Spring Challenge #4: Read Aloud with Purpose

Raise your hand if you believe the Teacher Read Aloud is like the Jan Brady of literacy. Keep your hand up if you identify with any of the following:

• It’s that thing we do when we need to fill time.
• It’s often unplanned and lacks focus.
• It’s heavily fiction, regardless of the genre we are working with.
• It’s entertaining to us, but boring for kids.
• It can create behavior issues.
• It often gets left out and overlooked. (Thus Jan Brady)

Most of us know the importance of the Teacher Read Aloud. The National Research Council recommended the use of read aloud as, “The single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success in reading” (Snow et al., 1988). It is also recommended to promote students understanding and engagement with text (Dugan, 1997; Sipe, 2000-2002) in addition to motivation to read (Morrow, 2003).

Then why exactly is it so problematic?

In order to move the Teacher Read Aloud up to Marcia Brady status, we have to be more purposeful. (Yep, no surprise here… planning is key.)

It is very important to realize our intentions with the read aloud. Just like the other parts of our literacy work, the Read Aloud is an avenue for learning, not just entertaining. (And it’s not that entertaining is bad, but you want to get as much bang for your instructional buck as possible!)

So, begin with purpose.

What do you want students to know and be able to do as a result of this experience? Some options could include:

• Notice how the characters change from the beginning to the end.
• Consider why the author used vocabulary or language in a particular way.
• Listen to the teacher think aloud and “see” how she makes sense of text in the act of reading.
• Reflect on what questions you may have. What are you wondering?

When you read aloud to students, it is important to give them a meaningful cognitive task. It can vary by grade and text, but to really get that instructional bang, students should have something to be thinking about.  

Then, invite them to share that thinking! They can jot it on a sticky note, draw or write in a journal, or simply turn and talk to a partner. The idea is that you get to “see” their thinking about the cognitive task you gave them. This is TRUE formative data that is useful for your instructional next steps. 

Students typically have higher auditory comprehension than actual reading comprehension. The Read Aloud gives you fertile ground to test very high-level thinking without have the students read the text. Bingo- Marcia Brady status!

Ready to try out a purposeful Read Aloud?

1. Take time to set an explicit intention for your teacher Read Aloud. Write it in your plans, post it, and tell your students before you read to them.
2. Think about a way to allow students to share in addition to you sharing. Talking and/or writing will do this.
3. Cross check what they wrote and said with your original intention. How does it match? 

This can be really useful formative feedback for you as the instructional professional in the classroom. And your Read Aloud just became a true instructional method!

Take that, Jan Brady.

P.S. We have a free planning sheet available so you can get started reading aloud with purpose in your classroom! If you’re not sure how to start, click here for an example plan.

P.P.S. We are doing a video series on the Read Aloud on our social media, so make sure you are following us to get more tips on how to make the most of your Read Aloud time!