An Overview of Dialogic Reading

References

Flynn, K. S. (2011). Developing children's oral language skills through dialogic reading. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(2), 8-16.

An Overview of Dialogic Reading in the Classroom

I chose the article "Developing Children's Oral Language Skills Through Dialogic Reading" because I believe that language development is closely related to a child's literacy skills. With all of the laws surrounding education today, it is crucial for special education teachers to find evidence-based methods to develop their students language and literacy skills. As stated by Flynn (2011) "One promising research based strategy is dialogic reading (DR), which is an interactive picture-book reading technique developed in the late 1980's by Whitehurst and colleagues"(p. 8).

Dialogic reading is different from typical shared reading because it is implemented through small groups. Instead of the teacher reading the story aloud to the whole class, she divides the class into smaller groups and promotes language and active participation through a series of prompts. The concept is for the teacher to gradually decrease her talking and for the students to gradually increase theirs. Flynn (2011) stated "The process focuses primarily on the book's illustrations and is broken down into three levels, each with its own strategy for engaging students" (p. 9). Level one introduces new vocabulary to students. Level two is called practice and expansion, and allows students to practice using the new vocabulary they have been introduced to while the teacher works on expanding students' responses. After mastering levels one and two, the teacher moves on to level three where the students relate the story to their own real life experiences. Once all students can answer level three type questions the teacher has the option of using extension and enrichment activities to further the learning process. These types of activities can be anything from story reenactment to art projects. It is critical for the teacher to make sure that all learners are actively engaged during all levels of dialogic reading. Educators should take into account student to teacher ratio, classroom management and organization, age, and individual learning abilities when deciding how to construct their groups.

I think that dialogic reading is something that can be implemented into your daily schedule in the classroom. Since I want to teach PPCD, my students would range anywhere from three to five years of age. The first step for me would be to find a picture book that is age appropriate and has minimal text. According to Flynn (2011) "The illustrations are used to introduce new vocabulary and to facilitate children's expressive language" (p. 12). From there I would familiarize myself with the story and pull out the vocabulary I wanted to introduce to my students. As a reference during my dialogic reading session, I would write out the vocabulary and page numbers of when to introduce each word on an index card and tape it to the back of the book. As a class I would read the story aloud and then break up into small reading groups based on how I see fit at the time. Each class will be different, so it will be my responsibility to group students where they