The Magic of Read Alouds

For those of you who don't know Timothy Razinski let me just save you some time. He's the guru on Read Alouds. What does Read Aloud mean? Simply this: Reading aloud to your children.  He has done oodles of research on the benefits of reading aloud to your kids. Let me just give you a few things he says about doing read alouds:

~Reading aloud to your children gives them positive affective feelings about reading in general that will help them WANT to read later in school when they have to.

~Read alouds provide hours of pre-literacy exposure to kids where they will absorb all kinds of background information on all sorts of topics, that will help them come to school with a much larger schema.

~Listening to a fluent reader (i.e. You) read a text that might otherwise be too challenging for them in terms of syntax, vocubulary and phrasing, makes a challenging text accessible and enjoyable to struggling or reluctant readers.

~Reading a book aloud to them that is required reading for school, at least the first few chapters, helps them get over the hump of getting started and helps them get hooked on the world of the novel.

~Reading aloud to your children means you are modeling the joy and importance of reading and being a life long reader.

~Reading aloud to your children means you are exposing them to books that you know and feel are important for them to read. It gives you partnership and involvement in their learning experience.

~Reading aloud to your reluctant reader is the only way to get them interested in reading independently on their own.

When I taught reading to inner city kids in Houston, and I started doing read alouds with my students, I began to feel its magic. Kids who had previously hated reading class were the first in their seats to hear me start class with the story. Kids who NEVER took home books to read started asking to take home copies of the book I would read in class. Students who had never done well in reading before started taking a new interest in books. It works. It really does. Every time with every kid. I mean it. If you aren't reading aloud to your kids, you are missing out and so are they. And I have lots of ideas on books so reach out if you need some. Its not to late. My mom read to us even as teenagers on vacation and we loved it. Those are some of my best memories on road trips. Maybe that's even why I became a reading teacher...hmmm.