Read Them a Book! ETAI Winter Conference 2009 “Sharing Ideas” Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva Michele Ben (mggben-at-gmail-dot-com)

The benefits of reading aloud  “Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development. It is the single most important activity for reading success (Bredekamp, Copple, & Neuman, 2000). It provides children with a demonstration of phrased, fluent reading (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). It reveals the rewards of reading, and develops the listener's interest in books and desire to be a reader (Mooney, 1990).”  Judith Gold and Akimi Gibson (2001)

Reading out loud contributes to:  Vocabulary acquisition  Familiarity with vocabulary patterns  Internalizing language patterns  Understanding the structure of a story

When pupils listen to the teacher reading a book they -  Learn about the relationship between the printed word and meaning - children understand that print tells a story or conveys information  Are exposed to language and stories on a higher level than what they can read

When a teacher reads a book out loud she:  Models reading – prosody and fluency  Can engage all the pupils in the class  Reinforces or introduces topics Reinforces or introduces vocabulary and language structures  Motivates and interests pupils in reading and books

Things to think about  Is it a good story?  Is the book worthy of a reader's and listener's time?  Does the story sound good to the ear when read aloud?  Will it appeal to your audience?  Is the story memorable?  Will children want to hear the story again?

What to look for:  Repetition of vocabulary or language structure  Not too much text on each page  Attractive pictures  Humour  Familiar themes and topics  A book known to the pupils in its Hebrew translation

Ideas for things to do  Predict based on the picture or story structure  Take turns reading  Use the book as a model for writing  Allow a pupil to choose a book to take home, practice and read to the class

PEER: Dialogic reading, reading in an interactive manner  Prompt with a question to focus and engage: Point to something and ask, “What is that?” – “A balloon.”  Evaluate the response: “That’s right!”  Expand on what was said: “The balloon is red.”  Repeat the prompt and encourage the child to use the new information. “That’s a red balloon. Say, ‘The balloon is red’.”  Dialogic reading works. Children read to in a dialogic way have better oral language skills, and are more likely to be exposed to new words.  From:

To sum up:  “Researchers have validated that reading aloud affects vocabulary development (Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Whitehurst et al., 1999), acquisition of literary syntax and vocabulary (Purcell-Gates, McIntyre, & Freppon, 1995), story recall (Morrow & Smith, 1990), and sensitivity to the linguistic and organizational structures of narrative and informational text (Duke & Kays, 1998). Studies have shown that children make gains in expressive language even when the duration of story reading interventions are short (e.g., Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000)” 