Why I Read Aloud

I've started the year with a 3rd year teacher-trainee doing her final practicum in my  (Yr 7) classroom. I find that being an associate teacher is great for my own reflection. A good student asks intelligent questions which makes me reflect on and justify my practice. 

After the first day I was asked, "Why do you read aloud?"

"Why do I read aloud?"  For a second I was slightly flummoxed, why do I? Of course I was able to spout off something about building vocabulary and making text accessible blah, blah, blah. But later (isn't it always the way?) I realised what I should have said: "I read aloud because it is the single best thing I can do to help my students develop their literacy."

There is stacks of research and information about the value of reading aloud and the impact it has on reading attitudes and literacy attainment in children. A quick google search revealed almost 3 million hits. So the research is all there if you choose to read it. That is not why I do it.

I read aloud to my students every, single day because:

Reading aloud creates engagement with text. I think this is particularly important for lower-ability readers because children who struggle to read often still love stories. By doing the reading for them I am sharing the wonderful world of literature and helping these kids to develop a culture and enjoyment of reading even though they may not quite be ready to tackle this level of literature themselves. Reading aloud gives students the content benefits without the pressure of struggling to read it alone. It makes text accessible for all.

Reading aloud improves vocabulary and writing skills. When children are enjoying listening to a good book is the perfect time to discuss the meaning of selected words.  The story provides an authentic context. I often record some of these words on an 'Interesting Word Chart' which is displayed in the class. I frequently notice words from these charts appearing in student writing as they explore their new vocabulary.

I also like to use short extracts from read-alouds as exemplars to teach writing structure. Learners relate to the exemplar if they have previously connected with and enjoyed that particular story. I sometimes tell my class that they are really lucky because today Joy Cowley / Maurice Gee / JRR Tolkien (insert name of author)  will be their teacher. Then we deconstruct a piece of previously read (or rather, listened to) text according to my selected focus for the lesson.

Reading aloud broadens the mind. Yes I may have inserted one little word into that well known cliche, but it's true. Reading does broaden the mind. It provides general knowledge and information and puts issues and concepts into context. It helps us to learn about the world. Reading aloud does the same for our listeners and provides even greater possibilities for discussion and analysis.

Reading aloud promotes future reading and a culture of reading. I make it a personal rule never to read aloud the sequel. When I read the first book of a series to my class I know the subsequent books will become very popular issues from our school library. This can also apply to authors or even genre.

Reading aloud promotes imagination. Ideas can come from anywhere, stories or snippets of stories can be brilliant thought starters. Maybe it can even promote the idea in students' minds that there is a whole world of creative careers and futures that they might choose to pursue. I often encourage children to draw while they listen, I know that some of us listen and engage best when our hands are occupied.

Reading aloud is a really enjoyable classroom activity.  Enough said really.

Further Thoughts About Teaching Writing 

Lately I've been thinking about the teaching and learning of writing. To be able to communicate effectively in writing is an important prerequisite for the future academic success of our learners.  So it concerns me that in my school, statistics indicate a significant group of students who are achieving below expectations in both surface features and deeper features. These results are reflected in my own class of year 8 students.

It is clear to me that the students who who sit in the below / just below cohort in writing are capable learners. After all, they started school at 5 years old with very few skills and now they can write. They can write at around level 2, maybe up to beginning level 3. They have learnt that much. So clearly they can learn.

So initially I wanted to know why. WHY have these kids not managed to meet the required standard? But then I realised that the 'WHY' doesn't matter. Laying blame, speculating and pointing finger as to why these students haven't achieved won't improve their performance. It won't prepare them for high school. Asking why is a cop-out. The real question, the important question is WHAT? As in 'What am I going to do about it?'

I needed to identify the issues. What is it that prevents any piece of student writing from being assessed at the required level?  On taking a close look at the work of the underachieving writers in my class I felt that there were two specific things holding them back:

1. Vocabulary. The writing of the students in the target group lacks a general maturity of vocabulary. These writers tend to use too many 'baby' words in a row. This sort of thing..."and then we got in the car and went to ..." They don't seem to have a very big 'internal resource bank ' of words and they tend not to explore new words.

2. Sentence Structure. Target group students write almost entirely in mid-length (sometimes long) simple sentences. They generally do not include commas or other more advanced forms of punctuation and sentences most often begin with simple words such as 'then, the, when, I,' etc. Some forget about sentences completely.

 So, this seems easy! I just have to fix those two issues and the problem will be solved. So there's that question again; 'What am I going to do about it?'

1. What am I going to do to assist students to develop a wider vocabulary and use it in their writing?

• I am going to read aloud to my class everyday from quality literature and specifically teach the meaning of selected unfamiliar words.
• I am going to use these texts to discuss words and develop 'interesting word charts' which will be displayed and referred to.
• I am going to create a classroom environment rich in text.
• I am going to ensure that learning new words is interesting and fun and occurs almost daily.

2. What am I going to do to assist students to develop a greater variety of sentence structures in their writing?

• I am going to read aloud to my class everyday from quality literature and use these texts as sentence structure exemplars.
• I am going to teach specific lessons on punctuation. Students will be taught how to apply commas, colons, speech marks, apostrophes. These short lessons will be whole class but may be re-visited with target group writers.
• I am going to use sentence structure as an on-going focus of success criteria for writing.
• I am going to give students targeted written feed forward about sentence structure. They will use this feed forward to create personalised writing goals.

You will notice that I believe part of the answer to both of these questions is the reading aloud and discussion of quality literature. To constantly be showing learners what good text looks like and sounds like is a really powerful teaching tool. Reading aloud to students is something that I feel strongly about. I think it is a topic which warrants its own blog post. Watch this space (and check out my read-alouds.)

Other important points include the explicit teaching of vocabulary and punctuation and providing really good, targeted written feed forward on students' writing. This is then used by the students to create personalised learning goals for the next piece of writing. Please read my previous blog post on this topic.

However, to me the real key to improving student achievement in writing is when I (the teacher) can identify and focus on the specific issues and ask "What am I going to do about it?" 

Teachers, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about this.