Big Book in a Small Pond: An Investigation of Preschool Teachers’ Use of Emergent Literacy Strategies When Reading Big and Typical-Sized Picture Books Aloud
The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency with which preschool teachers use a variety of instructional strategies to promote students’ emergent literacy skills during group read-aloud time. These strategies included print-referencing, dialogic reading techniques, and Shared Book Experience practices. More specifically, the researcher compared the teachers’ use of these strategies when reading typical-sized books versus big books. A total of eight preschool teachers participated in this study. The researcher filmed each participant reading two children’s books aloud—one big and one typical-sized, and the videos were transcribed and coded for read- aloud behaviors. The teachers’ use of emergent literacy reading strategies did not differ as a function of book size. Additionally, the teachers’ use of read-aloud strategies was infrequent in general. These findings suggest that big books are not inherently helpful in improving teachers’ use of these strategies, and that further read-aloud training may be necessary in order to elicit a higher frequency of these behaviors in teachers
