This investigation describes the storybook reading styles of 6 kinderg
arten teachers who read the same 4 storybooks. Transcriptions of audio
tapes and videotapes were classified using a system that emerged from
the data. This system focused on three major facets of style: 1) the f
ocus of the teacher talk during the storybook reading; 2) the type of
information that the teacher and/or the students talked about during t
he storybook reading; and 3) the instructional strategies used by the
teacher. Relying on both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the
data, the investigators determined that each of the six teachers had a
distinctive storybook reading style with variations apparent in each
of the three major facets of style. These findings suggest a need to i
nvestigate whether variations in teacher storybook reading style diffe
rentially influence children's literacy development.