Dialogic Reading

I've heard the phrase before but I've never made the mental connection. After reading a School Library Journal article titled "Charming the Next Generation: A Strategy for Turning Toddlers into Readers" by Renea Arnold, I immediately identify it as the strategy for Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library initiative. As previously noted, I attended a Saroj Gatong workshop on Every Child Ready to Read and she introduced us to the various dialogic reading strategies that are mentioned in the article, including asking the "wh" questions and expanding what the child says. From a teacher's perspective, these strategies certainly set the pre-reader up nicely for many of the reading strategies employed by teachers in future grades. Many outcomes of the performance standards, an evaluative rubric used by teachers to assess reading/comprehension skills (among other things), focus on whether the students demonstrate the ability to wonder about anything in the story (predict), relate an event or character to an experience in their lives, and of course, if they can re-tell the story for comprehension. Having a conversation about the book instead of simply reading it is certainly a good way to set them up for dealing with these kinds of reflective processes.

It's interesting that even though I know all this stuff, I hardly ever do it with my own children! We read books in the morning and in the evening (and in the afternoon if I'm around), and that's all I do is simply read to them. I wonder why I haven't been practicing dialogic reading with them? Crazy. And this from someone who knows better! Can I blame it on the nutty pace of life (sometimes I'm shocked I even get one story read to them during the course of a day) or is it pure laziness (the old, I-know-I-should-read-them-a-story-before-bed-so-let's-get-this-over-with-because-I-need-some-peace-and-quiet routine)? The article I read says that dialogic reading comes naturally to us... I'm not so sure about that. I can still remember Saroj Gatong demonstrating expanding a story: "What's that?" A duck. "Yes, a yellow duck." "What's that?" a fire truck. "Yes, a big, red fire truck." At the time, it seemed rather contrived and unnatural to be quite honest. Don't get me wrong... I see that this technique has its moments and its obvious merits. But I'm glad the article ended with the idea that kids crave variety, and although dialogic reading should be a part of everyone's reading routine, there's nothing wrong with reading a book cover-to-cover either. Variety is the spice of life. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to converse with my kids over a picture book!