This study describes the interactions of three adult-child reading partnerships in a program that matches corporate volunteers with "at risk" students for weekly hour-long story reading sessions. Using discourse analysis within a sociocultural framework, the researcher identified variation in the way these partners were constructing the act and…

A "Personalized Contract Book Program," modeled on the way that competent readers learn to read at home, provided a nonpressured environment that fostered students' reading development. (DD)