Reading Aloud to Children

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There is a positive correlation between being read to—both at home and in school—and reading achievement (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985). Some of the benefits of reading to children follow:

• It stimulates and broadens children's interest in quality literature in a variety of genres.
• It allows children to experience books that are too difficult for them to read independently.
• It gives children the opportunity to hear excellent literature they might never read for themselves, such as great books with slow beginnings and books above their reading ability.
• It broadens children's background experiences, which builds their schemata.
• It introduces children to a wide range of written language, which helps them expand their vocabulary and their repertoire of sentence patterns.
• It shows children that adults enjoy reading, thereby encouraging reading as a lifetime activity.

I have stressed that children will benefit greatly if their parents read to them daily (or at least several times a week) from the time they are born until they tell you they want to read for themselves (or they want to read to you). Unfortunately, many parents do not read to their children. They do not have the time, or they simply do not see the need. Therefore, teachers often must supplement (or substitute for) the reading of parents throughout the elementary school years. I recommend that teachers devote a minimum of fifteen minutes a day to reading aloud from literature. This should be a regular part of the daily curriculum; it should not be used as a reward when the children finish all their work, or omitted as a punishment when they misbehave.

Select books and poems that you like and that you think will appeal to children. Fiction books should generally be fast-paced and contain well-developed characters and generous dialogue. Let children help you select the books to read aloud, making sure that all genres are represented within the school year. When reading to children, let them have a good look at the picture on the page before reading the text. Allowing children to study the illustration before listening to the text will encourage them to make mental predictions that will aid their comprehension and enjoyment of the book.

Questioning Guidelines

Asking children questions before, during, and after reading a book or chapter enhances their comprehension (or lets you know when they do not comprehend). Two important guidelines:

• Avoid asking questions that can be answered by yes or no. They require almost no thinking because the answer is usually phrased in the question. For example:

  Yes or no question: "Do you think Sylvester will ever make wishes with a magic pebble again?"

  Answer: No

  Divergent question: "What do you think Sylvester will do if he ever finds another magic pebble?"

  Possible answers: Ignore it, bury it, throw it in the lake, tell his parents

• Avoid asking only memory-level questions that can be answered by who, what, when, where, and why. These literal questions require very little thinking and give you little information about children's comprehension. For example:

  Memory-level question: "What happened when Sylvester saw the lion?"

  Answer: He got scared, so he wished he were a rock.

  Divergent question: "What could Sylvester have done to be safe from the lion?"

  Possible answers: He could wish he could fly away, wish he were invisible, wish he were a bigger lion, wish the lion would not be hungry, or wish the lion fell asleep.

The answers to higher-thinking-level questions will contain the who, what, when, where, and why of the story, but they also require the listener to move beyond the memory level. See Box 14.1 for ideas on phrasing questions that require a variety of thinking skills.