Book reading with preschoolers: Coconstruction of text at home and at school

• Published in: Early childhood research quarterly 1992, Vol.7 (3), p.323-346
• Main Authors: Dickinson, David K., De Temple, Jeanne M., Hirschler, Julie A., Smith, Miriam W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beginning Reading; Early Reading; Family School Relationship; Low Income Groups; Mothers; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Participation; Preschool Children; Preschool Education; Reading Activities; Reading Readiness; Reading Research; Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 0885-2006; 1873-7706
• DOI: 10.1016/0885-2006(92)90025-T

This article presents results of a study of low-income children's book-reading experiences with their mothers and during group reading times in preschool when they were 3 and 4 years old. Models describing possible patterns of book-reading experiences in home and preschool are proposed and examined by analyzing the quantity and nature of talk about books in both settings. Talk about texts was coded as immediate (e.g., labeling pictures), nonimmediate (e.g., recall, analysis), organizational, or extending (e.g., requesting clarification, feedback). The types of books read also were considered. When they were 3 years old the primary focus of book readings in both settings was on immediate information. Compared with teachers, mothers were likely to use more extending and fewer organizational comments. When children were 4 years old, talk in the home was again dominated by immediate talk, but compared with when they were 3, there was less extending talk by mothers, and more extending comments by children. In school there was more extending talk by teachers and nonimmediate utterances by children than was found the previous year. Home-school comparisons revealed more nonimmediate talk by teachers and children and more extending, organizational, and total talk by teachers. The patterns of talk about books in both settings and the changes from year-to-year support a Partnership model of home-school relationship: Mothers provide an introduction to book reading that teachers expand by engaging children in discussions of a cognitively challenging nature.