New thinking on READ

New thinking on READ-ALOUD - Brief Article

Instructor, May, 2001 by D. Ray Reutzel

New research helps you reap the biggest benefits from read-aloud

There is no question that reading aloud to children is good practice. But new research is showing that certain conditions surrounding read-aloud will ensure the greatest benefits.

The Benefits of Read-Aloud

When teachers read aloud, they model the characteristics of fluent, independent reading. Students not only learn about the many, varied printed materials available to them, but also the reasons why anyone would want to learn to read in the first place. When they hear a variety of texts--stories, poetry, jokes, recipes, and information--children learn that reading has a practical purpose, as well as an enjoyable one. Reading aloud to children builds awareness about the importance of reading and fires their desire to learn to read.

In her book, The Art of Teaching Writing (Heinemann, 1994), Lucy Calkins asserts that hearing books read aloud gives children insights into the writer's craft. Children gain an understanding of descriptive language--how an author writes a great lead-in to a chapter or a paragraph, or how to use a "flashback" to take the reader to another place and time. So, reading aloud introduces children not only to the world of reading, but also to the world of writing.

Getting the Most Out of Read-Aloud

In recent years, however, researchers have found that simply reading to children isn't enough for them to excel as readers. When teachers read aloud, children aren't actually seeing or processing the text either by themselves or with the teacher. As a result, they don't develop important strategies for reading independently. New research offers the following suggestions for getting the most out of read-aloud:

Student Interest

Students' interest levels significantly affect their level of engagement and, thus, their efforts and outcomes. When the teacher reads aloud to children, the book may represent the interests of the teacher. For example, the teacher may love Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, but if she's teaching boys, chances are, they won't share her enthusiasm. For read-aloud to be optimally effective, gaining a sense of students' interests beforehand is vital to ensuring that the chosen book will be engaging to a large part of the class.

Text Level

Reading books aloud that are too easy or too difficult poses a problem. Read-aloud books should expand upon children's background experiences, extend their oral language development, and contain enough challenges so children can't easily read them independently. According to Jim Trelease in The New Read-Aloud Handbook (Penguin, 1995), the right read-aloud books can inspire children to become more proficient readers who can handle those books on their own someday.

Length of Time

Another consideration is whether you are spending too much time reading aloud and not enough time teaching reading. Beginning the day with 10 to 15 minutes of read-aloud provides an enjoyable, unifying, and calming experience. After lunch or recess is another good time for reading aloud. Forty minutes of read-aloud per day, however, may be too much time.

Range of Materials

In addition to books, children benefit from exposure to a wide variety of materials: newspapers, comic strips, greeting cards, riddles, bumper stickers, product labels, song lyrics, encyclopedia entries, magazine articles, and so forth. When we read aloud from a range of materials, including books, we provide a broad view of how reading serves our needs in everyday life.

Group Size

Teachers typically read aloud to the entire class. However, research has shown that reading books aloud to children in small groups or one-to-one--especially for children who are not normally read to at home--enriches oral language development, broadens conceptual backgrounds, and accelerates reading acquisition.

Reading aloud to children builds a firm foundation for them to learn about reading--the whens, wheres, whys. However, it provides limited insights into how to read. So, for children to learn to read independently, generous amounts of good instruction, for both groups and individuals, and constant practice, need to be added to the read-aloud foundation.

Dr. D. Ray Reutzel, a former early childhood and elementary teacher, is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Southern Utah University, in Cedar City, Utah.

READ-ALOUD RULES OF THUMB

Choose books with children's interests in mind. Reading materials that reflect your curiosities may not reflect the students'.

Choose "just right" materials. Ideally, the materials you select should match as closely as possible the listening comprehension levels of the children.

Watch the time. Fifteen minutes of read-aloud per day is sufficient.

Introduce children to the variety of texts that we, as adult readers, enjoy.

Read to individuals and small groups--not just the whole class.