Partner Reading and Writing: Peer Social Dialogue and the Zone of Proximal Development

Abstract

This classroom action research study investigated Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development using peer social dialogue integrated with teacher support to develop children's reading, writing, and abstract thinking in story reflection and sense of audience. Twenty-four first and second graders were paired for a 6-week partner reading and writing activity to provide peer social dialogue through partner storybook reading, discussion, and dialogue journal writing. A class mini-lesson on verbal story reflection added teacher support to the partner instructional activity. Data sources included student evaluations of their own classroom literacy performance and preferences, observational notes collected during the partner sessions, and students' dialogue journal entries. Students showed the most improvement in word recognition, minimal improvement in fluency, accurate evaluations of their own reading progress, and felt more positive about reading aloud. Students' journal entry writing progressed from copying their partners' statements to printed conversations about their stories. Teacher support influenced students' written dialogue and the strategies they used to share text meaning in verbal dialogue.

Partner Reading; Pumping Up the Students’ Reading Comprehension?

“…Vaughnetal., (2000) highlight that Partnerreading is easy to implement an intervention that helps increase reading fluency especially for students who have been identified with reading disabiities or have lowachievement reading abilities. Krauss (1995) states that the use of a partner reading and writing activity is recommended to improve students' word recognition, writing, and higherlevel thought processes involved in reading. The partner reading and writing collaboration activity seemed to provide an added purpose for students' engagement in rereading and writing about their books, although rereading and writing were their least preferred classroom literacy activities (Krauss; 1995).…”

Dialogue-based peer learning of educational topics in a university classroom

“…According to Roy Killen (2000), reading and discussing texts provide an opportunity for peer dialogue (Dixon-Krauss 1995), which in turn offers a chance for students to communicate and explore both the individual and collective presuppositions, ideas and feelings that subtly influence their interactions (Bohm et al 1991). To facilitate learning, social interactions require intentional actions from people who are willing to listen and respond to each other's opinions.…”

Negotiating Complexity: A Bioecological Systems Perspective on Literacy Development

“…A strong sense of classroom community allows readers to benefit from peer interactions. For example, the first graders in Dixon-Krauss's [1995)] study read with their slightly older second grade buddies and their relationships, as much as the texts they read and the activities in which they engaged, served to support literacy development in a reciprocal way for both sets of students. In contrast, even if a classroom is well-organized with a range of rich experiences and the teacher is warm and facilitative, strained relations between a child and her/his peers may interfere with literacy learning.…”