The benefits of Dialogic Reading Comprehension

Having witnessed the children from my class last year transform into students who could listen to another's point of view, formulate their own opinion while reflecting on what the other had said and express it clearly in full sentences; I was delighted when a child in my new class started to do it after the first 5 weeks.

Children's reading response work

Reading response based on The Spiderwick Chronicles #1 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Invisible Dog by Dick King-Smith

The Spiderwick Chronicles #1 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Children reflecting on their learning

Reflecting on why some children who always jump in first are getting the wrong answers.

Child 1: "I think because they want to...they just want to jump in because they want to say something really badly and they speak for the longest and probably get the wrong answer because they haven't thought to themselves and they haven't listened to other people.

Child 2: "I think that shorter answers are better because they are not too long and sometimes you can get the right answer but when they do like a long answer you get quite confused with what they are saying and you don't really understand.

Child 3: "I think it's because maybe they want to get a house point because maybe they think they have the right answer. So they should listen to other people.

Child 4: "I think the people who jump in first don't really like, know anything. They just think they know and they think they are the best and like sometimes, as Mr. O' Connor said that they like, they don't have the right answers. It takes too much time and they don't think about what they are actually going to say.

Reflecting on Reading Comprehension sessions.

Children dominate reading group but do not always get the correct answer

From recent recordings of a particular group in my dialogic reading comprehension sessions I have noticed how two children dominate the session. When I say dominate, I mean they always want to answer first and will continue to talk until another in the group has stopped.  They also take twice as long as everyone else in the group to get their point across and regularly fail to find and deliver the correct evidence from the text.  I think they are too preoccupied with being the first to speak and one of them regularly adds a comment in later such as, "Actually I disagree with what I said earlier" after they have had the benefit of listening to the rest of the group.

To solve this we need to discuss it as a class as it does happen in other groups too. It shows how important it is for children to listen to each other and reflect on what the other has said.

Transcript 17/05/13

Analysis of transcript

For the transcript below I decided to time the answer from each child. I discovered that the first child to answer was taking around a minute and the children after were taking an average of 13.4 seconds. Also the first child's answer to each question rambles on and does not cover the main points needed.  Although I told the first child in the first question that he could have five seconds to think about his answer, he started answering immediately. Reasons for the subsequent shorter answer times are that the children have the benefit of listening to the answers before them and have more thinking time.

Teaching procedure

The following teaching method is similar to reciprocal reading.

Clarifying

This is a five minute period for children to discuss any words they did not understand from the piece of text read the day before. Collectively they attempt to explain any words not understood. They also ask the rest of the group questions they have formulated themselves. Children discuss the answers. This time is also key to help them familiarise themselves with a piece of text that they had read 24 hours ago. 

Transcript part 1 of 2 21/03/13

Question 1

CT: What kind of room did Jared find himself in?”

Child 3: I think Jared found himself in some..em..I know he found himself in a..a little library because it said there was real books and there like was a small room ..em.. books and there can’t be a place like with loads of books that can’t be a library so that’s why I think.”

Child 4: “I agree with child 3 because it did say in the text that it was a smallish library and had a big dirty desk in the middle”.

Child 1: I agree with child 4 because in the text it said he found himself in a smallish library and there was weird books and there was loads of desks.”

CT: “Was there any other description given?”

Child 2: “I think he found himself in a creepy, dirty library because he said that he saw loads of books, of dust and paper with dust and ..em.. it was kind of creepy because there was like spiderwebs or something cos I saw spiderwebs in it and there was like pictures of people.”

Analysis:

Evidence of dialogue, with children listening to each other and referring to what the other child has said. Also referring to evidence from the text.

Transcript part 2 of 2 21/03/13

Question 

Teacher: “How do we know that their mother believes Jared is in bed asleep?”

Child 1: “Because where she went shopping she don’t really know what they did so she might just believe them that he’d gone to bed.”

Child2: “I think she believed them that he was gone to bed because like Jared like they’re brothers and sisters..em.. his sister right, like always like bothers him, and he might just like want to go to sleep and that’s why she thinks he is in his bed.”

Child 3: “I think it’s because .em.. Simon said to Jared to ..em.. ‘sshh’ cos.... to be quiet because his mom maybe could have heard him and maybe and because ..em.. her mom sends them to the bedroom ya. They send him to the bedroom...to the bedroom so..so maybe..em.., ya I think cos the mom told him to go to bed and if they made noise they might, the mom might have caught him.”

Analysis:

Children find the deductive (How do you know?) type question very difficult. They regularly fail to focus on the character’s behaviour or actions in the text, and instead speak generally about the story using their assumptions.

In this example there is no dialogue between children. They answer without referring to what the other child has said.

Their formulation of answers needs to improve. I will share this with the children in the class.