Teacher Extratextual Talk During Shared Reading with Students with Extensive Support Needs

ABSTRACT This descriptive study examined the extratextual utterances of 10 special education teachers as they engaged in shared reading with groups of their students with extensive support needs (ESN) in special education classrooms. The independent variables were grade band (i.e., elementary, middle, high) and students’ expressive language (i.e., high versus low percentage of students who combine words, signs or symbols to communicate). The dependent variables included teachers’ book-related extratextual utterances and book-related extratextual questions coded in five mutually exclusive categories (i.e., explicit reference, background only, integrated references, integrated background, and print related). Approximately half of teachers’ extratextual utterances were book related, with explicit reference and background only questions composing 84.4% of all book-related questions. Cross-sectional comparisons of grade bands revealed no significant differences in the percentage of book-related, extratextual utterances or questions (p = .188, = .38; p = .099, = .48, respectively). Cross-sectional comparisons of groups with high and low percentages of students who use language expressively revealed no significant differences for book-related, extratextual utterances or questions (p = .202, g = .77; p = .160, g = .89, respectively). The implications for teacher practice in shared reading with students who have ESN are discussed.