Not Just Talk, But a "Dance''! How Kindergarten Teachers Opened and Closed Spaces for Teacher-Child Authentic Dialogue

Although authentic dialogue between teachers and young children is vital to the learning process, increasingly diverse student populations and a focus on high-stakes testing, challenge teachers' approaches to such conversations. This study examined the verbal and nonverbal interactions between five teachers and young children using child-taken photographs to promote conversation. Analysis exposed how the teachers' nonverbal and verbal responsiveness opened and closed conversational spaces for the children to describe their home contexts. This teacher-child dance illuminates the necessary and effective pursuit of attending to both verbal and nonverbal communication in authentic dialogue and suggests a teacher choreograph that, when attended to, is positioned for effective and efficient use within the increasingly diverse and time-pressured classroom.