Speaking and Listening during Small-Group Reading Instruction

Abstract

This article describes a structure for small-group reading instruction in middle grade classrooms that privileges the conversations engendered from a student's out-loud reading of a challenging text. During individual student’ teacher interactions, a teacher and student can delve deeply into literacy processes, using skills in speaking and listening to work through the reading struggles. Student reading can be the subject of rich discussions between students and their teachers. In doing so, teacher and student attend to standards for reading, listening, and speaking, an efficiency needed as time seems to shrink and demands expand.