Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

dialogic reading techniques as cost- and time-efficient techniques for increasing
children‘s literacy skills within preschool contexts.
Unlike the research of Whitehurst et al. (1994, 1999), intervention methods in the
current study were only implemented in the preschool classroom context and only
included the dialogic reading component (versus Whitehurst et al.‘s (1994, 1999)
implementation of dialogic reading and a phonemic program in the classroom context).
Also, whereas Whitehurst et al.‘s control group followed the regular Head Start
curriculum, the book reading control group in the current study read emotion-laden
storybooks in addition to the regular Head Start curriculum. Thus, the current study
included a stricter test of dialogic reading effects on children‘s vocabulary skills because
children assigned to the book reading control group in the current study participated in
the regular Head Start curriculum as well as additional weekly storybook readings.
Regarding emotion knowledge, children attending half-day Head Start classrooms
assigned to the intervention group demonstrated the greatest affective perspective taking
skills of all groups following intervention implementation. Children attending full-day
Head Start classrooms assigned to the intervention group, however, demonstrated the
least affective perspective taking skills of all groups. Perhaps the addition of dialogic
reading with emotional storybook content to the full-day classroom schedule was too
taxing for children. Asking dialogic reading questions may have made readings too
lengthy compared to reading storybooks as usual (as did teachers in the book reading
control group), consequently leading to children‘s disengagement from storybook reading
participation and thus not gaining social-emotional benefits. Also, children in half-day
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