Join the CROWD: A Strategy for Reading Aloud to Young Children

1. Join the CROWD: A Strategy for Reading Aloud to Young Children 8th Annual Shining Stars Conference By Peggy C. Agee, SLPD, CCC-SLP July 19, 2011

2. Questions That We Will Answer Today: • What is dialogic reading? • Why is dialogic reading important to children’s language development? • How do we “do” dialogic reading? • How can we plan for dialogic reading?

3. “Reading books with young children is one of the single most important things that adults can do to ensure children’s timely development of oral language and emergent literacy skills, both of which are necessary for success in school and ultimately, in life.” Ezell and Justice (2005), xii

4. Shared Reading Has a Unique Quality! Both oral and written language are presented simultaneously! Permits children to acquire BOTH: • Oral language abilities • AND knowledge about print and how print works

5. What is Shared Reading? • A passive activity in which children sit and listen and an adult reads? NO!! • An interactive activity between an adult and child when reading OR looking at a book—a dialogue!!

6. Dialogic Reading: A joint reading adventure!

7. Language Learning is Dynamic! Communication Partner Communication Partner The “space” between communication partners is where language learning occurs. After experiencing language between partners, the learner can then internalize the language, making a part of his/her own system. A Vygotskian notion

8. What Is The Intended Purpose of Dialogic Reading? • To teach children to read? NO! • To assist children to develop the foundation for learning to read.

9. Why DO Dialogic Reading? • Frequency of shared reading with young children accounts for about 7-10% of the variance in children’s: • Primary grade reading, and • Language learning Bus, van Izendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Senechal, LeFebre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998

10. Advantages of Dialogic Reading Experiences Shared reading promotes: • The experience of “story” (concept of story) • Familiarity with the language of books • Familiarity with the mechanics of books • Awareness that print carries meaning ****These are Essential Pre-Reading Skills***

11. Additional Advantages Shared reading of storybooks offers opportunities to: • Decontextualize language • Observe and use a more complex grammar • Observe and demonstrate print concepts • Comprehend and use vocabulary that is more complex than is used in typical day-to-day interactions

12. How Much Shared Reading is Necessary? • “About 1000 books need to be read to a child before he or she enters Kindergarten” so that child is ready for experiences in reading and writing. Morrow, L. (2005)

13. Does QUALITY Matter? • A responsive quality of interaction has greater value in fostering children’s development (Arnold et al, 1994; Bergin 2001; Kaderavek & Sulzby, 1998) • Teachers’ techniques of eliciting active involvement during story time activities in preschool classroom are powerful tools for building early language and literacy skills (Whitehurst, Epstein, et al, 1994; Whitehurst et al, 1999) • When adults are responsive to children in shared reading experiences, positive developmental gains in vocabulary can be expected (Lesemen & deJong, 1998)

14. . . . And more evidence • Two-year-old children whose parents were taught and then implemented a dialogic reading strategy used (on average) TWICE as many multiword utterances, more one-word utterances, and produced longer sentences than did the comparison group. Huebner, 2000

15. What does ADULT RESPONSIVENESS Look Like? • Is child-oriented, child-led, child-directed • Is interactive • Relies as much on commenting as questioning • Uses open-ended questions • Makes use of pauses to allow child to respond • Repeats what child says and adds one more idea • Models appropriate language levels (including vocabulary and sentence structure and grammar) Justice & Ezell, 2005

16. Strategies which are NOT dialogic? • Insistence that children “be quiet” and just “listen” • Reliance on yes-no questions or questions which only have a one-word response • Failure to respond to children’s comments or questions • Reading without pausing for children to interject and comment or question • Failure to offer corrective feedback about ideas, grammar, or syntax.

17. How Can I Remember to DO ALL of That? Have I got a mnemonic for you!!

18. The PEER Strategy for the Developmentally Young Target the child’s oral language and listening comprehension using the PEER sequence • Prompt the child to say something about the book • Evaluate the child’s response • Expand (by adding in necessary grammatical features) and Extend child’s language (add one more idea) • Repeat the correct response

19. CROWD Strategy • C = completion statements which invite an on-topic response • R = questions which invite recall • O = open-ended questions which invite hypothesis, prediction, association, evaluation, • W = wh? Questions which invite new vocabulary learning • D = distancing questions which invite the child to relate his/her own life-experiences to the story Whitehurst, Lonigan, et al, 1988

20. These strategies are for 1:1 shared reading. Right? They won’t work in a group??!! • Not true! • Groups are “messier” but can still be effective, if: • The reader uses the same interactive “frame” • Groups are relatively small • Multiple children are permitted to respond to each stimulus

21. Let’s Try Planning for a Dialogic Reading!

22. Summary: Benefits to Child of DIALOGIC READING • Exposure to more complex languageof others and opportunity to use more complex language • Increased opportunities for conversations with adults • Opportunities to deal with complex issues • Opportunities to refine conversational skills • Observation of higher level “thinking” in others and the Opportunity to develop higher level thinking for self • Opportunities for explicit instruction about forms, features, and functions of print • AND THE CROWD STRATEGY CAN HELP YOU TO ACCOMPLISH THIS!!

23. THANKS! For More Information OR To Chat About Your Experiences with Dialogic Reading: ageepc@longwood.edu I’d love to hear what you are doing!

24. References Huebner. (2000). Promoting toddlers’ language development: A randomized controlled trial of a community-based intervention. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21, 513-535 Justice & Ezell. (2005). Shared storybook reading. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. McGinty, Sofka, Sutton, & Justice. (2006). Fostering Print Awareness through interactive shared reading. In Sharing Books and Stories to Promote Language and Literacy. San Diego: Plural Publishing. Morrow, L. (2005). Literacy development in the early years. Boston: Pearson Pub. Stewart & Lovelace. (2006). Recruiting children’s attention to print during shared reading. In Clinical Approaches to Emergent Literacy Intervention. San Diego: Plural Publishing. Whitehurst, Lonigan, et al. (1988), Accelerating language development through picture book reading. Developmental Psychology, 24, 552-559.