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Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction
Journal of Literacy Research, Spring 2005 by Stahl, Steven A, Heubach, Kathleen M
Study 3-Partner Reading
Because partner reading was an important aspect of our program, both in the redesigned basal reading lesson and during the free-choice reading period, we wanted to find out what went on during partner reading. Our interest began with the teachers' questions about how best to organize partner reading, whether teachers should assign children to work in heterogeneous groups, as had been done in one class, or whether students should select their own partners, as had been done in another class. However, our interests were somewhat more complex. We wanted to capture, qualitatively, some aspects of what made partnerships function in our reading lessons.
To understand these questions, we conducted a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of data collected in two second-grade classrooms where partner reading was an integral part of reading instruction. We were interested in (a) the relative efficiency of different pairings of students, (b) the types of interaction taking place while children read in pairs, (c) the factors that influence decision-making within the pairs, and (d) the factors that influence smooth and fluent reading.
We viewed partner reading as an example of a closed social circle embedded within a larger classroom context. We examined the functions of literacy within this smaller context and how these functions related to the goals of the classroom at large. In this study, literacy learning and paired reading were examined in relationship to the larger social fabric of the classroom.
Subjects. This study was conducted the first year, using the two second-grade classrooms from Oglethorpe Avenue School, with a total of 42 children. The children were largely from middle-class families of diverse ethnicity and represented a range of reading abilities. In both classrooms a newly adopted basal was the foundation for reading instruction. The students read in pairs after the basal story had been introduced and either read orally to the class or individually by each student. The children also read in pairs during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time, which provided an opportunity for reading self-selected books. In these classes, during the 15-20 minutes per day allotted to DEAR, children could choose to read alone or with partners.
Method. During each data-collection cycle, children were assigned to partners in each of three ways: (1) pairs heterogeneous in ability assigned by the teacher, (2) pairs homogeneous in ability assigned by the teacher, and (3) student-chosen pairs. This cycle lasted three weeks. Each child participated in each of the three selection conditions and thus served as his or her own control. Following each partner reading session, each child was given a segment of the basal reader text that was read during that session and asked to read it orally. A running record (clay, 1985) was taken of this reading. The error rate following each reading was used to examine the relative efficacy of the different types of pairings.
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