Early Literature Conversations: Literary and Pedagogical Growth in the Social Environment of the Preschool Classroom

• In Event: 61.018 - The Power in the Word: Critical and Conscious Examinations of Text

Abstract

Classroom talk focused on literature, especially that encourages active student involvement, creates numerous possibilities to advance students’ literacy and literary understandings. In this qualitative study, I explored through a social constructivist lens how preschoolers and their teachers constructed knowledge through participation in literature conversations, to better understand the literary learning possible for students and teachers in the social context of the classroom and to identify pedagogical growth possibilities for teachers through studying their literature discussion practices. Preliminary findings evidence the complexity of balancing open conversation in literature discussions with other instructional concerns as teachers attempt to encourage participants to interact freely in the social environment of the literature discussion while juggling students’ immediate needs with other instructional components.

Author

• Sherry Lynn Sanden, Illinois State University