Article Share: The Power of Reading Aloud

I recently came across this article through a weekly Marshal Memo that I subscribe to that talked about The Power of the Read Aloud:

'In this article in The Reading Teacher, Illinois teacher JeanaLe Ann Marshall describes how her fourth graders react when she wraps up her daily 10-minute readaloud: “Nooooo! Read more! Don’t stop! Why do you always do this to us?” Among their favorite books:

-   Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis (2013)

-   The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (2012)

-   A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (2011)

“I’m confident that my students know the power of a story,” says Marshall. “They’ve listened all year long. They know the feeling of getting hooked, and they realize that within the pages of each book lies a lesson – one that someday just might change them or, even better, cause them to create change in the world.”

            Reading well-chosen books aloud has also spurred independent reading. “Little by little, they search for books without my guidance,” says Marshall. “They become ready to orchestrate their own journeys. They take the helm. Now it’s up to them whether or not to read one more chapter or softly let the pages fall closed.”'

“When Whining Is Wanted” by JeanaLe Ann Marshall in The Reading Teacher, February 2015 (Vol. 68, # 5, p. 393), http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/trtr.1306/epdf

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I'm always delighted when I walk into classrooms and observe teachers reading aloud to students. For me, it has been my favorite part of the day the teaching day. Students in my classroom have fallen in love with some of the same characters that I have fallen in love with. We've laughed together and cried together through the read aloud. I see it as an integral piece of building and fostering community. Donalyn Miller recently said on the #ReadAloud chat on Twitter, "Great read alouds feel like a special secret between the reader and the listeners. A magic circl around the book and us." Another built in, academic benefit is that it is a natural way to model the "flow of language" for our students with limited English proficient students - whether English is the second language or children have limited access to books or being read to. 

One professional book that will likely be part of my summer reading stack is Steven L. Layne's, In Defense of Read-Aloud - Sustaining Best Practice. The book has had a lot of buzz on Twitter, has been the focus of the a blog book tour, and was the topic of the #ReadAloud Twitter chat. Of course, I would love to have others join me...maybe this is something that we can turn into a summer professional book club. 

What is your classroom read aloud?

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You may use your participation in the PLC as evidence of professional practice as defined by Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. This week's participation is evidence of 

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities -

• 4a: Reflecting on Teaching - Use in future teaching
• 4d: Participating in a Professional Community - Relationships with colleagues & Involvement in culture of professional inquiry
• 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally - Enhancement of content knowledge and pedagogical skill

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PLC Session 4: Getting Back on Track with Chapter 5

Greetings fellow PLCers!

'Tis true that we took a bit of a hiatus. Upon our return to action following winter break, Taft Elementary embarked on significant changes to their reading schedule and Oceanlake Elementary shifted structures for grade level reading data discussions. Both changes were enough for me to sense that my colleagues were maxed out so I made the executive decision to step away from the PLC activity for a time. I've been trying to gauge a return to the blog posts by comments and questions from participants - "have I missed a meeting?" or "when are we supposed to post to the blog?" have been questions I've been fielding lately so I took that as a sign to ease back into the blog version of our PLC.

During our School Improvement Day, where a great deal of time was spent looking at 8 of the books that we picked up for the Teacher As Reader branch of this PLC, we touched briefly on Chapter 5 of The Daily 5, "Launching Read to Self - The First Daily 5".

Chapter 5 was a meaty chapter, in my opinion. Not only do The Sisters describe the process for launching Read to Self, they share the research behind why they do what they do. As they repeatedly state that supporting students through trust and specific lessons about expected behaviors, Read to Self is the foundation for and sets the stage for the rest of Daily 5. 

For me, one of the important pieces of the Daily 5 structure, whether you call it Daily 5 or not, is the fact that students have choice. On page 75, it is said, "...children, like adults, need to be interested in what they are reading. Interest is critical if we are to get students to read the volume of material that will help them move from being 'survival' readers to lifelong readers who choose to read for knowledge and pleasure." It is not that we never have teacher selected materials for students to read; however, contrary to the way I taught reading in the past, students have a voice and choice in what they read. It's up to us to help them find books that are "good fits" - books that they can read AND interest them.

Here's the link from The Sisters' website that includes the Quick Start guide, videos, and a section called "refine" all related to Read to Self:
https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/quick-start-guide-1read-to-self 
Note: you will need your DailyCafe log-in to access the link. 

Reggie Routman said, "When an independent reading component is added, test scores go up." No, I am not advocating for us to gear everything toward "the test" but no one can argue with the fact that the more students read then the results naturally show up in higher scores on required assessments.

• How are things going for you? What have you adjusted with Read to Self as you launched or relaunched Daily 5?
• What texts or books did you use to teach and review "The Three Ways to Read a Book"?
• How long are your rounds? What has your goal for stamina been? 
• What questions do you have about Read to Self? 

Share in the comments section below. Feel free to respond to each other's comments.  

Note: I'm working on door prizes for our next face-to-face PLC meeting. Your comments and interactions with one will be added as "tickets" into the door prize drawings. 

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You may use your participation in the PLC as evidence of professional practice as defined byCharlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. This week's participation is evidence of 

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities -

• 4a: Reflecting on Teaching - Use in future teaching
• 4d: Participating in a Professional Community - Relationships with colleagues & Involvement in culture of professional inquiry
• 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally - Enhancement of content knowledge and pedagogical skill