The Power of the Read Aloud

    We have heard the research, reading to and with kids is a powerful method for reading success.  From the time our smallest students begin school, our primary teachers know that reading aloud is an essential part of the day.  But reading aloud in school is not simply an act of reading a story aloud.  This is the time when adults can model for children what reading looks like on the inside.  And reading aloud should continue up the grades as long as possible. 
   
     Reading is an invisible act.  The thinking that occurs, the predicting, the wondering, the questions and answers, all happen while reading, but no one can see it.  Often, as adult readers, we don't even realize we are doing it.  It has only been in the past few years that I have really tuned in to my invisible reading. 
Now, despite my best efforts, I notice it all the time! I can't read a good Dorothea Benton Frank book without thinking, "Ooooh, I know where this is going.  This is how books tend to go," and "What?! I did not see that coming.  That was totally out of character for that person.  I wonder what that means for the story."

     So the read aloud is where we make the invisible visible for our students.  It is critical to use that time to model our thinking.  For the smallest readers, our preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students, we model the emotions that a story evokes.  We share when we notice character traits and feelings in the pictures and words. 
Think about what we want students to notice and show them how we do that. 

     As our readers grow and their reading skills become more sophisticated, our modeling also becomes more sophisticated.  Our thinking deepens and we share our how we notice character changes and how the characters we are reading are complex.  We identify themes and can track those themes through the story.  For our older readers, this is when we model writing about reading.  Our thinking gets jotted down.  While as adult readers, we don't normally write our thoughts while reading, it's imperative that we teach our students to do this so that we can see what kind of thinking they are doing.  We can't sit and read with every student every day, so we need a way to check in on their thinking. 

    For many people, reading is both a way to learn more about the world and a relaxing act.  We want our students to become readers because we know that they will be more successful in life if they are readers.  We also want them to develop a joy for and love of reading.  But, it is critical that we leverage the read aloud time in school to show students the thinking that occurs when we read.  With time being our most valued commodity, each act during the school day must be purposeful and intentional.  As Lucy Calkins would say, "spy on yourself as a reader" and notice what you are doing.  Then model this for your students. 

Final thoughts... yes, please impart on your students what joy can be found in reading.  But our job as teachers is ultimately to teach, so take time to plan and be intentional with your read alouds. 

   

Let's talk about it...

I am currently reading Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. 

Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst

These are two reading gurus, if you are not familiar with them.  Their style of writing is easy to understand and super relatable.  One of the big take-aways I have hit on so far is the importance of knowing how we (and our students/children) respond to what we read.  They have two terms that were new to me, but I will be using -- aesthetic reading and efferent reading. 

Basically, aesthetic reading is being alert to what the text is doing to us - what feelings does the text elicit and what do we do in response to those feelings? Efferent reading is reading to simply extract information, like when we read directions to put together a bookshelf. 

So, when we read, we respond by laughing, crying, getting angry, or even being motivated to do something.  And all this goes back to showing how well we comprehend what we read.  But it also relates to being what Beers and Probst call a responsible reader.  This is a reader who can examine their reactions to a text and then use that to test the validity of the text.  In the age of "fake news" and social media, our reactions tend to be quick and not always well thought out.  But if we take time to really notice and analyze our reactions, we will gain some insight into the text itself.

This is good stuff for grown ups.  But it's also great for kids.  Because this is what we need to be teaching our readers.  And we do that through talking! I had an earlier blog about what questions you could ask your kids about their reading to move past the simple, "What's it about?".  Reading this book has added more ideas to this line of thinking.  Questions like: "How did that make you feel?" and "What does that make you want to do?" will have us really examining what we took away from a text.  It will also give insight into how well you (or your child) understood it.  If you ask someone how the story/article/poem made them feel and they say it didn't, that's a red flag.  Authors write to elicit feelings.  They choose their craft moves very specifically.  Authors of "fake new" specifically are looking to ignite something.  They often make very bold statements that are meant to get you feeling strongly.  When you click that article on Facebook or Twitter and it gets you all hot and bothered, stop and think about why! And then talk about it.  This is a great time to model aesthetic reading for your growing reader. 

As kids get older, reading to them becomes harder to do.  They want to read on their own and they have specific tastes.  But you can still set aside time to talk books with them.  And if you are reading together, then make part of that time talk time. 
Beers and Probst talk about three types of readers that we want: Responsive, Responsible, and Compassionate.  We have to be all of those also!

To Be or Not To Be... Grammar Instruction in Question

Some nerds (read: well-read professionals) like me remember fondly the days of diagramming sentences.  Nothing gave me greater pleasure than categorizing every word in a sentence.  But, this is not because I learned all about grammar.  It is really because I so enjoy organizing things.  Putting everything in its proper place just makes me happy.   Knowing that a dog is a noun doesn't do much for my ability to speak correctly.

Helping children master conventions like punctuation and capitalization and using grammar properly is really important but really tricky.  It has to be done in a way that will transfer into real life.  We have long since figured this out with reading, math, science, and social studies.  Unless we make the content applicable and important to our students, it won't stick.  And if it doesn't stick, what's the point??

We have seen this with spelling instruction.  Giving students a list of random words to practice all week, then a test on Friday rarely ends with a student's spelling improving.

Y'all, there are 44 different speech sounds and more than 100 spellings used to represent them (Blevins, 1998; Bos & Vaughn, 2002).  But that's for another post. :)

So how do we do it at school? What can be done at home?

Many teachers study mentor sentences.  This means that they will lift a piece of text from something they have read in class and study it for the craft moves that the author makes.

Here's an example:

"Larger spiders can eat birds- even rats, lizards, or snakes!" --from Weird, Wild, and Wonderful: Ugly Creatures

What are some things the author has done in this sentence?

First, I notice there is a dash in the middle of the sentence.  So when I read, I pause briefly, and then I read the next part with a little more emphasis.

I also see that the sentence ends with an exclamation point.

So by using the dash and the exclamation point, the author really wants to emphasize how interesting it is that spiders can eat these animals.  And it is interesting! Those are big animals.

Then you might have children try writing a sentence like this.  They could go back into a piece of their own writing to find where they want to emphasize some examples.

We have done two things here -- we have pulled real craft moves out of a real text, and then we have asked students to try these same moves in their own, real writing.

Authenticity is the name of the game.

If you are teacher or a parent, using mentor sentences is easy enough and can be done naturally.  As you are reading with children, talk about the things you notice an author doing that make the book, story, information, more engaging. When children laugh at parts, talk about what made them laugh.

Also, noticing these things yourself is really important so that you can point them out! You don't have to go looking for texts.  They will find you if you are reading regularly.

There are some other factors that play into proper grammar usage.  Think about how you speak at home and school to students.  What they hear, they will repeat.  If we want them to speak correctly, we have to model that for them! They have no way of knowing that the incorrect grammar we use in a funny or haphazard way is incorrect unless they consistently hear and use correct grammar themselves.  This comes first in oral language and then in written language.

So, while many of my generation and before might wonder where the grammar instruction has gone and why students aren't learning it, let me assure you it's still there.  But today we do it in a way that we hope will transfer to real life.  And everyone is a part of that!!  Also keep in mind that grammar, just like every other skill children learn, comes in developmental stages.  Be patient, persistent, and a good model.  It will come.