Reading Aloud to Kids and Why Lessons Need Purposes

  • 11 June, 2017
  • 12 Comments

Teacher’s question:

Teachers in grades 3, 4 and 5 spend weeks and weeks (like 5-6) reading aloud chapter books to their students. In some classrooms, students have a copy of the book. Is there research that speaks to the effectiveness of a read-aloud over a period of time?

Does student interest wane after 2 weeks or so?

Are there ways to think strategically about read aloud time ... to incorporate instruction?

What do we want students to know and be able to do as a result of a read aloud in this context?

How can we structure close reading of passages for struggling readers along the way?

Shanahan response: 

            I’ll answer this one with a proverb: “Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.” 

            You might be surprised by how often I get this kind of question from educators: We are doing something as part of reading instruction… could you tell us why it is good to do that?”

            This is backward. Professional action needs to be purposeful. As the proverb suggests, instructional action with no clear learning purpose can be a nightmare for kids!

            I know this isn’t a new point—but it is a darn good one. Years ago, Walter Doyle (1983) gathered the research revealing how activity-bound teachers tend to be, and how purposeless these activities usually are. He argued for a greater focus on learning than on implementing particular instructional routines.

            Even earlier, Benjamin Bloom advanced his soon-to-be-famous taxonomy to focus attention on learning within teaching—to guide teachers to focus their lessons on specific, meaningful learning objectives. Accordingly, his objectives emphasize outcomes, not inputs; the idea being that once you were committed to teaching a particular objective you would select activities that would have a reasonable possibility of accomplishing that objective.

            Or, how about this quote from a school superintendent from the minutes of the National Education Association… in 1909!:

      “The teacher must have an objective point in every lesson…. Inattention is too often encouraged by inefficient, aimless, purposeless teaching. The lesson without a definite purpose may well be omitted. (J. Koontz, 1909, p. 191).

            With great regularity I am asked why teachers are being read to, why kids are reading aloud in class, why reading workshop is being used, why guided reading is a good idea, why teachers need 20 minutes per day of free reading time, why teachers need to use end of lesson basal reader tests and so on… Nothing wrong with any of those questions, but so often they are being asked by the teachers who are doing these things or by the administrators who are ordering them to do them.

            Reading directors who have decided to commit their teachers to an instructional practice frequently contact me to find out if there is any research supporting that practice. They have already decided the practice must be implemented—a decision made without any evidence. But they want evidence to fend off any naysayers who don’t want to implement the particular practice. Research to them is apparently not a light, but a bludgeon.

            The question being asked in this case is whether reading chapter books to upper elementary students is effective. My question back is, “Effective at what?

            Effectiveness can only be evaluated against a clear purpose and as readers can see, there is no such purpose specified. The teachers are already committed to such reading, and they would sure like some research support. (Or, someone is trying seeking evidence to try to persuade them to be less committed to the unexplained activity).

            If the question is, does reading books to older students improve their reading ability?, I can answer definitely that there is no research either supporting or rejecting this idea, but that is rather unlikely. There are studies with primary age kids that indicate having kids read rather than being read to is the better way to improved reading achievement (Sénéchal & Young, 2008).

            Studies show that reading aloud to preschoolers increases their vocabulary (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). This makes sense (even with older kids) since meaningful exposure to new words--reading on one’s own, watching media, having new social experiences—all contribute to that. (The one study of reading to older kids that I know of, found that they were more familiar with words from the texts than were kids who were not exposed to those texts).

            However, none of the studies with younger children showed transfer from vocabulary improvement to better reading, and the tests that showed vocabulary improvement are not particularly related to reading achievement.

            That shouldn’t be too surprising since the vocabulary gains would be with words from the particular books—rather than a general improvement in vocabulary. Such learning would only impact comprehension when students were reading texts that used these particular words.  

            Of course, reading aloud to kids certainly must expand their knowledge of the world, if the texts include information or ideas that the kids don’t yet know. If someone reads a science chapter to me about genetics, I am likely to gain some info on genetics. This is so stunningly obvious and so consistent with experience (e.g., television news commentators read news, sports and weather “stories” to us on a daily basis) that no one has ever bothered to test it.

            Reading aloud can also stimulate an interest in reading. Kids sometimes hear their teacher reading a book and then try to read it on their own. We don’t know how much this really happens, but I certainly have experienced it as a teacher and parent. Having kids following along with such reading can have some impact on reading fluency, but that is typically done with shorter pieces and involves the kids in trying to read the modeled text aloud. That doesn’t sound like the case here.

            If you are requiring that teachers read aloud books with the idea that this will improve student comprehension or build their knowledge of the world or expand their vocabularies or increase their fluency or even foster improved reading motivation in some measurable way, then I suspect that reading a chapter book aloud to the kids over several weeks may not be the best way to go -- since there are so many more powerful alternatives towards each of those outcomes. 

            I would suggest that you figure out what you are trying to accomplish, then consider the alternative ways that this might be done… selecting the most powerful avenues you can find. Sometimes that might be reading a chapter book to the kids, but other choices might win out as well.

            Personally, I never taught a day in the primary grades in which I did not read aloud to kids. I didn’t do this as part of my reading instruction, however.

            It was just an effective way of fostering a positive tone in my classroom; a closeness between the children and me. I didn’t do this in place of strategy lessons or what is now referred to as close reading. I did it because I love books and wanted to share a bit of that love with the kids I was teaching. (There are other ways of accomplishing that goal as well, but reading aloud to the kids was a way that I could do this.) If I were back in the elementary saddle again, I would probably make the same choice; but that activity would in no way be allowed to reduce my instruction in decoding, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, or writing. I hope it doesn’t for your teachers either.

Comments

See what others have to say about this topic.

Harriett Janetos Jun 15, 2017 04:23 PM

For a good discussion about how scientific research clashes with educational traditions, read Mark Seidenberg's Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can Be Done About It (2017).

Scott Mills Sep 12, 2017 12:12 AM

This is a great post. I am wondering what the titles are of the posts that you have written about leading a horse to water and why SSR and DEAR doesn't work?

Julie Lewis Aug 15, 2019 05:33 PM

Where to begin? I support the practice of reading aloud to students of all ages. I believe we can, and should, carve out time in our academic day for bonding and enjoyment. I suspect that modeling good oral reading, enjoyment in reading, and engaging in oral reading of novels, informational text, articles, editorials...should be the goal. I want children to become teenagers and adults who grasp the rewards of reading.
My comments, though, are based upon anecdotal evidence. My children were read to extensively, both fiction and nonfiction, from infancy. Both of them were excellent readers and writers in school. My 3 year old granddaughter has also been read to since infancy. Her vocabulary, semantic/syntactic grasp of language is already, in my view, well above her age level. I believe she, too, will be a good reader and writer eventually, though I have little interest in getting her reading before she enters school (neither of mine read prior to school and both learned effortlessly). My interest, as the reading parent/grandparent, was reading aloud materials that were sophisticated enough to serve to expose them to rich vocabulary and sentence structures, rather than read predominantly from the "I Can Read" variety for the purpose of encouraging them to read words. I wanted to develop a large vocabulary, a love of words and an appreciation for more syntactic complexity, as well as expose them to how a good writer either tells an engrossing story or writes an engaging article. I did not overdo calling attention to these features, though features were not ignored, rather I strove for a balance. Is there any reason why these may not continue to be valid reasons to read aloud to 8 year olds and 10 year olds?
Additionally, there is the "social story" aspect of read aloud. Today teachers are expected to teach/reinforce social skills. We use specifically written social stories with our students who need referents to navigate day-to-day activities, but don't most children benefit from stories that provide good scripts for living and interacting? Or, how about historical fiction or biography about early America in the 5th grade classroom?
I cannot argue against the practice of incorporating well-chosen read aloud into elementary school curricula. I submit that reading material that may well be beyond the independent reading level of many students in the class will expose them to vocabulary and semantic and writing structures they may grow into. This, of course, does not replace student reading. Having spent a career teaching "disabled readers," I can share that in most all instances poor readers are weak writers, have more limited vocabularies, etc. than good readers. The few exceptions I have encountered have been kiddoes who manage to use other media to gain broad exposure, something technology is rendering easier, or they are children who live in exceptionally literate and educationally focused households.
Finally, I agree that activities built into the instructional day should have purpose and the teacher should be able to articulate that purpose. Reading aloud lends itself to a multitude of appropriate educational purposes and is a valuable teaching tool in the hands of a capable teacher.

Julie Lewis Aug 15, 2019 05:36 PM

Where to begin? I support the practice of reading aloud to students of all ages. I believe we can, and should, carve out time in our academic day for bonding and enjoyment. I suspect that modeling good oral reading, enjoyment in reading, and engaging in oral reading of novels, informational text, articles, editorials...should be the goal. I want children to become teenagers and adults who grasp the rewards of reading.
My comments, though, are based upon anecdotal evidence. My children were read to extensively, both fiction and nonfiction, from infancy. Both of them were excellent readers and writers in school. My 3 year old granddaughter has also been read to since infancy. Her vocabulary, semantic/syntactic grasp of language is already, in my view, well above her age level. I believe she, too, will be a good reader and writer eventually, though I have little interest in getting her reading before she enters school (neither of mine read prior to school and both learned effortlessly). My interest, as the reading parent/grandparent, was reading aloud materials that were sophisticated enough to serve to expose them to rich vocabulary and sentence structures, rather than read predominantly from the "I Can Read" variety for the purpose of encouraging them to read words. I wanted to develop a large vocabulary, a love of words and an appreciation for more syntactic complexity, as well as expose them to how a good writer either tells an engrossing story or writes an engaging article. I did not overdo calling attention to these features, though features were not ignored, rather I strove for a balance. Is there any reason why these may not continue to be valid reasons to read aloud to 8 year olds and 10 year olds?
Additionally, there is the "social story" aspect of read aloud. Today teachers are expected to teach/reinforce social skills. We use specifically written social stories with our students who need referents to navigate day-to-day activities, but don't most children benefit from stories that provide good scripts for living and interacting? Or, how about historical fiction or biography about early America in the 5th grade classroom?
I cannot argue against the practice of incorporating well-chosen read aloud into elementary school curricula. I submit that reading material that may well be beyond the independent reading level of many students in the class will expose them to vocabulary and semantic and writing structures they may grow into. This, of course, does not replace student reading. Having spent a career teaching "disabled readers," I can share that in most all instances poor readers are weak writers, have more limited vocabularies, etc. than good readers. The few exceptions I have encountered have been kiddoes who manage to use other media to gain broad exposure, something technology is rendering easier, or they are children who live in exceptionally literate and educationally focused households.
Finally, I agree that activities built into the instructional day should have purpose and the teacher should be able to articulate that purpose. Reading aloud lends itself to a multitude of appropriate educational purposes and is a valuable teaching tool in the hands of a capable teacher.

Julie Lewis Aug 15, 2019 05:36 PM

Oops, did not mean to submit twice.

C A Rose Aug 16, 2019 12:15 PM

One of the primary reasons I read to my 5th grade students was to develop critical thinking skills: identifying and comparing elements of literature, making predictions, asking and answering text related questions, and using textual evidence to support one's reasoning. My students were the highest achieving in our district in reading and I attribute that to the skills they developed during read alouds. It wasn't the stories themselves that created the gains, it was the specific skills I modeled and emphasized that students practice during that time.

Catherine Clinger Aug 16, 2019 02:41 PM

Julie, thank you for your thoughtful post! I agree with everything you've said. Reading stories aloud -- along with amassing a very large classroom library and knowing which books to recommend to my students -- has been essential to creating an environment in which reading is seen as a reward rather than a chore in my 4th grade classroom. Doesn't research prove that extensive background knowledge about both the meaning of words and the world at large enhances reading skills? Listening to a book read aloud that kids can relate to and learn empathy from -- in addition to using sophisticated vocabulary and addressing advanced concepts -- is one of the most meaningful parts of my students' day.

Margaret Oliver Aug 18, 2019 01:40 PM

I heartily appreciate every week of this blog. I learn why we do what we do, and I'm also reinforced in best practices. Thank you!

Anita Archer Aug 29, 2019 10:10 PM

Perhaps my favorite proverb:
"Vision without actions is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

In all aspects of life including instruction: If you intend to make a difference, be intentional. Anita Archer

Jen Oct 04, 2022 09:39 AM

My district has the middle school doing a school wide book reading. This will be happening 2x a month through May. No where did it mention in the email what the objective is. I’m troubled and I’m afraid to ask fearing I’ll hit a nerve! Sounds like a big waste of time.

Timothy Shanahan Oct 05, 2022 01:42 PM

Jen--

You might want to ask what the idea is. My assumption is that they believe it will get kids reading more (perhaps away from school). That could be possible depending on what they do. However, I would be wary about reducing amounts of teaching for this kind of activity. You might suggest that they collect some survey data from the kids to see what difference it is making there (your usual test scores will show whether there are any reading gains).

good luck.

tim

Merideth Myers Mar 17, 2024 03:09 AM

I am seeing this topic come up so much recently, especially after the Reader's Digest article titled "Do experts think audiobooks count as reading?" that teachers are posting on social media as permission to continue reading entire novels aloud. I'm not sure why educators think an article for grown-ups in Reader's Digest and the "experts" quoted (including a relationship psychologist and a social worker) are solid evidence for this instructional practice. Thank you so much for your actual research on this topic.

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Reading Aloud to Kids and Why Lessons Need Purposes

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