Teachers' Use of Scaffolds Within Conversations During Shared Book Reading.

Tricia A Zucker,Richa S Deshmukh,Bridget Curry,Jill M Pentimonti

doi:10.1044/2021_lshss-21-00020

Abstract

We studied conversations initiated through teacher questions during shared book reading in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms as these conversations provide opportunities for the teacher to scaffold emerging language skills. This study provides detailed analysis of scaffolding strategies used by teachers after children answered teachers' questions. Participants included 93 prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers who read aloud a standard narrative text to their class of students. All the sessions were video-recorded, transcribed, and then coded for conversational turns and teacher scaffolding strategies. Descriptive findings showed great variability in the length of conversations and the extent to which teachers used scaffolding strategies. Most teacher scaffolds matched children's accuracy of response such that they provided support after incorrect responses and provided additional challenge after correct responses. Significant sequential associations were observed between the level of children's response and multiple types of scaffolds (e.g., corrective feedback scaffold after incorrect response; discussing factual questions after a correct response). Findings indicate that during shared reading, teachers are responsive to children's answers and are able to provide challenge or support as needed. However, teachers infrequently used scaffolding strategies like causal effects, predictions, and recasts. Given evidence that strategies such as recasts support early language skills, professional development experiences could encourage early childhood teachers to incorporate this and other key scaffolding strategies.

Highlights

We studied conversations initiated through teacher questions during shared book reading in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms as these conversations provide opportunities for the teacher to scaffold emerging language skills
This study builds on the work of an earlier study (Deshmukh et al, 2019) in which we examined the types of questions asked by teachers during shared book reading in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms
We analyzed conversations during shared book reading in 93 prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms

Summary

Introduction

We studied conversations initiated through teacher questions during shared book reading in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms as these conversations provide opportunities for the teacher to scaffold emerging language skills. Chen and de Groot Kim (2014) found that teachers rarely engaged children in conversations beyond three turns “initiation, response, evaluation” across three different contexts of circle time, breakfast time, and playtime in two Head Start preschool classrooms They did not engage in scaffolding strategies to elicit complex language and ideas from the children during these brief conversations. A wide array of literature suggests that shared book reading can positively impact children’s literacy and language skills, especially vocabulary knowledge (Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Justice et al, 2010; Zucker et al, 2013), where children learn new words and use them in novel contexts in conversations with their peers and teachers (e.g., Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000; Piasta et al, 2012). Milburn et al (2014) found that prior to professional development training, their sample of 20 teachers engaged in conversations with 3.5- to 5.5-year-olds, for only up to six or seven turns during shared book reading

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