The Importance of Trust in Partner Reading

I have been working with my students to reinforce our classroom rituals and routines for collaborative reading practice through reciprocal teaching and partner reading. I realized why my students really have latched on to partner reading. When we read a text from our literature book as a class, I begin the lesson by using the text to model the focus benchmark (main idea, compare contrast, context clues, etc.) for the day and facilitate student practice. Then students finish reading the passage using what I have called partner reading. Each student chooses their own partner that is essentially their "reading buddy." As elementary as this sounds, this week has really shown my why my students latch on to this strategy. My students need to choose their partner for this activity because it is essential they have someone they can trust as a reading partner. For a struggling reader, reading aloud to even 2 or 3 other people can be extremely uncomfortable and discouraging. 

Trust is huge in reading partners, and students generally tend to stick with the same partners. I would say that building trust in each other is the most important element of partner reading in my classroom. It is essential to this trust process that students choose their own partners. In order for the students to take risks with their reading and accept feedback from someone else and really give their all, they need to work with a partner they trust who will not "discuss" their reading session and who can truly help them. It is so exciting to listen to my students all read to each other and listen to the great words they use to help each other along the way. For many of my students, it's the only time they really ever engage with a text. 

I have a few students who are still struggling with the process and end up having personal conflicts and other issues that impede their ability to participate fully. Although I allow students to always choose their reading partner, there are a couple of students who struggle to participate. I would say that I am at about 95% success with this strategy. 

I have one student who has stated to me several times that she cannot focus on reading the text at all if she hears other voices. This student has special needs for reading, and therefore I have allowed this student to use headphones to cancel the noise in the classroom and read the text independently. I'm not sure what a better scenario would be for this student to become involved in the partner process at this time, but the student is very successful and can read the text independently without any issues of being off task or over burdened by the reading level. This student does participate in the collaborative work that takes place after partner reading and is very successful and a great leader when given an opportunity to have a great read of the text.