Abstract
The present study describes preschool read-alouds in terms of the types of texts to which children are exposed. The methods involved analyzing the genre and instructional foci of 426 titles read by 13 teachers throughout an entire academic year. Additionally, associations between teacher characteristics and texts teachers read in their classrooms were examined. Findings indicated that (a) narrative texts were the dominate genre read-aloud; (b) children's exposure to alphabet books, nursery rhymes, books featuring math concepts, and multicultural content occurred at generally low rates; and (c) few significant associations exist between quantity of books read and teacher characteristics.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Grant R305F050124 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. We appreciate the children, teachers, and program administrators who assisted us with collecting the data presented in this study. We thank Amy Sofka and Beth Cottone for assisting with data collection. A special thanks to Sonia Cabell for her thoughtful contributions to this work.