School Leadership’s Role in Shaping Parents’ and Retired Teachers’ Perspectives of Shared Reading Julie Beth Rosslee Hofstra University
Introduction
Research Questions
Data Collection Methods
Problem: Leadership’s role in supporting emergent readers’ exposure to reading practices can impact children’s present and future attitudes towards reading as well as their academic successes. Purpose: The findings of these research questions can help educators to better understand, motivate, support, and educate children as readers and learners through the attitudes they exhibit towards reading, as those who exhibit positive attitudes and outlooks towards reading are more likely to continue to engage with reading materials while those who do not are more likely to be reluctant to engage in the reading process. Leaders must not only identify ways to close the achievement gaps between learners; they must also seek to develop an appreciation of reading in all learners, no matter the past reading experiences of children as emergent readers.
What are the adult reading partner’s perceptions of the effects of shared reading experiences on the child participant? How does the adult reading partner’s perception of the child’s response to this shared reading experience influence the adult participant’s willingness and desire to engage in future share reading experiences? How are the adult participant’s perspectives of shared reading shaped by the school leadership? How have retired teachers’ perspectives of shared reading been shaped by the school leadership?
Observations: Each of the two observations included an adult and child dyad engaged in a shared reading activity Interviews: Each interview included the adult reading partner of the observation, as this person both had access to a child and could complete the observed shared reading activity prior to being interviewed Focus Group: Three retired teachers from the case study school district Artifacts: Documents, website postings, summer reading initiatives, social media posts, and online curriculum listings from the school district of this case study that supported at-home reading partner initiatives, such as PIR (Partners in Reading) and World Read Aloud Day. Website of the town library of the case study school district
Conceptual Framework
Participants and Field Settings
Discussion
Participants (Identified Through Purposeful Selection): Two adult and child reading dyads who reside in the case study school district Three teachers who retired from the case study school district Field Settings: Each shared reading dyad’s home for observations and interviews Google Meetfor retired teachers’ focus group
Data Analysis Conducted the observation and interviews and moderated the focus group Conducted first cycle coding (analyzed data; focused on the research questions; created a priori codes in a hierarchy scheme) Conducted second cycle coding (color-coded data in the data table to identify quotes that aligned; looked at the data’s color-coded scheme and collapsed similar codes from the original coding hierarchy; extracted information and created individual tabs within the Excel workbook to identify portions of data that related to the same codes; remerged all the information into a new tab, listing each piece of information that related to a given code in order under that code; organized chunks of data; determined the themes that each code presented and identified the meaning of these themes as they related to the research questions)
Literature Review: Organized into Three Themes 1. Academic Implications of Students Participating in Shared Reading 2. Impact of Shared Reading on Participants’ Perceptions 3. Factors that Influence Dyads’ Participation in Shared Reading
Conclusion Adults recognize the academic benefits of shared reading (Evans et al., 2011; Merga, 2017). Verbally active children enable adults to establish some contexts through which the children speak during shared reading activities (Torr, 2020). Teachers’ perspectives with respect to the impact play has on developing literacy skills impacts how they set up their classroom centers, the types of play they encourage in their classroom, and the support and engagement they provide in teacher-directed play (Pyle et al., 2017). The environment of home may influence children’s emergent literacy skills when they engage in shared reading (Hutton et al., 2017). Shared book reading beginning at six months of age for the child can have positive effects on the parent-child relationship (Canfield et al., 2020). Parents enjoy the opportunity to have protected time with their children, which includes the time and ability to talk (Levy et al., 2018). Parents who have poor personal relationships with reading can develop positive relationships with reading through engaging in shared reading activities (Levy et al., 2018).
Parents in this study indicated maintaining routine shared reading practices to help expand their children’s academic understandings. Through verbal interactions, the children connected with the adult readers and encouraged the adults to continue participating in the shared reading activities. Interactions shared between an adult participant and child when engaged in shared reading positively impacted the adult participant’s perceptions of the child’s responses to the shared reading experience, thereby influencing future shared reading practices of the pair. The retired teachers explained that the case study’s administration promoted the Parents as Reading Partners program within each of the district’s elementary schools, yet parents in this study were unaware of the district leadership’s role in supporting shared reading initiatives.
Findings: Themes Evident Through Data Analysis Benefits of Shared Reading: Positive modeling Learning opportunities for children Opportunities for children to connect with adults Influences on Adults’ Perceptions: Physical and emotional responses Child involvement Value the adult places on consistency of engaging in shared reading School Leadership’s Influence on Adult Reading Participants: Classroom initiatives Programs School Leadership’s Influence on Retired Teachers: Programs