Reading Aloud

The Investment of Reading Aloud

 

 

One of my favorite activities in teaching is reading to the students or having students read aloud to each other.  Reading provides imagination, creativity, and promotes oral fluency, reading comprehension and word recognition.

 

Here are two articles that support the advantages of reading aloud according to evidence-based, peer-reviewed research:

 

"Reading to children is one of the best ways to promote positive attitudes toward reading and to give children the sounds and words of literacy and reading. Beginning at birth, all children should be read to with regularity and enthusiasm."  (Southern Early Childhood Association (2002) Early Literacy and Beginning to Read: A Position Statement of the Southern Early Childhood Association. Southern Early Childhood Association: Dimensions of Early Childhood, 30(4), 28-31.)

"In a study conducted of kindergartners, those who were read to at least three times a week as they entered kindergarten were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent of literacy tests than children who were read to less than three times a week." (National Institute for Literacy (2006). The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Available online. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/ECLS.html).

In order for students to become successful in their studies, educators need to promote reading by encouraging students to read to each other or the teacher so they can increase their reading skills.