Dialogic reading

Dialogic reading is a strategy for improving the skills for comprehension, vocabulary, oral language, and print awareness in readers of all ages. It is an interactive approach that is most often used with small children but can be applied to individual and small groups of readers of all ages. Instead of simply reading the material, the adult or leader engages the readers in a series of questions that encourage them to think more deeply about the subject matter, understand it better, and develop related language and thinking skills at the same time. It is sometimes referred to as active reading.

Background

The dialogic reading technique developed in the 1980s from experiments conducted with the assistance of parents and their preschool children. Educator Grover J. Whitehurst and his colleagues enlisted parents to read to their children while using more open-ended questions, avoiding questions that the child could answer by pointing to illustrations or with one-word answers, and expanding on their children’s responses to all questions. A second group of parents simply read the storybooks to their children without applying any of these techniques.

All the reading sessions were recorded for review by the researchers, and the children’s language abilities were tested before and after a number of reading sessions. The results of these tests indicated that the children who were asked the more interactive questions and encouraged to think about the story in greater detail scored higher on a number of measures of language usage, including using longer words and phrases and fewer responses that were single words. This led to the formalized technique of dialogic reading that is used by educators and adapted for use by parents.

Overview

The dialogic reading process takes its name from the idea that it is a dialogue, or discussion, between two or more people. It is most commonly used between early childhood educators and students or parents and their children, but can be used in any situation where one person is guiding or leading another person or small group of people through a text. Because it requires direct and frequent interaction between the readers and the teacher or facilitator, dialogic reading is not usually used as effectively in large group settings, such as a library reading hour or a full elementary school class.

While the teacher or facilitator leads the readers through the material, dialogic reading is reader/student-focused. They become active participants in the reading process whether or not they are capable of reading independently. Young children are no longer passive participants in the reading, and older students or adults are not simply presented with material and quizzed on comprehension afterward. This process broadens the benefits of reading the material beyond simply enjoying a story or absorbing material and encourages the growth of many important skills.

Those who apply the dialogic reading strategy use several acronyms to help them implement the technique. The first is “PEER,” which stands for Prompting the child or student to comment on the material, Evaluating that response, Expanding on the response, and Repeating the prompt. For example, while reading the story of Cinderella, the adult might prompt the child by asking, “What did Cinderella lose?” After the child replies, “A slipper,” the adult would evaluate the answer and expand on the child’s answer by saying, “Yes, she lost her glass slipper!” The adult then reinforces this by asking, “What kind of slipper did Cinderella lose?” and affirming the child’s response of “A glass slipper.”

Another memory technique used for remembering this part of the process is “Follow the CAR.” This stands for Following the child’s lead, Commenting in some way on what the child says and then waiting to see how the child reacts, Asking questions about what the child sees or has heard and then again waiting, and finally Responding to the child’s input and waiting again for further responses.

Educators also use the acronym “CROWD” to help remember the types of questions to use during the dialogic reading process. “CROWD” stands for Completion, Recall, Open-ended, Wh- questions, and Distancing. These factors help expand understanding of the story or material, provide information about context and story structure, improve verbal competency and vocabulary, and build other related skills.

Completion questions are those in which the reader leaves off part of a phrase or sentence, such as “Cinderella rode to the ball in a coach made from a ‗‗‗‗‗ (pumpkin).” These questions are most commonly used with younger children and are especially useful when the material rhymes, but they can be used with any book where the answer can be found in the pictures. They help younger readers learn about language structure and rhyming.

Recall questions encourage remembering details, such as “Who helped Cinderella get ready for the ball? (fairy godmother).” With young children, these questions work best for books the child has already experienced, but older readers can use them with all material. They help build an understanding of how a plot works and how a storyline progresses and provide practice in discerning important details in a story.

Open-ended questions encourage deeper thinking about the material, such as “Why did the fairy godmother help Cinderella?” They can also be used with picture books to give the child practice at predicting what might happen. This helps build an understanding of story structure and allows the child to practice verbal skills and develop greater verbal fluency and a larger vocabulary.

Wh- questions are those that start with who, what, where, when, or how and might include “What time did Cinderella have to leave the ball?” The adult facilitator might also point to something in a picture book and ask, “What is Cinderella wearing? (a gown or a slipper).” These questions help the child with recall and also help develop new vocabulary.

Distancing questions are those that help take the material into the real world, such as “If you could have one wish from a fairy godmother, what would it be?” or “Do you think a glass slipper would be comfortable? What kind of shoes are comfortable for you?” These questions build verbal fluency and vocabulary and also help connect the story to the real world. In older readers, questions such as “How do you think Tom Sawyer’s friends felt when he tricked them into painting the fence?” make the same type of connections between fiction and reality.

Research on dialogic reading has determined that it boosts children’s reading comprehension and language development. Children who are learning English as a second language have shown progress similar to that of their peers when using these methods. Dialogic reading techniques are sophisticated enough to be used in classrooms and simple enough to be used at home. Applying even a few of the techniques some of the time has been shown to provide benefits to readers.

AI-powered techniques called Artificially Intelligent Dialogic Reading Aids (AIDAs) have been developed in the twenty-first century to enhance the benefits of dialogic reading and facilitate proper learning techniques between the learner and learning facilitator/caregiver. As the learner reads, these tools generate personalized prompts for any book to engage the reader in real-time using dialogic methods that the learning facilitator can read aloud to the student. This reduces the learning facilitator/caregiver’s burden of creating questions, which can lead to burnout over time. The technology also allows individuals without technical expertise in dialogic reading methods to facilitate effective learning sessions.

Bibliography

"AIDA: An Artificially Intelligent Dialogic Reading Aid." Vanderbilt University, 12 June 2024, lab.vanderbilt.edu/live/2024/06/12/aida-an-artificially-intelligent-dialogic-reading-aid. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

“Dialogic Reading.” U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, 8 Feb. 2007, ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/WWC‗Dialogic‗Reading‗020807.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

“How Dialogic Reading Changed Kayden.” Raising a Reader Massachusetts, raisingareaderma.org/dialogic-reading-in-action. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Moore, Dina, and Cheryl Cisero Durwin. Empowering Young Readers: Dialogic Reading with Integrated Vocabulary Enrichment. Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.

Riad, Rasmus. "Exploring Language Skills and Well-Being in Inclusive Preschools: The Impact of a Dialogic Reading Intervention." Stockholm University, 2024, su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1845601/FULLTEXT01.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Towson, Jacqueline A., et al. “Dialogic Reading in Early Childhood Settings: A Summary of the Evidence Base.” Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 17 Sept. 2017, doi.org/10.1177/0271121417724875. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Whitehurst, Grover J. “Dialogic Reading: An Effective Way to Read Aloud with Young Children.” Reading Rockets, www.readingrockets.org/article/dialogic-reading-effective-way-read-aloud-young-children. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.