Scientific discourse in early childhood: Reading aloud and responding to nonfiction in a kindergarten community of learners

This qualitative study described the nature of young children's responses to science-related nonfiction books that were read-aloud in an interactive classroom setting. The classroom was a kindergarten community of learners situated in a suburban elementary school. Discourse data for this sociocultural teacher research project were gathered through a reflection journal, audio- and videotapes of read-aloud and small group writing sessions, and text analysis of eight selected nonfiction books.; Analysis of these data made use of three interrelated perspectives: (a) a view of science as a particular discourse community and of the classroom as a particular community-institutional setting, (b) a view of the face-to-face interactions of students and their responses to works of nonfiction, and (c) a view of the response profiles of three focal students. This triangulated analysis of the discourse data revealed a classroom culture in which purposes for activities, language modes, and curricular areas blended together through day-to-day activities and routines. Analysis also revealed that students responded to several features of the readaloud text and context, particularly the pictures in the books and the verbal contributions of other students.; Additionally, the text and context evoked 10 different response types through which the students co-constructed the activity of the read-aloud as a collaborative meaning-making endeavor and connected books to their prior personal and shared experiences. Together, the categories embodied the nature of the students' response to nonfiction and reflected a classroom scientific discourse. The response types and the text-context features that elicited them occurred in the response profiles of the three focal students in different combinations and to varying degrees.; The study of the particular kindergarten community of learners led to insights about the dialogic relationship of children's ideas and the ideas represented in the words and pictures in the nonfiction literature selections. The nonfiction books in this case mediated the intermingling of scientific and everyday concepts and contributed to the construction of a classroom discourse of science. Through reading aloud and responding to nonfiction, teachers may support their young students in participating in the social and cultural practice of science in early childhood and later in life.