Informational Text Use in Preschool Classroom Read-Alouds

The purpose of the present study was to conduct a comprehensive study of book genres used in preschool classrooms. Text titles gathered from the reading logs of 84 preschool teachers were analyzed and coded for genre (narrative, expository, or mixed). Expository or mixed texts were then further examined according to topics covered. Analyses indicated that (a) narrative texts dominated the genre of text being utilized in preschool classroom read-alouds, representing 82.3% of texts read, (b) among the 125 texts identified as expository or mixed genres, the topic of living creatures was the most common focus, and (c) informational texts on the topics of transportation and geography were read very infrequently. These findings suggest that informational texts are seldom read in preschool classrooms and that when children are exposed to them, the topics addressed do not reflect a wide range of information about the social and natural world. © 2010 International Reading Association, Inc.