Dialogic Reading
& CLASS
How are these related?
Suzanne Parrott
Barbara Dowling
SDAEYC 2014
Typical Literacy Development
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Three year olds:
Recognize a book by the cover
Pretend to read
Comment on characters
Begin to attend to print in books
Produce some letter like
formations when drawing/writing
Typical Literacy Development
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Four year olds
Recognizes local environmental print
Pays attention to separable and repeating sounds in language
Uses new vocabulary when speaking
Identifies 10 alphabet letters,
especially those in first name
Typical Literacy Development
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Five year olds
Understands that the sequence of letters in a written
word represent the sequence of sounds
Notices when simple sentences fail to make sense
Correctly answers questions related to books
Given spoken segments, can merge the sounds into a
word
What is Dialogic Reading?
Having a conversation about a book.
 All about teaching critical thinking skills.
 Developing experiential knowledge
 Teaching juicy vocabulary
 Developing a relationship with a child
 Making reading an enjoyable experience
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Having a conversation about a book
• Frequent Conversations—back and forth exchanges and
contingent responding
• Repetition and Extension
• Prompting thought processes
• Providing information
• Scaffolding
All about teaching critical thinking skills
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Feedback loops—aim for 5 verbal volleys
Prompting thought processes
Scaffolding
Open-ended questions
Advanced Language
Developing experiential knowledge
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Repetition and extension
Advanced language—connect familiar words/ideas
Provide information
Integration of concepts
Connections to the real world
Concept development
Clarity of learning objectives
Student interest
Effective facilitation
Helps children comprehend what they are reading—
excellent school readiness skill!
Teaching juicy vocabulary
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Language modeling and advanced language
Student Interest
Listening
Focused attention
Integration
Developing a relationship with a child
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Positive climate
Physical proximity
Shared activity
Social conversation
Matched affect
Making reading an enjoyable experience
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Flexibility and student focus
Support for autonomy and leadership
Student expression
Restriction of movement
Positive Climate
Smiling, laughter, enthusiasm
Eye contact
Warm, calm voice
Cooperation and sharing
Student comfort
Awareness and responsiveness
Make reading aloud FUN!!!
• Mem Fox’s reading aloud commandments
• Read aloud with animation—hang loose and be loud,
have fun and laugh a lot!
• Read with joy and enjoyment
• Read stories your child loves, over and over again.
• Let children hear lots of language by talking to them
constantly about the pictures
• Look for rhyme, rhythm, or repetition in books
• Play games with the things you see on the page
• Never ever teach reading or get tense around books
• Read aloud everyday since children love it!
How do I do it?
Putting it all together
Choosing a Book—
The most important step!
• Choosing high-quality books that…
• Have an identifiable plot
• Have at least three vocabulary words
• Interesting and creative illustrations
• Are relevant to children’s lives
• Respect the child’s intelligence and abilities
• Spark conversations—at least 3 conversational turns
• Are based on children’s interests, strengths, or needs
• Have patterns that invite children to participate
• Engage children’s emotions
• Related to children’s special interests and questions
More guidelines on choosing books
• Does the book appeal to young children?
• Is the content developmentally appropriate?
• Does the book encourage discussion about the alphabet
and its purpose?
• Does the book allow you to focus on word awareness,
directionality, or functions of print?
• Is this book a good source of discussion topics?
Preparing a book
• http://community.fpg.unc.edu/connectmodules/resources/videos/video-6-5
Now it is your turn!
• Choose a book
• Using the suggestions for choosing a book and the
CROWD prompts do the following
• Identify the elements that make up a high-quality
book
• Prepare the book with sticky notes placing them in the
pages
Taking a Picture Walk
• A picture walk helps develop your children’s language
and pre-reading skills.
• The book picture walk allows you to find out what your
child knows based on the pictures and encourages them
to think about what they think might happen in the story.
• You are not reading the book. You are encouraging your
child to talk about the pictures
Reading the book
• First time through the book
• Repeated readings
• http://community.fpg.unc.edu/connectmodules/resources/videos/video-6-8
Story retellings
• http://community.fpg.unc.edu/connectmodules/resources/videos/video-6-10
Extensions
• 3 little pigs—what if the wolf was a camel?
• Comparing and contrasting 2 versions of the same story
or fractured fairy tales
• Having the children write their own endings
Working with Parents
• CAR
• C—Comment and Wait
• A—Ask a question
• R—Respond by adding a little more
Extending to parents
• PEER & Follow the CAR
Pulling it all together!
• What do you now understand about DR?
• What do you still have questions about?
• What will you implement next week related to DR?