Transactional Read-Alouds: Supporting Teachers in Promoting Critical Literacy in Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Critical and Cultural Literacy for Social Change

Abstract

The researchers designed, implemented, and evaluated a seven-week intervention with the following purpose: to support two ESL teachers learning a transactional literacy experience to assist immigrant children in a second-grade classroom. The intervention was designed to increase teachers’ knowledge of how choose books and themes in their early literacy instruction that emulate immigrant and refugee children experiences, thus encouraging children to use their own prior knowledge while interacting with texts. Data collection included teacher interviews pre- and post-intervention, and classroom observations, twice weekly. Preliminary results indicate that teachers reported that at the end of the seven-week intervention, children in the class were actively involved during the read-aloud.

Authors

• Lilly Steiner, Monmouth University

• Kerry C Rizzuto, Monmouth University