Good Essay About Dialogic Reading

Dialogic reading is a learning method for children whereby the adult assists the child in becoming the teller of the story. This means that the adult becomes the audience for the child, listening and asking questions. It is a technique that applies the PEER sequence which is broken down into prompt, evaluate, expand and repeat. To prompt is to make a child speak. This involves asking a question. By asking the child a question, he or she will be compelled to speak or respond. As the listener, the adult then evaluates the response. Evaluating the response involves examining whether the child’s response is right or wrong. In addition to this, the adult has to respond to the child and also expand on the response. Expanding is adding more information to the response in order to pass more knowledge to the child. The final part of the sequence is repeat which involves a review of what has been read. This can be in the form of re-reading hence enhancing recalling and memory.
Comparing dialogic reading to the traditional instructional method of teaching and giving assessment tests, the former is more superior. Examining from the sequence, the traditional instructional methods only cater for the first two parts of the sequence. Children are taught and then given an assessment test which determines whether they are right or wrong. However, it ends at just that, and children do not get to expand their knowledge. Dialogic reading helps children develop their comprehension and language skills. It is also a method that does not require the conventional classroom setting for learning. Parents can read with their children helping them to develop vocabulary and other basic reading and speaking skills before they even join school.