Teacher-Student Interaction during Oral Reading and Rereading

Abstract

In this article I report six case studies of interactions between less proficient readers and their teachers during oral reading and rereading. The questions were: Does children's reading accuracy determine teacher-student interaction patterns? Are there additional factors that explain differential interaction patterns? I determined whether the focus of teacher-student interactions shifted from decoding to meaning as accuracy rates improved with successive readings. Results indicated that a clear shift to a meaning focus occurred for one of five cases for which there were data. In the remaining cases, teacher-student interaction did not shift from decoding to meaning as accuracy improved. In one case, accuracy remained below a threshold level for achieving a meaning focus. For the others, the decoding focus decreased as accuracy improved but the shift from decoding did not lead to a focus on meaning. Children's control of meaning and teachers' focus on fluency goals, were influenced by the teachers' pursuit of alternative instructional goals. Accuracy was a critical factor in achieving meaning-focused teacher-student interactions in these case studies; however, the nature of text material and teachers' instructional goals also influenced the nature of teacher-student interactions.