Abstract of

Sharing Alphabet Books in Early Childhood Classrooms

Barbara A. Bradley

Jennifer Jones

To achieve academically, young children need a strong foundation in literacy. Alphabet knowledge is one aspect of early literacy. This article presents the importance of and the components of alphabet knowledge.

An exploratory study in which prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers read aloud three different alphabet books to their students in a whole-class setting is described. Results indicate that teachers do talk about letters when reading alphabet books, but they emphasize letter names over letter–sound knowledge. Further, text features influenced what aspect of the alphabet teachers emphasized, resulting in relatively little talk about letters for one of the alphabet books. Finally, this article describes how various alphabet books may be used to introduce and to teach young children about literacy.

Abstract from Bradley, B.A., & Jones, J. (2007, February). Sharing Alphabet Books in Early Childhood Classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 60(5), 452–463. doi: 10.1598/RT.60.5.5