4.3: Dialogic Reading

Dialogic Reading improves early literacy skills. This evidence-based practice engages children as active participants in the storybook reading process (Noble et al, 2020). In Dialogic Reading, the caregiver becomes an active listener by “asking questions, adding information, and prompting the child to increase the sophistication of his or her descriptions of the material in the picture books” (Whitehurst, 2023).Dialogic Reading increases print awareness and assists preschool children in making gains in print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, and language development (Barrow, 2018. Parra et al, 2016). Dialogic Reading strategies also help children demonstrate progress in expressive abilities, vocabulary development, and inferential and narrative comprehension skills (Kim, 2021. Grolig et al, 2020).

Implementing Dialogic Reading Strategies

Implementation of Dialogic Reading strategies begins with coaching stakeholders in three key areas: text selection, concepts of print, and foundational components of Dialogic Reading strategies, which are detailed below. The coaching includes providing teachers, teacher candidates, caregivers, and community stakeholders multiple opportunities to practice selecting text, asking questions, and engaging in meaningful and impactful dialogue about books.

Selecting Texts for Dialogic Reading

Text selection is pivotal when implementing Dialogic Reading strategies. Well-chosen texts serve as a catalyst for engaging learners and facilitating interactive discussions to help children develop language, critical thinking, and comprehension skills. Several factors should be considered when selecting narrative and expository texts for the explicit implementation of Dialogic Reading strategies:

• Appropriateness: Select texts that align with children’s ages, interests, and developmental levels. Ensure that both picture books and wordless picture books are relatable, compelling, and engaging to foster meaningful interactions. Picture books should provide predictable and clear storylines to support narrative comprehension and narrative production skills. Wordless picture books positively impact narrative comprehension, vocabulary skills, and the acquisition of oral language skills (Grolig et al, 2020).
• Authentic Language: Choose texts that showcase natural and authentic language usage and conversational patterns, including idiomatic expressions.
• Bilingual Texts: Select bilingual texts to support language development and cross-cultural understanding. Look for texts that are available in both languages that maintain similar content and themes.
• Cultural Relevance: Choose texts that reflect children’s cultural backgrounds and heritage language, enriching their connection to the content and enabling meaningful conversations.
• Language Demands: Choose texts that match the language needs of the children. For English Language Learners, when the focus is on developing English language proficiency, consider texts with simple vocabulary and sentence structures and gradually progress to more complex text as language proficiency increases.
• Rereadability and Interactive Potential: Prioritize books with high levels of repetition and fanciful elements to encourage meaningful interactions, facilitating discussions, making predictions, asking questions, and making connections (Phillips, 2022).

Curriculum Alignment: Select books that align with the various reading development aspects:

• Phonological Awareness: Highlight skills like word and syllable counting, rhyming, alliteration, phoneme manipulation, and wordplay.
• Concepts of Print: Focus on word and print awareness, directionality, functions of print, and effective book usage.
• Alphabetic Knowledge: Foster discussions about the alphabet and letter recognition.
• Comprehension and Vocabulary: Prioritize narrative and expository books where illustrations and text clarify characters or people, objects, and actions (Texas Education Agency, 2002).

Concepts of Print During Dialogic Reading

Concepts of Print are the awareness of the forms and functions of printed language (Urbani, 2020). During Dialogic Reading, adults introduce and review predetermined Concepts of Print with children prior to reading as a part of a daily routine (Whitehurst et al, 2023). Print awareness begins with recognizing letter shapes, names, sounds, words, features, and functions of print, and subsequently the understanding that oral and written language are related. Explicitly teaching the Concepts of Print helps children to recognize print around them and understand that print carries a message for both enjoyment and learning new information. The Concepts of Print are skills that children acquire during Dialogic Reading and while interacting with predictable and patterned books. Below are questions or requests that adults can ask children during the Dialogic Reading process to develop their understanding of the Concepts of Print.

Concepts of Print

Concept of Book Show me the cover (back, front) of the book. Where is the title (author, ilustrator)?	Concept of Text Show me where the book tells a story. Can you point to a word (two words, letter)? Point to each word as you read. What are the names of some of the letters?
Directionality Where do we start (finish) reading the book? Which way do we go when reading? Show me the top (bottom) of the page. Where do we go at the end of the line (page)? Which way do we turn the page? Show me the first (last) word on the page.	Mechanics Show me a capital (lowercase) letter. What is this (period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks)? What does this mean (period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks)

Foundational Components of Dialogic Reading

The foundational components of Dialogic Reading include PEER (Prompt, Evaluate, Expand, and Repeat) and CROWD (Completion prompts, Recall prompts, Open-ended prompts, Wh-prompts, and Distance prompts). These components work together to ensure that children are prompted to respond to questions and to interact in conversations about texts that support comprehension development. The PEER sequence sets the framework for how to encourage extended discourse while using the CROWD question types.

PEER Sequence

Dialogic Reading extends beyond the act of reading a book aloud to children. Through the application of the PEER sequence technique, children are prompted to actively engage with the book and take on the role of the storyteller (Whitehurst et al, 1994). In this process, the adult assumes the roles of the questioner, active listener, and responsive audience. In the PEER sequence strategy, the adult prompts the child to talk about what is on the page, evaluates the child’s response, expands on the response, and repeats the prompt to ensure the child has learned from the expansion. The PEER sequence is incorporated on each page of a picture book following the initial reading of the book. This approach, shared below, stimulates significant language and vocabulary development.

Prompt the child to say something about the book or name an object on the page.	Say: “Tell me what happened on this page.” Ask: “What is this?” (while pointing to a picture of a cow)
Evaluate the child’s response.	After the child responds, confirm the correct responses, or share the correct response. Say: “Yes, that is correct. That is a cow.” or “Great try. However, that is actually a cow.”
Expand the child’s response by rephrasing and adding information to it.	Say: “It has four legs and a tail like a dog, but a cow is bigger than a dog and a cow says, “moo.”
Repeat the prompt to make sure the child has learned from the expansion.	Ask: “What is this (while pointing to the picture)? What does the cow say?”

Source: Whitehurst et al 1994.

CROWD

Dialogic Reading has five distinct types of prompts, or question types to initiate the PEER sequences previously shared. These prompts are categorized under the acronym CROWD (Whitehurst et al, 1994).

The following chart provides specific details about each question type and includes prompts or questions tailored for adults to use during the implementation of CROWD. The example below uses the illustrative children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to model focused and explicit discussions using the CROWD strategy through the framework of Dialogic Reading.

Prompt/ Question Type	Details	In The Classroom/Home/Community
Completion Questions	Leave the end of the sentence blank for the child to fill in while reading a repetitive book with rhyme and/or rhythm. These questions/prompts support students with the development of syntax, and the structure of language.	Adult: I see a yellow duck looking at me (The adult shows the child the next page and has them complete the repetitive and rhythmic phrase). Child: Yellow duck, yellow duck, whot do you see?
Recall Questions	Ask questions throughout the reading of the book that require students to retell what was read in fiction or informational books. Children’s retelling should include an understanding of the story elements(characters, plot, etc.) and facts from the story.	Adult: What did the purple cat see? Child: The purple cat saw a white dog looking at him.
Open-Ended Questions	Ask questions that provide children the opportunity to use detailed illustrations as well as the text in picture books to respond. With practice, children will improve expressive fluency and attention to detail.	Adult: Tell me what is happening on this page. Child: Responding by sharing what they notice in the pictures and words read aloud.
"Wh" Questions	Ask questions while reading picture books that begin with who, what, where, when, why, and how. The questions should focus on the story elements, key details, and questions about new vocabulary and literary phrases.	Adult: What color is the frog? Where does the story take place? Child: (Responds based on the text and the illustrations).
Distancing Question	Ask questions that allow students to relate to the words and pictures in the book. Distancing questions encourage vocabulary growth, verbal fluency, focused extended discourse, and the ability to relate literary text to real-life experiences.	Adult: What does…remind you of? Have you ever…? Child: I remember when... This makes me think about...

Reading Strategies to Support Dialogic Reading

Once there is comfort with asking CROWD question types using the PEER Sequence, adults can use the reading strategy question types to support comprehension development. Text comprehension can be fostered by helping children use specific reading comprehension strategies while engaging with a book (Whitehurst et al, 1994). Reading strategies that support emergent readers’ interaction with the text include making predictions, answering and generating questions, summarizing text, making connections, and making inferences. Research also supports additional strategies like comprehension monitoring, using graphic and semantic organizers, recognizing story structure, and visualizing (Armbruster et al, 2003).

The table below highlights these reading strategies and the significance of each for nurturing emergent readers’ capacity to delve deeply into texts during read aloud and Dialogic Reading sessions. The children’s book titled, “Snowy Day,” serves as a model text for the reading strategy questions identified in the chart below.

Reading Strategy	In The Classroom/At Home/In the Community
MAKING PREDICTIONS asks students to use the information from the text and personal experiences to “predict” what will happen next.	What do you think will happen to the snowball in Peter’s pocket? Why? What will Peter do next?
ASKING QUESTIONS gives students a purpose for reading and focuses their attention on what they are to learn. There are four types of questions that can be asked: right there; think and search; author and you; and on your own. Teaching students to GENERATE QUESTIONS while reading improves their active processing of the text. It also teaches children that they can ask themselves questions to better understand what is being read.	Right There: These questions are found directly in the text and usually begin with “Wh” questions What is Peter doing? He is sliding down the hill. What did Peter do with the snowball? Think and Search: These questions are in the story, but the answers are across different pages. What caused Peter to be sad? How did… Author and You: These questions require students to use their schema or prior knowledge to make inferences. What will happen to the snowball if Peter takes it into the house? Predict what will happen… On Your Own: These questions require students to use their schema and share their opinions. How would you feel if your snowball melted? Have you ever?
SUMMARIZING requires students to identify the central or main ideas and to remember what they have read. In early literacy, students will “retell” the story in their own words.	Tell me about Peter’s adventures in Snowy Day. Tell me what happened after Peter put the snowball in his pocket.
MAKING CONNECTIONS helps students make use of PRIOR KNOWLEDGE to improve comprehension. Students connect the text to self, to other text, and to the world.	What happens to ice when it sits out? What do people do on snowy days? Have you seen a movie or read a book about people playing in the snow?
MAKING INFERENCES enables students to draw conclusions from textual evidence or clues and prior knowledge. It helps students learn when information is not directly stated in the text but is only implied.	Do you think Peter will be sad when he realizes that the snowball melted? How do you know that?

This toolkit serves as an evidence-based resource for improving early literacy skills. The student-centered strategies engage emergent readers
as active participants in their own literacy learning journey through print and alphabet knowledge, listening and reading comprehension development, and most importantly oral and expressive language development. By implementing the strategies in this toolkit, teachers, teacher candidates, families/caregivers, and community partners can engage in meaningful conversations about books with emergent readers that will make a lasting impact on their future academic and social emotional growth.

References

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., Osborn, J. (2003). A child becomes a reader : Birth through preschool. National Institute for Literacy and RMC Research Corporation. Contract ED-00CO-0093. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/html/parent_guides/birth_to_pre.html

Barrow, J. (2018). The effect of dialogic reading on second language acquisition, output, and literacy of migrant students in early childhood. A Master’s Thesis Capstone. https://soar.suny.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12648/203/Barrow_Jas-mine_MastersThesis_Spring2018.pdf

Grolig, L., Cohrdes, C., Tiffin-Richards, S. P., & Schroeder, S. (2020). Narrative dialogic reading with wordless picture books: A cluster-randomized intervention study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 51, 191–203.

Kim, Y. (2021). Accelerating early language and literacy skills throughout a preschool-home partnership using dialogic reading: A randomized trial. Child & Youth Care Forum, 50, 901-924.

Noble, C., Cameron-Faulkner, T., Jessop, A., Coates, A., Sawyer, H., Taylor-Ims, R. & Rowland, C. F. (2020). The impact of interactive shared book reading on children’s language skills: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(6), 1878-1897.

Parra, M. O., Wagner C. J., Proctor, C. P., Leighton, C. M., Robertson, D. A., Paratore, J. R., & Ford-Connors, E. (2016). Dia-logic reasoning: Supporting emergent bilingual students’ language and literacy development. In C. P. Proctor, A. Boardman, & E. H. Hiebert (Eds), Teaching emergent bilingual students. New York: The Guilford Press.

Phillips, B. (2022). Dialogic Reading: An evidence-based language development strategy. Literacy Today, January/February/March, 26-29.
Ibid. 2022

Texas Education Agency. (2002). Guidelines for examining phonics and word recognition programs: Texas Reading Initia-tive. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/alphabetic-principle

Urbani, J. M. (2020). Dialogic reading: Implementing an evidence-based practice in complex classrooms. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 52(6), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059920917694

Whitehurst, W. G., Kim, J., Koenig, S. G., & Chirik, P. J. (2023). C (sp3)–C (sp2) Reductive Elimination versus β-Hydride Elimination from Cobalt (III) Intermediates in Catalytic C–H Functionalization. ACS Catalysis, 13, 8700-8707.

Whitehurst, G. J., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., & Payne, A. C. (1994). Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention in head start. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(4), 542–542.