Sustained shared thinking and interactive picture book reading

The quality of educator-child interaction, particularly interactive picture book reading (Whitehurst et al., 1988) and sustained shared thinking (Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2002), has proven to be relevant for fostering children’s language acquisition. This research examines the microprocesses how kindergarten teachers devise polyadic sustained shared thinking-interactions during interactive picture book reading and how they ensure the participation of all children according to their capabilities. The studies, which are part of a larger mixed-method research project, adopt an explorative and qualitative approach. Teachers were videotaped throughout two mornings including a picture book reading session with a small group of children. Sustained Shared Thinking Sequences are analysed based on linguistic conversation analysis (Brinker & Sager, 2013) while interaction processes that lead to participation are examined using a micro ethnographic approach (Garcez, 2017). First results are presented using a video sequence. Pedagogical implications as how to use the potential of polyadic dialogues in heterogeneous groups for fostering language are discussed.