The purpose of this investigation was to explore how teachers' knowledge of read alouds might be shaped by opportunities to explore the crafting of picturebooks and the nature of collaborative meaning-making. Participants were enrolled in a graduate children's literature course across one academic semester. Data included pre and post interviews as…

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…

This study explores the potential of illustrated barcodes of picturebooks in the educational context. The study reviews the modification by artists of conventional and mandatory barcodes into creative barcode placements in picturebooks. By raising awareness of the aesthetic subtleties of barcodes, the paper articulates how these attractive and…

This qualitative case study explored how pre-service teachers responded to social justice-themed picture book read-alouds in an undergraduate literacy course. Data were collected from personal observations, semi-structured focus group interviews, and student work, and were analyzed using inductive analysis. Findings indicate how reading…

Amplifying the racial, linguistic, ethnic, and broader sociocultural resources of Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities remains an urgent endeavor during these precarious times in literacy education. In the wake of continued global and U.S. racial reckoning movements and legislation that narrows early literacy curriculum to isolated skills and…

"Layers of Learning" explores read-aloud strategies designed to enhance your reading and writing standards by capitalizing on the way literature can impact caring communities. With over 200 picture-book suggestions, author JoEllen McCarthy introduces the Heartprint Framework, which demonstrates how you can layer literacy and life lessons…

Picturebooks can broaden students' understanding of diverse experiences and perspectives, both within and beyond their own worlds; in addition, picturebooks can affirm students' identities (Botelho & Rudman, 2009) and create spaces for critical conversations. Using the theoretical framework for critical multicultural analysis, this qualitative…

Memorizing spelling lists and looking up words in the dictionary and then using the words in a sentence is a traditional strategy used for vocabulary acquisition. However, because the students do not learn words in context, their application of knowledge and understanding from this method is uneven. Because picture books may be used for pleasure…

Integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) content and vocabulary within read-alouds of multicultural literature provides powerful learning contexts for enhancing young children's social problem-solving, language development, and comprehension. Multicultural literature allows children to gain greater understanding of themselves and others…

Relatively little is known about preschool teachers' read-aloud techniques with informational picture books. The purpose of this investigation was to identify similarities and differences between preschool teachers' read-aloud techniques with fictional stories, which are commonly read in preschool, and informational texts. Instrumental case study…

This article introduces the results of a research survey that involved 443 preschool and classroom teachers. The objective of the investigation was to discover teachers' views on making picture book reading a part of the teaching process, how picture book reading was incorporated, and how a productive visual response to a picture book was…

This article focuses on the need for increased attention to content issues and working methods for science teaching in Early Childhood Education (ECE). Science education research emphasises the importance of not only focusing on specific phenomena, but also on the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS teaching deals with questions about what science is,…

The authors searched for picture books that are useful for intercultural education and for discovering students' perceptions about the values and intercultural experiences conveyed through the books. To do so, the authors selected two books by following established criteria and analyzed students' responses through semistructured interviews. The…

This article addresses the importance and benefits of integrating informational texts into read alouds in preschool classrooms through an instructional approach entitled REAL Time. Teachers use the REAL Time framework to pair complex storybooks with one or more informational texts in order to develop children's understanding of key vocabulary and…

Picture books have the potential to engage students in multimodal ways of learning in early education setting. This pilot study aims to investigate the efficacy of using picture books specifically written to convey increasingly complex ecosystem concepts and their influence on introducing ecoliteracy to first-grade students. Under the central…