Reading Aloud!

Before reading this article, I never really thought much about how reading aloud to students can affect their learning ability and reading skills. I agreed with a lot of the points that came from the first article. I really like how when reading aloud to students, you often stop and talk about what you just read about. I think this is important for younger children so they can process what is going on in the story and remember it better. I wasn’t so sure about the audiobooks at first because I didn’t think younger children would be able to pay attention and listen to an audiobook as well as actually having something to look at and read. But I really like the fact that the teacher makes the students keep a reading journal while listening to the audiobooks. This is awesome to me because they have to listen to the story and they can also write down what the story was about and their different opinions on the book. One thing I took away in the second article was reading the books BEFORE you read them to the class. I think this is a great idea because you never know what you are getting yourself into. Knowing myself, I would have to emotionally prepare myself before reading a book to my class!

One thing I would like to share is something I learned while doing observation hours earlier this semester. I was shadowing a kindergarten class and right after the bell rang, the teacher had all of her students sit down on the rug in front of the white board. On the whiteboard she had a paragraph of a situation that happened the day before to either herself (the teacher) or someone she knew. For instance, ” Yesterday, my car ran out of gas and I was far away from a gas station. I have no way of getting to the gas station so what should I do? Love, (the teacher).” After reading this she would go through with the students and ask them what words they knew in the paragraph and have them circle it. Everyday they learned a new word and their vocabulary grew. After they circled all the words, she would ask them to think about what they would do if they were in that situation and have them share with the class. I thought this was such a neat way to get the kids involved and active early in the morning! Not sure if that counts as a “read aloud” but I thought it was really awesome.

Ten Read Alouds:

1. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

2. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty McDonald

3. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

4. Matilda by Roald Dahl

5. What the Moon Saw by Laura Resau

6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

7. Stuart Little by E.B White

8. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater

9. How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

10. The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner