TY - JOUR
T1 - What’s the Story with Storytime?
T2 - An Examination of Preschool Teachers’ Drama-Based and Shared Reading Practices During Picturebook Read-Aloud
AU - Schmidt, Annette C.
AU - Pierce-Rivera, Melissa
AU - van Huisstede, Lauren
AU - Marley, Scott C.
AU - Bernstein, Katie A.
AU - Millinger, Jenny
AU - Kelley, Michael F.
AU - Restrepo, M. Adelaida
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Preschool picturebook read-alouds have the power to capture the attention of young students by providing an immersive experience that stimulates imagination while addressing learning objectives. The instructional strategies or practices that teachers use during picturebook read-alouds impact student engagement with the story and narrative comprehension. Too little is known about teacher practices during read-alouds, particularly their use of drama-based instructional practices while reading narrative picturebooks. To examine the frequency and quality of teacher read-aloud practices, we developed the Teachers’ Use of Strategies for Storytime Drama rubric, an observational tool that captures shared reading, drama-based, and expressive read-aloud practices preschool teachers may use during read-alouds. In general, teachers rarely used commonly recommended read-aloud practices, and when used, quality was often low. Read-aloud practices varied by picturebook type. Books that incorporated a true narrative alongside sequenced events were associated with more frequent strategy use. Drama-based strategies during read-alouds in particular supported children’s retelling of the picturebook story. These outcomes align with our hypotheses and with research-based recommendations that teachers carefully choose picturebooks to have increased opportunities for dialogic and dramatic strategies that support students’ language skills. Implications for practice are discussed as they relate to preschool teachers’ incorporation of drama-based strategies during read-alouds.
AB - Preschool picturebook read-alouds have the power to capture the attention of young students by providing an immersive experience that stimulates imagination while addressing learning objectives. The instructional strategies or practices that teachers use during picturebook read-alouds impact student engagement with the story and narrative comprehension. Too little is known about teacher practices during read-alouds, particularly their use of drama-based instructional practices while reading narrative picturebooks. To examine the frequency and quality of teacher read-aloud practices, we developed the Teachers’ Use of Strategies for Storytime Drama rubric, an observational tool that captures shared reading, drama-based, and expressive read-aloud practices preschool teachers may use during read-alouds. In general, teachers rarely used commonly recommended read-aloud practices, and when used, quality was often low. Read-aloud practices varied by picturebook type. Books that incorporated a true narrative alongside sequenced events were associated with more frequent strategy use. Drama-based strategies during read-alouds in particular supported children’s retelling of the picturebook story. These outcomes align with our hypotheses and with research-based recommendations that teachers carefully choose picturebooks to have increased opportunities for dialogic and dramatic strategies that support students’ language skills. Implications for practice are discussed as they relate to preschool teachers’ incorporation of drama-based strategies during read-alouds.
KW - Drama-based instruction
KW - Early childhood
KW - Read-alouds
KW - Teacher practices
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85169161986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85169161986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10643-023-01554-z
DO - 10.1007/s10643-023-01554-z
M3 - Article
SN - 1082-3301
JO - Early Childhood Education Journal
JF - Early Childhood Education Journal
ER -