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.




How did they get there?  The core aim of reading comprehension is to improve a child's understanding of a piece of text.  One way this is brought about is to bring five or six children together to discussion questions based on the text.  The expectations are that all members of the group will contribute with little or no teacher prompting, that they will make eye contact with the others while speaking, not direct the answer at the teacher, use language such as; "I agree...." or "I disagree....", reflect and refer to what others have said and that they speak clearly, in full sentences.  This takes them a few weeks to get used to but with enough encouragement most children will begin to articulate clear reflective opinions with confidence.

I have found that as they develop as dialogic communciators, they begin to transfer this type of talk into other lessons. This form of pedagogy has even further benefits.  Studies of classroom communication indicate that certain patterns of interaction – exploratory talk, argumentation and dialogue – promote high-level thinking and intellectual development.  A growing body of research shows that children learn more effectively, and intellectual achievements are higher, when they are actively engaged in pedagogic activity, through discussion, dialogue and argumentation (Mercer and Littleton, 2007).