Monday, November 25, 2013

Week 11: Read-Aloud Strategy

Read-Aloud

To help students in a wide range of grade levels develop fluency, comprehension and vocabulary, the read-aloud strategy can be highly effective.  They can learn how a text should be read expressively and meaningfully by listening to the teacher model effective reading habits.  By hearing how selected words or phrases should be emphasized based on multiple modalities presented in a story or an article, students learn a valuable reading strategy that can engage their interest in the text and deepen their reading comprehension.  

While modeling such fluent reading, teachers can also stop to clarify new or uncommon vocabulary and phrases.  This could be particularly useful to define figurative language that may be unfamiliar to many students.  Utilizing read-aloud can be effective for both fiction and non-fiction texts where students can learn the nuances of a character’s personality or the relative importance of a historical fact.  While students in lower grade levels can learn a great deal listening to a teacher model effective reading strategy, research shows that students in higher grade levels can improve their fluency through read-alouds.  

By utilizing a consistent read-aloud strategy throughout a curriculum, a teacher can accomplish numerous critical instructional goals while engaging students and teaching strategies that can be carried forward to future grades and beyond the academic setting.

Article on Read-Alouds:

“Reading Aloud to Teens Gain Favor” by Mary Ann Zehr
Education Week, January 6, 2010, Vol. 29, Issue 16

Lesson Plans Utilizing Read-Alouds:



2 comments:

  1. Read-aloud is great strategy! Another strategy called "Quaker Reading," which allows for student to practice prior to reading in front of the class. These two can be used to enhance students' reading fluency. :D

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  2. After reading about "Quaker Reading", I can't wait to try this interactive strategy. I love how it allows each student to participate based on what parts of text they found interesting. Thanks, Dr. Hsu!

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