Partner reading is a classroom reading strategy used to increase the amount of time children spend orally reading connected text. The aim of this study was to identify factors that affect the quality of the partner reading interaction for the purpose of providing teachers with empirically based strategies for organizing, managing, and implementing partner reading. Previous research exploring paired and partner reading served as a basis for identifying variables that might affect the quality of the reading interaction. Essential elements of cooperative interactions were extracted from the cooperative learning literature and were used to create an observational rating scale for evaluating the quality of the partner reading interaction. 43 pairs (86 children) of second grade students and 10 classroom teachers were observed during partner reading. An effect was found for partner selection, teacher instruction, and teacher monitoring for social cooperation, and an ability pairing strategy X ability discrepancy interaction was found for on-task behavior.
