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We've gotten a lot of enthusiastic feedback about the training we offer Volunteer Readers, particularly for the presentation by Maren Ostergard of the King County Library System on the Dialogic Reading Method—a fancy name for engaging kids in a conversation about the book you're reading so that they stay interested and get more out of it.

Children learn most from books (or anything!) when they are actively involved. Maren uses the acronym PEER* (Prompt, Evaluate, Expand, Repeat) as a mnemonic device for remembering the steps involved in dialogic reading, which is really all about asking questions, listening, and responding. Try the following sequence and see if the children you read to seem more interested and acquire skills faster:

Prompt the child to say something about the book as a whole, or the page you're on.

• Ask a question about something. Use who, what, where, when, why or how questions about the story and its pictures. (e.g. What is he doing? Why do you think she's grinning?)
• Have the child complete a common word or phrase in the story. (Chicka chicka boom boom, will there be enough ____?)
• Ask the child to name something on the page or talk about something in the story. (Do you know what that is? What do you think is happening in this story?)
• Ask questions about what happened in a book you've already read. (Who was this book about? What funny thing happened after the zookeeper locked up all the animals?)
• Ask the child to relate the book to his or her own experiences. (Have you ever felt that angry? When? Can you tell me about a favorite toy of yours? Have you ever been to a zoo?)
• Make sure to ask both straightforward, factual questions, such as "What color is that boy's shirt?" and more open-ended questions, such as "What kind of games do you like to play?"

Evaluate the child's response.

• Is the answer correct? This will help you figure out what information you can add. (Maybe the child correctly identified a rhino, or maybe s/he called it a hippo.)

Expand on the child's response by rephrasing or adding a little more information.

• Expand on what the child says. This will help to build vocabulary. (You're right—it's a rhinoceros! That's a big word, isn't it? Do you know that its nickname is rhino? They don't have a rhino in the zoo in Seattle, but they do at some other zoos.)
• If the child gives an incorrect answer, provide the correct answer. (It does look like a lot like a hippo, doesn't it? It's actually a rhinoceros. See the big pointy thing on its snout? That's called a horn. A hippo has a rounder snout, not a pointy one.)

Repeat to reinforce learning.

• Repeat what the child has said, or have the child repeat your expansion. (I'm impressed that you know that is a rhino. How fun that you've seen a real rhino at a zoo with your grandma. Which animal has a point on its snout—a rhino or a hippo? Do you remember what the pointy thing is called?)

With practice, using dialogic reading will become second nature, and you'll find yourself engaging with the children you read to in a more interesting and effective way. Remember that by using simple language and talking about the books you read with young children, you're building important early literacy skills, such as increasing their vocabulary; helping them to develop their expressive language, narrative and conversational skills; and you're helping them to develop critical social and emotional skills by giving them your time and attention.

Have fun!

*Source: Dr. Grover J. Whitehurst, Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, SUNY, Stony Brook

Additional resources for more information:
Multnomah County Library, Dialogic Reading
Committee for Children, Linking Literacy and Language with Social and Emotional Learning
International Reading Association, Promoting Emergent Literacy and Social-Emotional Learning Through Dialogic Reading