Abstract
This article describes academic conversations in kindergarten classrooms and how they vary across two different instructional activities: teacher-led and student-led book conversations. Conversations about texts have been recommended to improve the comprehension of kindergarten through third graders. The research was conducted in a K-8 urban, charter school serving a high percentage of economically disadvantaged children of color in a southeastern state of the United States. Transcripts of student conversations were analyzed to identify elements of academic conversations for primary students proposed by Zweirs and Hamerla (2018). Findings indicate kindergarteners had academic conversations that were sustained across multiple turns and demonstrated their ability to pose, clarify, and support ideas. The researchers also found distinct differences in students’ academic conversations across the two activities with more contingent and elaborate conversations in the student-led conversations.
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Pilonieta, P., Hathaway, J.I. Kindergarteners’ Engagement in Academic Conversations. Early Childhood Educ J 51, 665–674 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01328-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01328-z