Read-aloud
As stated in the introduction to this resource folder, reading aloud is a personal teaching philosophy of mine that I hold dear to my heart. As a child, in addition to reading silently to myself, my parents read as many books as I could convince them to read to me every night. It is that dedication that I attribute my love of reading. I am so passionate about literacy and I as a beginning teacher, reading aloud is an activity that I will incorporate on a daily basis. Even as an adult, listening to someone read a story is one of the most relaxing luxuries for me. I also think that this is a great way to incorporate parents into the classroom.
Images from the "Books to Read Together" database from Tulsa Library Online
The Tulsa, Oklahoma Library Online has an excellent array of children's books sorted into literacy goals. The books pictured above are those which they recommend for reading aloud.
To follow is one of my favorite exceprts from "The Read Aloud Handbook" as Jim Trelease writes about the importance of reading aloud to children:
"How can something as simple as reading to a child be so effective?
As lumber is the primary support for building a house, words are the primary structure for learning. There are really only two efficient ways to get words into a person’s brain: either by seeing them or by hearing them. Since it will be years before an infant uses his or her eyes for actual reading, the best source for vocabulary and brain building becomes the ear. What we send into that ear becomes the foundation for the child’s “brain house.”
Those meaningful sounds in the ear now will help the child make sense of the words coming in through the eye later when learning to read. We read to children for all the same reasons we talk with children: to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity, and to inspire. But in reading aloud, we also:
- build vocabulary
- condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure
- create background knowledge
- provide a reading role model
- plant the desire to read
One factor hidden in the decline of students’ recreational reading is that it coincides with a decline in the amount of time adults read to them. By middle school, almost no one is reading aloud to students. If each read- aloud is a commercial for the pleasures of reading, then a decline in advertising would naturally be reflected in a decline in students’ recreational reading.
There are two basic “reading facts of life” that are ignored in most education circles, yet without these two principles working in tandem, little else will work.
Reading Fact No. 1: Human beings are pleasure centered.
Reading Fact No. 2: Reading is an accrued skill.
Let’s examine Fact No. 1. Human beings will voluntarily do over and over that which brings them pleasure. That is, we continually go to the restaurants we like, order the foods we like, listen to the radio stations that play the music we like, and visit the neighbors we like. Conversely, we avoid the foods, music, and neighbors we dislike. Far from being a theory, this is a physiological fact: We approach what causes pleasure, and we withdraw from what causes displeasure or pain.
"When we read to a child, we’re sending a pleasure message to the child’s brain. You could even call it a commercial, conditioning the child to associate books and print with pleasure. There are, however, displeasures associated with reading and school. The learning experience can be tedious or boring, threatening, and often without meaning— endless hours of work sheets, intensive phonics instruction, and unconnected test questions. If a child seldom experiences the pleasures of reading but increasingly meets its displeasures, then the natural reaction will be withdrawal.
And that brings us to Reading Fact No. 2. Reading is like riding a bicycle, driving a car, or sewing: In order to get better at it you must do it. And the more you read, the better you get at it. The past thirty years of reading research confirms this simple formula, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or socioeconomic background. Students who read the most also read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest. Conversely, those who don’t read much cannot get better at it" (Trelease, 2013, pp. 5-7).
"How can something as simple as reading to a child be so effective?
As lumber is the primary support for building a house, words are the primary structure for learning. There are really only two efficient ways to get words into a person’s brain: either by seeing them or by hearing them. Since it will be years before an infant uses his or her eyes for actual reading, the best source for vocabulary and brain building becomes the ear. What we send into that ear becomes the foundation for the child’s “brain house.”
Those meaningful sounds in the ear now will help the child make sense of the words coming in through the eye later when learning to read. We read to children for all the same reasons we talk with children: to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity, and to inspire. But in reading aloud, we also:
- build vocabulary
- condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure
- create background knowledge
- provide a reading role model
- plant the desire to read
One factor hidden in the decline of students’ recreational reading is that it coincides with a decline in the amount of time adults read to them. By middle school, almost no one is reading aloud to students. If each read- aloud is a commercial for the pleasures of reading, then a decline in advertising would naturally be reflected in a decline in students’ recreational reading.
There are two basic “reading facts of life” that are ignored in most education circles, yet without these two principles working in tandem, little else will work.
Reading Fact No. 1: Human beings are pleasure centered.
Reading Fact No. 2: Reading is an accrued skill.
Let’s examine Fact No. 1. Human beings will voluntarily do over and over that which brings them pleasure. That is, we continually go to the restaurants we like, order the foods we like, listen to the radio stations that play the music we like, and visit the neighbors we like. Conversely, we avoid the foods, music, and neighbors we dislike. Far from being a theory, this is a physiological fact: We approach what causes pleasure, and we withdraw from what causes displeasure or pain.
"When we read to a child, we’re sending a pleasure message to the child’s brain. You could even call it a commercial, conditioning the child to associate books and print with pleasure. There are, however, displeasures associated with reading and school. The learning experience can be tedious or boring, threatening, and often without meaning— endless hours of work sheets, intensive phonics instruction, and unconnected test questions. If a child seldom experiences the pleasures of reading but increasingly meets its displeasures, then the natural reaction will be withdrawal.
And that brings us to Reading Fact No. 2. Reading is like riding a bicycle, driving a car, or sewing: In order to get better at it you must do it. And the more you read, the better you get at it. The past thirty years of reading research confirms this simple formula, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or socioeconomic background. Students who read the most also read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest. Conversely, those who don’t read much cannot get better at it" (Trelease, 2013, pp. 5-7).
references
Tulsa Library Online. (n.d.). Books to Read Together - Early Childhood. Retrieved from: http://kids.tulsalibrary.org/books/list_birth-preschool.php
Trelease, J. (2013). The Read-Aloud Handbook: Seventh Edition.
New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA).
Trelease, J. (2013). The Read-Aloud Handbook: Seventh Edition.
New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA).