Last month I was invited to
read a chapter of Surviving Bear Island at the Alaska Literacy Council’s Annual
Conference. As I dug into the themes of the conference I discovered that a big focus was the
value of reading out loud to students of all ages. The keynote
speaker, Steven Layne, had just published a book, In Defense of Read Aloud,
exploring the benefits of reading out loud.
When I started
teaching English at an alternative school program for at risk teens in the mid
1990’s, I had a classroom full of reluctant and struggling readers and writers
in 9th through 12th grades, and I built my instruction
around reading out loud.
I read whole
novels, short stories and essays to my students and designed writing
assignments around our readings. With some of the fiction I read, I’d often
stop at a particularly suspenseful moment have the students write the next part
of the story and then invite them to share what they’d written.
I did every
assignment along with my students and it was then that I discovered that I
liked writing fiction.
So, I thought it
was fitting that I got read a chapter of Surviving Bear Island out loud to a
conference focusing on the value of reading out loud, since the book’s creation
is rooted in reading out loud.
Reading out loud to
my older students helped some of them to connect with the written word and
lessened their resistance to engaging in independent reading.
One of my most memorable read aloud experiences as a teacher was reading Anthem by Ayn Rand. I was team teaching with a very talented social studies teacher who suggested the title. While I read the book and did some writing exercises with the class, he put it in historical context for the students, and then played the Rush album 2112 for the class and did a few lessons on the lyrics as they related to the book.
Do you have any
memorable read aloud experiences as students or as teachers?
I remember as a special reward in school we could pick going down to the Kindergarten and read books aloud, this was also the teacher who had a claw foot bathtub filled with pillows for a special reading nook. I miss the stage of read-aloud's, but still venture to read books my kiddo is interested in. Also, my child still remembers the books that the librarian and school teacher read aloud in class (Wonder and The False Prince).
ReplyDeleteI love the image of the bathtub in the classroom!! In the school I work in the third grade students read to the Kindergarten students. It's neat to walk into a classroom and see pairs of students sitting on the floor, one reading to the other.
DeleteI find it heart-warming that reading aloud to your students, and doing the assignments with them, ignited your passion for writing fiction. The result is the magnificent SURVIVING BEAR ISLAND!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael! It was an unexpected result from me searching for ways to both connect with them and connect them to reading and writing.
DeleteI love the idea of reading out loud to older students. I think it's something one never outgrows!
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked with older students, reading out loud to them was one of my favorite things to do.
DeleteReading aloud is such an important thing -- in families, in schools, at libraries. There is an element of trust that develops between the adult and the child, and the read aloud provides a touchstone experience for all involved. Like you said, reluctant or otherwise struggling readers get to experience a story with the difficulty stripped away.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gift you give your students, Paul. And how deeply satisfying to get to share your own this way.
Paul, I love your idea of stopping at a point in your reading and having the children make up what happens next! Love to read aloud to my son, who also loves audio books. I think it's a great way to let kids create that movie in their minds about the book - as my son describes it. :)
ReplyDelete