume 38 
Issue 3 January/February 1998 Article 1 
2-1-1998 
Early book sharing: What teachers should know 
Sherry Kragler 
Ball State University 
Linda Martin 
Ball State University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons 
 Part of the Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Kragler, S., & Martin, L. (1998). Early book sharing: What teachers should know. Reading Horizons: A 
Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 38 (3). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/
reading_horizons/vol38/iss3/1 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by 
the Special Education and Literacy Studies at 
ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion 
in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language 
Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. 
For more information, please contact wmu-
scholarworks@wmich.edu. 
^fc
Early book sharing:
What teachers should know
Sherry Kragler
Ball State University
Linda Martin
Ball State University
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to describe strategies that care
givers use whilereading books with youngchildren. Research indi
cates that caregivers: a) use strategies that simplify or extend book
language, b) use prosody, and c) use management strategies so the
book reading event is meaningful for children. Then, how teachers
of preschool children can use these same strategies to plan meaning
ful book sharing events for children in preschool settings is de
scribed.
"Read me a story mommy," pleads Brendan as he climbs upon
his mother's lap. Amy gently wraps her little boy in her arms and
opens his favorite storybook. Reading storybooks with a caregiver is
an important event in children's lives, as with Brendan, and profoundly
affects children's early literacy development (Bus and Uzendoorn,
1988; 1995; Bus, Uzendoorn, and Pellegrini, 1995; Durkin, 1966;
Reese, 1995; Snow, 1983; Teale, 1984).
Because these early book sharing events are crucial for literacy
development, preschool teachers should understand and consider the
types of early book sharing experiences children have had at home.
The purposes of this paper are to describe what is known about effec
tive caregivers' book sharing strategies, and to tell how teachers can
use this information to plan meaningful book sharing events for chil
dren in preschool settings.
CAREGIVERS DECISION MAKING
Research has indicated the optimum characteristics of effective
and positive home environments supporting literacy development
(McGee and Richgels, 1995). In this research, one dominating
characteristic described how caregivers interacted with their children
164 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 38, (3)
in book reading on a daily basis (Cochran-Smith, 1986; Morrow,
O'Connor, and Smith, 1990; Sulzby, 1985). During these interactions,
caregivers constantly reflected on which decisions to make about how
they would proceed through the books with their children (Altwerger,
Diehl-Faxon, and Dockstader-Anderson, 1985; Bruner, 1978; Bus and
Uzendoorn, 1988; Martin and Reutzel, 1996). From this research,
several strategies are detailed below describing how caregivers interact
with their children.
(1) Caregivers Discuss
Vygotsky (1978) asserted that learning takes place through dis
cussion with more capable language users. While reading with their
children, caregivers used dialogue to strategically manipulate lan
guage to accommodate conceptual and linguistic development of their
individual children (Bruner, 1978; Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988, 1995;
Martin, 1998). Bruner (1978) termed this caregiver behavior as "scaf
folding." To scaffold, Bruner (1978) stated that a caregiver focuses a
child's attention on familiar information ignoring what the child may
not understand. Then the caregiver provides a model of the expected
dialogue from which a child can extract selectively what is needed for
filling a role in discourse. This conversational nature of book reading
invites caregivers to scaffold book language for children (Altwerger,
et al., 1985; Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988).
(2) Caregivers Simplify Books
Caregivers simplify books for children in various ways.
DeLoache and DeMendoza (1987) asserted that at times caregivers
reduce the complexity of language by conceptually simplifying
words. Eliminating words with constant clusters for simpler forms of
the same word is another example of simplifying books (Moskowitz,
1985). "Tummy" may replace the word stomach. To accommodate a
child's conceptual understanding, a tiger may be called a "kitty."
Once children are comfortable with a format, Bruner (1978) stated
that this simplified communication level becomes a "launching plat
form" for teaching children new concepts. If children are given too
much information while exposing them to new concepts, the care
givers simplified the process again, thus regaining the children's at
tention (Bruner, 1978; Martin, 1998).
(3) Caregivers Elaborate and Extend Books
As children acquired more sophisticated oral and print lan
guage skills, caregivers would not only read the print, but elaborated
on concepts introduced during book reading (Altwerger et al., 1985;
Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988; Martin, 1998; Moerk, 1972; Snow, 1983).
For instance, while reading The Three Little Pigs, a caregiver may talk
about why the house of bricks didn't come down when the wolf blew.
Some of the concepts that caregivers use to extend a book come from
Early Book Sharing 165
the illustrations. In sharing a book about farm animals, a caregiver
can point out a cow's udder and explain the purpose of the udder.
(4) Caregivers Make Connections and Predictions
Parents spend time connecting and relating their children's ex
periences to related concepts in books (Altwerger et al., 1985; Bus and
Uzendoorn, 1988; Martin and Reutzel, 1996). For example, while
reading a story about a teddy bear who falls in a well, the caregiver
carefully pointed out the well in the illustration and said, "Do you re
member when we visited Uncle Dave's farm and you saw the well?
Uncle Dave gets water from it. Remember? This is the same type of
well."
While making these connections and reading with their children,
caregivers frequently asked their children what was going to happen
next in the story. Sometimes, the caregivers would even ask their
children higher level questions about the story. For example, while
reading One Teddy Bear Is Enough! which is a story that explores
friendships and sharing, a caregiver asked her child if she has ever felt
jealous. In addition, while using predictable text, caregivers ask their
children to predict the repeated word phrases. While reading Brown
Bear, Brown Bear, caregivers may want their children to predict what
phrase they will see next.
(5) Caregivers Use Prosody Effectively
Caregivers also use the prosodic features of the voice, the
melodies, and rhythm of language to draw attention to the drama of
the story (Altwerger et al., 1985). For example, while reading The
Three Little Pigs, caregivers may use a low pitch to characterize the
wolf, "Little PIG, little PIG let me IN!" They may use a high pitch to
characterize the pigs answer, "Not by the hair of my chinny chin
chin!"
These prosodic features of the caregivers' voices are often the
first linguistic variations to be learned by children during oral lan
guage acquisition (Buss, 1984; Fernald, 1984). Buss (1984) also
contended that the prosodic features of the voice may also be the first
linguistic variations to be acquired as children learn about book lan
guage (p. 297). Prosodic language cues may be a precursor to liter
acy development (Schreiber, 1980, 1987; Snow, Coots, and Smith,
1982).
(6) Caregivers Manage
Caregivers used various management techniques to maintain
their children's engagement during book sharing (Murphy, 1978;
Ninio and Bruner, 1978, Ninio, 1980; Martin and Reutzel, 1996;
Martin, 1998). For instance, they pointed to words or illustrated con
cepts and asked questions. Caregivers would also help their children
point to objects in the pictures or to point to words. They shared
control of the book sharing event by allowing their children to hold
166 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 38, (3)
the book and turn pages. Additionally, caregivers maintained physi
cal contact with their children without restricting the children's move
ments. Most caregivers knew to end the book reading when their
children lost interest in the book.
Because these early book reading strategies are important in
homes where sharing books with children is common, teachers of
preschool children should also consider using these same strategies as
tools to guide and continue children's development of book language
concepts in classrooms. The following is a preschool classroom sce
nario describing a teacher's use of these early book reading strategies
while reading with his students.
CLASSROOM APPLICATION
Mr. Smith's class of four-year-olds starts each day in a similar
fashion. As they enter the room, there is a personal welcome to each
child. The day starts with play time for the children. Mr. Smith's
class has a variety of centers: blocks, art, books with related book
props and puppets, writing center, drama, and housekeeping. Each of
these centers includes literacy materials. For example, in the house
keeping center, there are magazines, newspapers, pads of paper for
grocery lists, pens, and other materials one would find in a house. Mr.
Smith also has a center whose content changes depending on the chil
dren's interests or the seasons of the year. At this time, the rotating
center is the post office.
There is also a place in the room for Mr. Smith to share books
with children. During the day, Mr. Smith gathers small groups of
children (3-5) to read at different times. He realizes his children get
more involved with books if they are in small groups. They have
more opportunities to talk about the books than when he shared
books with the whole class (Dickinson, DeTemple, Hirschler, and
Smith, 1992; Morrow and Smith, 1990). Mr. Smith lets the children
point to pictures and turn the pages. He wants to share control of the
book reading with the children.
Getting Ready to Read
On this particular day, Mr. Smith has decided to introduce the
story, The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats to the children. Since Mr.
Smith is teaching in a preschool located in the south, he needs to
spend time thinking about how to connect the topic of the book to his
children's experiences. Mr. Smith has decided to do several things to
introduce the children to the concepts of snow and cold as a whole
class activity. He will share the following items he has brought to
school:
• pictures of snow and other winter-related pictures;
• other winter items; such as, heavy coats, hats, mittens,
boots, and a snowsuit;
Early Book Sharing 167
• shaved ice for the children to experience the feel of
cold and to see what happens to the ice in the warm
room; and a
• short video on snow and winter for the children to see
and hear the sounds of winter.
Since Mr. Smith knows the children have all walked and made
tracks in sand, he will use this experience to help his children under
stand what it is like to walk and make tracks in snow. At this time, Mr.
Smith will share the book with a small group of children while the
others are at the various centers.
Engaging the Children in the Snowy Day
Mr. Smith will have the children do a picture-walk to make pre
dictions and connections with their previous experiences.
Mr. Smith is ready to read the story to the children. He realizes
that he doesn't need to simplify the text for the children since he has
already made the earlier connections for them. While reading the
story, Mr. Smith has noted several places to extend the children's
knowledge of concepts in the book. He is choosing just a few to
elaborate. For example, he realizes his children may not understand
the concept of a snowball fight even though they all know what it
means to fight. Another concept he has chosen to clarify for the chil
dren is making a snow angel. This is a special problem because not
all children may know about angels. In this situation, Mr. Smith has
decided to describe snow angels as a play activity children do with
snow. It is a large print in the snow similar to their tracks in the sand.
In addition, he will clarify that snow is slick and that snow melts.
Finally, the children will check on the ice in the room to see what has
happened to it. In this last case, Mr. Smith will extend the idea that
snow and ice change.
Mr. Smith did not choose to use prosody while reading The
Snowy Day since it does not have dialogue. However in other books,
this may be a strategy that he will use because of the dialogue.
Mr. Smith will need to use several management strategies while
reading The Snowy Day. He plans to continually monitor the book
reading activity by asking questions and listening to the children's re
sponses. He will also maintain student involvement by sharing control
of the book reading. This will be done by allowing the children to
join in reading, making comments, or asking questions. Finally, Mr.
Smith will point to various objects in the pictures to draw the chil
dren's attention to particular aspects in the illustrations.
Mr. Smith is looking forward to sharing the book, The Snowy
Day with the children. He has carefully thought through the process
to create a meaningful book sharing based on his knowledge of his
children's experiences and their literacy development. He is aware
that this book sharing strategies will change depending on the con
cepts in the book and his children's literacy development.
168 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 21, (3)
SUMMARY
Children come to preschool with some knowledge about books.
Preschool teachers can build on and continue this development with
appropriate activities in their classrooms (Weinbarger, 1996). In fact,
McGee and Purcell-Gates (1997) state that "children learn to read and
write successfully if their teachers accommodate their instruction to
the children, and they struggle if they do not" (p. 312). Book sharing
is one example of a wonderful opportunity teachers have to develop
and build children's literacy awareness and language. By using simi
lar strategies caregivers have used, teachers can ease children's transi
tion to school learning as well as continue to support their literacy de
velopment.
REFERENCES
Altwerger, B., Diehl-Faxon, J., & Dockstader-Anderson, K. (1985). Reading-
aloud events as meaning construction. Language Arts, 62, 476-484.
Bruner, J. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair,
R. Jarvelle & W. Levelt (Eds.), The child's conception of language (pp. 241-
255). NY: Springer-Verlag.
Bus, A., & Uzendoorn, M. (1988). Mother-child interactions, attachment, and
emergent literacy: A cross-sectional study. Child Development, 59, 1262-
1272.
Bus, A., & Uzendoorn, M. (1995). Mothers reading to their 3-year-olds: The
role of mother-child attachment security in becoming literate. Reading
Research Quarterly, 30, 998-1015.
Bus, A., Uzendoorn, M., & Pellegrini, A. (1995). Joint book reading makes
for success in learning to read: A meta-analysis on intergenerational trans
mission of literacy. Review of Educational Research, 65, 1-21.
Buss, K. (1984). Melody: Importance in learning oral and book language.
Reading Psychology, 5, 297-301.
Cochran-Smith, M. (1986). Reading to children: A model for understanding
texts. In B. Schieffelin & P. Gilmore (Eds.), The acquisition of literacy:
Ethnographic perspectives (pp. 35-54). New Jersey: Ablex Publishing.
Deloache, J., & DeMendoza, O. (1987). Joint picture book interactions of moth
ers and one-year-old children. British Journal ofDevelopmental Psychology,
5, 111-123.
Dickinson, D., DeTemple, J., Hirschler, J., & Smith, M. (1992). Book read
ing with preschoolers: Construction of text at home and at school. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 7, 323-346.
Durkin, D. (1966). Children who read early. NY: Teachers College Press.
Fernald, A. (1984). The perceptual and affective salience of mothers' speech to
infants. In L. Feagans, C. Garvey, & R. Golinkoff (Eds.), The origins and
growth of communication (pp. 5-29). New Jersey: Ablex Publishing.
Martin, L. (1998). Early book reading: How mothers deviate from printed text
for young children. ReadingResearchand Instruction, 37, 135-160.
Early Book Sharing 169
Martin, L., & Reutzel, D. (1996). Scaffolding books for children: Mothers'
metacognitivedecisions. Reading Psychology, 17, 159-180.
McGee, L., & Richgels, D. (1995). Literacy's beginnings: Supporting young
readers andwriters. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
McGee, L., & Purcell-Gates, V. (1997). So what's going on in research on
emergent literacy? Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 310-318.
Moerk, E. (1972). Principles of interaction in language learning. Merill-Palmer
Quarterly, 18, 229-257.
Morrow, L., & Smith, J. (1990). The effects of group setting on interactive sto
rybook reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 213-231.
Morrow, L., O'Conner, E., & Smith, J. (1990). Effects of a story reading pro
gram on the literacy development of at-risk kindergarten children. Journal of
Reading Behavior, 22, 255-275.
Moskowitz, B. (1985). The acquisition of language. In V.P. Clark, P.A.
Escholz, & A.F. Rosa (Eds.), Language: Introductory readings (pp. 45-73).
NY: St. Martin's Press.
Murphy, C. (1978). Pointing in the contextof a shared activity. Child
Development, 49, 371-380.
Ninio, A. (1980). Picture-book reading in mother-infant dyads belonging to two
subgroups in Israel. ChildDevelopment, 51, 587-590.
Ninio, A., & Bruner, J. (1978). Theachievement andantecedents of labeling.
Journal of Child Development, 5, 1-15.
Reese, E. (1995). Predicting children's literacy from mother-child conversations.
Cognitive Development, 10, 381-405.
Schreiber, P. (1980). Ontheacquisition of reading fluency. Journal ofReading
Behavior, 12, 177-186.
Schreiber, P. (1987). Prosody andstructure in children's syntactic processing. In
R. Horowitz & S. Samuels (Eds.), Comprehending oral and written language
(pp. 243-270). NY: Academic Press.
Snow, C. (1983). Literacy and language: Relationships during the preschool
year. Harvard Educational Review, 53, 165-189.
Snow, C, Coots, J., & Smith, K. (1982). Speech prosody and children's percep
tion of sentence organization (Technical notes 2-82/34). Los Alamitos, CA:
Southwest Regional Laboratory. (ERIC DocumentReproduction Service
No. 222 890)
Sulzby,E. (1985). Children's emergentreadingof favorite storybooks: A devel
opmental study. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 458-479.
Teale, W. (1984). Reading to young children: It's significance for literacy devel
opment. In H. Goelman, A. Oberg, & F. Smith (Eds.), Awakening to liter
acy (pp. 110-121). NH: Heinemann.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychologi
calprocesses. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press.
Weinbarger, J. (1996). Literacy goes to school. London: Paul Chapman.
Sherry Kragler and Linda E. Martin are faculty members in the
Department of Elementary Education at Ball State University, in
Muncie Indiana.


Early book sharing: What teachers should know

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage ArtsVolume 38Issue 3 January/February 1998 Article 12-1-1998Early book sharing: What teachers should knowSherry KraglerBall State UniversityLinda MartinBall State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizonsPart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SpecialEducation and Literacy Studies at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. For moreinformation, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.Recommended CitationKragler, S., & Martin, L. (1998). Early book sharing: What teachers should know. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and LanguageArts, 38 (3). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol38/iss3/1^fcEarly book sharing:What teachers should knowSherry KraglerBall State UniversityLinda MartinBall State UniversityABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to describe strategies that caregivers use whilereading books with youngchildren. Research indicates that caregivers: a) use strategies that simplify or extend booklanguage, b) use prosody, and c) use management strategies so thebook reading event is meaningful for children. Then, how teachersof preschool children can use these same strategies to plan meaningful book sharing events for children in preschool settings is described."Read me a story mommy," pleads Brendan as he climbs uponhis mother's lap. Amy gently wraps her little boy in her arms andopens his favorite storybook. Reading storybooks with a caregiver isan important event in children's lives, as with Brendan, and profoundlyaffects children's early literacy development (Bus and Uzendoorn,1988; 1995; Bus, Uzendoorn, and Pellegrini, 1995; Durkin, 1966;Reese, 1995; Snow, 1983; Teale, 1984).Because these early book sharing events are crucial for literacydevelopment, preschool teachers should understand and consider thetypes of early book sharing experiences children have had at home.The purposes of this paper are to describe what is known about effective caregivers' book sharing strategies, and to tell how teachers canuse this information to plan meaningful book sharing events for children in preschool settings.CAREGIVERS DECISION MAKINGResearch has indicated the optimum characteristics of effectiveand positive home environments supporting literacy development(McGee and Richgels, 1995). In this research, one dominatingcharacteristic described how caregivers interacted with their children164 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 38, (3)in book reading on a daily basis (Cochran-Smith, 1986; Morrow,O'Connor, and Smith, 1990; Sulzby, 1985). During these interactions,caregivers constantly reflected on which decisions to make about howthey would proceed through the books with their children (Altwerger,Diehl-Faxon, and Dockstader-Anderson, 1985; Bruner, 1978; Bus andUzendoorn, 1988; Martin and Reutzel, 1996). From this research,several strategies are detailed below describing how caregivers interactwith their children.(1) Caregivers DiscussVygotsky (1978) asserted that learning takes place through discussion with more capable language users. While reading with theirchildren, caregivers used dialogue to strategically manipulate language to accommodate conceptual and linguistic development of theirindividual children (Bruner, 1978; Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988, 1995;Martin, 1998). Bruner (1978) termed this caregiver behavior as "scaffolding." To scaffold, Bruner (1978) stated that a caregiver focuses achild's attention on familiar information ignoring what the child maynot understand. Then the caregiver provides a model of the expecteddialogue from which a child can extract selectively what is needed forfilling a role in discourse. This conversational nature of book readinginvites caregivers to scaffold book language for children (Altwerger,et al., 1985; Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988).(2) Caregivers Simplify BooksCaregivers simplify books for children in various ways.DeLoache and DeMendoza (1987) asserted that at times caregiversreduce the complexity of language by conceptually simplifyingwords. Eliminating words with constant clusters for simpler forms ofthe same word is another example of simplifying books (Moskowitz,1985). "Tummy" may replace the word stomach. To accommodate achild's conceptual understanding, a tiger may be called a "kitty."Once children are comfortable with a format, Bruner (1978) statedthat this simplified communication level becomes a "launching platform" for teaching children new concepts. If children are given toomuch information while exposing them to new concepts, the caregivers simplified the process again, thus regaining the children's attention (Bruner, 1978; Martin, 1998).(3) Caregivers Elaborate and Extend BooksAs children acquired more sophisticated oral and print language skills, caregivers would not only read the print, but elaboratedon concepts introduced during book reading (Altwerger et al., 1985;Bus and Uzendoorn, 1988; Martin, 1998; Moerk, 1972; Snow, 1983).For instance, while reading The Three Little Pigs, a caregiver may talkabout why the house of bricks didn't come down when the wolf blew.Some of the concepts that caregivers use to extend a book come fromEarly Book Sharing 165the illustrations. In sharing a book about farm animals, a caregivercan point out a cow's udder and explain the purpose of the udder.(4) Caregivers Make Connections and PredictionsParents spend time connecting and relating their children's experiences to related concepts in books (Altwerger et al., 1985; Bus andUzendoorn, 1988; Martin and Reutzel, 1996). For example, whilereading a story about a teddy bear who falls in a well, the caregivercarefully pointed out the well in the illustration and said, "Do you remember when we visited Uncle Dave's farm and you saw the well?Uncle Dave gets water from it. Remember? This is the same type ofwell."While making these connections and reading with their children,caregivers frequently asked their children what was going to happennext in the story. Sometimes, the caregivers would even ask theirchildren higher level questions about the story. For example, whilereading One Teddy Bear Is Enough! which is a story that exploresfriendships and sharing, a caregiver asked her child if she has ever feltjealous. In addition, while using predictable text, caregivers ask theirchildren to predict the repeated word phrases. While reading BrownBear, Brown Bear, caregivers may want their children to predict whatphrase they will see next.(5) Caregivers Use Prosody EffectivelyCaregivers also use the prosodic features of the voice, themelodies, and rhythm of language to draw attention to the drama ofthe story (Altwerger et al., 1985). For example, while reading TheThree Little Pigs, caregivers may use a low pitch to characterize thewolf, "Little PIG, little PIG let me IN!" They may use a high pitch tocharacterize the pigs answer, "Not by the hair of my chinny chinchin!"These prosodic features of the caregivers' voices are often thefirst linguistic variations to be learned by children during oral language acquisition (Buss, 1984; Fernald, 1984). Buss (1984) alsocontended that the prosodic features of the voice may also be the firstlinguistic variations to be acquired as children learn about book language (p. 297). Prosodic language cues may be a precursor to literacy development (Schreiber, 1980, 1987; Snow, Coots, and Smith,1982).(6) Caregivers ManageCaregivers used various management techniques to maintaintheir children's engagement during book sharing (Murphy, 1978;Ninio and Bruner, 1978, Ninio, 1980; Martin and Reutzel, 1996;Martin, 1998). For instance, they pointed to words or illustrated concepts and asked questions. Caregivers would also help their childrenpoint to objects in the pictures or to point to words. They sharedcontrol of the book sharing event by allowing their children to hold166 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 38, (3)the book and turn pages. Additionally, caregivers maintained physical contact with their children without restricting the children's movements. Most caregivers knew to end the book reading when theirchildren lost interest in the book.Because these early book reading strategies are important inhomes where sharing books with children is common, teachers ofpreschool children should also consider using these same strategies astools to guide and continue children's development of book languageconcepts in classrooms. The following is a preschool classroom scenario describing a teacher's use of these early book reading strategieswhile reading with his students.CLASSROOM APPLICATIONMr. Smith's class of four-year-olds starts each day in a similarfashion. As they enter the room, there is a personal welcome to eachchild. The day starts with play time for the children. Mr. Smith'sclass has a variety of centers: blocks, art, books with related bookprops and puppets, writing center, drama, and housekeeping. Each ofthese centers includes literacy materials. For example, in the housekeeping center, there are magazines, newspapers, pads of paper forgrocery lists, pens, and other materials one would find in a house. Mr.Smith also has a center whose content changes depending on the children's interests or the seasons of the year. At this time, the rotatingcenter is the post office.There is also a place in the room for Mr. Smith to share bookswith children. During the day, Mr. Smith gathers small groups ofchildren (3-5) to read at different times. He realizes his children getmore involved with books if they are in small groups. They havemore opportunities to talk about the books than when he sharedbooks with the whole class (Dickinson, DeTemple, Hirschler, andSmith, 1992; Morrow and Smith, 1990). Mr. Smith lets the childrenpoint to pictures and turn the pages. He wants to share control of thebook reading with the children.Getting Ready to ReadOn this particular day, Mr. Smith has decided to introduce thestory, The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats to the children. Since Mr.Smith is teaching in a preschool located in the south, he needs tospend time thinking about how to connect the topic of the book to hischildren's experiences. Mr. Smith has decided to do several things tointroduce the children to the concepts of snow and cold as a wholeclass activity. He will share the following items he has brought toschool:• pictures of snow and other winter-related pictures;• other winter items; such as, heavy coats, hats, mittens,boots, and a snowsuit;Early Book Sharing 167• shaved ice for the children to experience the feel ofcold and to see what happens to the ice in the warmroom; and a• short video on snow and winter for the children to seeand hear the sounds of winter.Since Mr. Smith knows the children have all walked and madetracks in sand, he will use this experience to help his children understand what it is like to walk and make tracks in snow. At this time, Mr.Smith will share the book with a small group of children while theothers are at the various centers.Engaging the Children in the Snowy DayMr. Smith will have the children do a picture-walk to make predictions and connections with their previous experiences.Mr. Smith is ready to read the story to the children. He realizesthat he doesn't need to simplify the text for the children since he hasalready made the earlier connections for them. While reading thestory, Mr. Smith has noted several places to extend the children'sknowledge of concepts in the book. He is choosing just a few toelaborate. For example, he realizes his children may not understandthe concept of a snowball fight even though they all know what itmeans to fight. Another concept he has chosen to clarify for the children is making a snow angel. This is a special problem because notall children may know about angels. In this situation, Mr. Smith hasdecided to describe snow angels as a play activity children do withsnow. It is a large print in the snow similar to their tracks in the sand.In addition, he will clarify that snow is slick and that snow melts.Finally, the children will check on the ice in the room to see what hashappened to it. In this last case, Mr. Smith will extend the idea thatsnow and ice change.Mr. Smith did not choose to use prosody while reading TheSnowy Day since it does not have dialogue. However in other books,this may be a strategy that he will use because of the dialogue.Mr. Smith will need to use several management strategies whilereading The Snowy Day. He plans to continually monitor the bookreading activity by asking questions and listening to the children's responses. He will also maintain student involvement by sharing controlof the book reading. This will be done by allowing the children tojoin in reading, making comments, or asking questions. Finally, Mr.Smith will point to various objects in the pictures to draw the children's attention to particular aspects in the illustrations.Mr. Smith is looking forward to sharing the book, The SnowyDay with the children. He has carefully thought through the processto create a meaningful book sharing based on his knowledge of hischildren's experiences and their literacy development. He is awarethat this book sharing strategies will change depending on the concepts in the book and his children's literacy development.168 READING HORIZONS, 1998, 21, (3)SUMMARYChildren come to preschool with some knowledge about books.Preschool teachers can build on and continue this development withappropriate activities in their classrooms (Weinbarger, 1996). In fact,McGee and Purcell-Gates (1997) state that "children learn to read andwrite successfully if their teachers accommodate their instruction tothe children, and they struggle if they do not" (p. 312). Book sharingis one example of a wonderful opportunity teachers have to developand build children's literacy awareness and language. By using similar strategies caregivers have used, teachers can ease children's transition to school learning as well as continue to support their literacy development.REFERENCESAltwerger, B., Diehl-Faxon, J., & Dockstader-Anderson, K. (1985). Reading-aloud events as meaning construction. Language Arts, 62, 476-484.Bruner, J. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair,R. Jarvelle & W. Levelt (Eds.), The child's conception of language (pp. 241-255). NY: Springer-Verlag.Bus, A., & Uzendoorn, M. (1988). Mother-child interactions, attachment, andemergent literacy: A cross-sectional study. Child Development, 59, 1262-1272.Bus, A., & Uzendoorn, M. (1995). Mothers reading to their 3-year-olds: Therole of mother-child attachment security in becoming literate. ReadingResearch Quarterly, 30, 998-1015.Bus, A., Uzendoorn, M., & Pellegrini, A. (1995). Joint book reading makesfor success in learning to read: A meta-analysis on intergenerational transmission of literacy. Review of Educational Research, 65, 1-21.Buss, K. (1984). Melody: Importance in learning oral and book language.Reading Psychology, 5, 297-301.Cochran-Smith, M. (1986). Reading to children: A model for understandingtexts. In B. Schieffelin & P. Gilmore (Eds.), The acquisition of literacy:Ethnographic perspectives (pp. 35-54). New Jersey: Ablex Publishing.Deloache, J., & DeMendoza, O. (1987). Joint picture book interactions of mothers and one-year-old children. British Journal ofDevelopmental Psychology,5, 111-123.Dickinson, D., DeTemple, J., Hirschler, J., & Smith, M. (1992). Book reading with preschoolers: Construction of text at home and at school. EarlyChildhood Research Quarterly, 7, 323-346.Durkin, D. (1966). Children who read early. NY: Teachers College Press.Fernald, A. (1984). The perceptual and affective salience of mothers' speech toinfants. In L. Feagans, C. Garvey, & R. Golinkoff (Eds.), The origins andgrowth of communication (pp. 5-29). New Jersey: Ablex Publishing.Martin, L. (1998). Early book reading: How mothers deviate from printed textfor young children. ReadingResearchand Instruction, 37, 135-160.Early Book Sharing 169Martin, L., & Reutzel, D. (1996). Scaffolding books for children: Mothers'metacognitivedecisions. Reading Psychology, 17, 159-180.McGee, L., & Richgels, D. (1995). Literacy's beginnings: Supporting youngreaders andwriters. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.McGee, L., & Purcell-Gates, V. (1997). So what's going on in research onemergent literacy? Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 310-318.Moerk, E. (1972). Principles of interaction in language learning. Merill-PalmerQuarterly, 18, 229-257.Morrow, L., & Smith, J. (1990). The effects of group setting on interactive storybook reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 213-231.Morrow, L., O'Conner, E., & Smith, J. (1990). Effects of a story reading program on the literacy development of at-risk kindergarten children. Journal ofReading Behavior, 22, 255-275.Moskowitz, B. (1985). The acquisition of language. In V.P. Clark, P.A.Escholz, & A.F. Rosa (Eds.), Language: Introductory readings (pp. 45-73).NY: St. Martin's Press.Murphy, C. (1978). Pointing in the contextof a shared activity. ChildDevelopment, 49, 371-380.Ninio, A. (1980). Picture-book reading in mother-infant dyads belonging to twosubgroups in Israel. ChildDevelopment, 51, 587-590.Ninio, A., & Bruner, J. (1978). Theachievement andantecedents of labeling.Journal of Child Development, 5, 1-15.Reese, E. (1995). Predicting children's literacy from mother-child conversations.Cognitive Development, 10, 381-405.Schreiber, P. (1980). Ontheacquisition of reading fluency. Journal ofReadingBehavior, 12, 177-186.Schreiber, P. (1987). Prosody andstructure in children's syntactic processing. InR. Horowitz & S. Samuels (Eds.), Comprehending oral and written language(pp. 243-270). NY: Academic Press.Snow, C. (1983). Literacy and language: Relationships during the preschoolyear. Harvard Educational Review, 53, 165-189.Snow, C, Coots, J., & Smith, K. (1982). Speech prosody and children's perception of sentence organization (Technical notes 2-82/34). Los Alamitos, CA:Southwest Regional Laboratory. (ERIC DocumentReproduction ServiceNo. 222 890)Sulzby,E. (1985). Children's emergentreadingof favorite storybooks: A developmental study. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 458-479.Teale, W. (1984). Reading to young children: It's significance for literacy development. In H. Goelman, A. Oberg, & F. Smith (Eds.), Awakening to literacy (pp. 110-121). NH: Heinemann.Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychologicalprocesses. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press.Weinbarger, J. (1996). Literacy goes to school. London: Paul Chapman.Sherry Kragler and Linda E. Martin are faculty members in theDepartment of Elementary Education at Ball State University, inMuncie Indiana.

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1258&context=reading_horizons

Early book sharing: What teachers should know

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarWorks at WMU

ScholarWorks at WMU

ScholarWorks at WMU