Is Reading Aloud to Students a Magical Experience?
Keyword
Value Of Reading AloudRead Aloud Process
Effective Reading Strategies
Student Attitudes Towards Reading Aloud
Teachers Attitudes Towards Reading Aloud
Qualitative Study
Date Published
2002-05-01Metadata
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The purpose of this study was to determine whether the practice of teachers reading aloud to students has perceived value. Surveys of teachers attitudes/behaviors and student attitudes/experiences concerning reading aloud to students were created to gather data. The data were analyzed qualitatively. Thirty-six teachers and 106 students responded to questionnaires designed to elicit their opinions on the value of the read aloud process. The responses were recorded, tallied and categorized according to similarities and frequency. The findings revealed that both teachers and students value the read aloud process. Specific examples from students help illustrate the role that being read aloud to has played in their educational experience. Teachers include the read aloud technique among modeling and guided reading as effective strategies to use in their classrooms. Implications for future research include investigations into student interest and motivation with regards to reading. In addition, there is potential for further research on the read aloud technique on the secondary level where it is used less frequently than on the primary or intermediate elementary levels.Collections
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Exploring the Use of Interactive Read Alouds to Support the Literacy Development of Fifth Graders Receiving Academic Intervention ServicesStudents identified as requiring Academic Intervention Services (AIS), either through testing or teacher recommendation, often struggle with fluency, reading comprehension, or a combination of both. This thesis project examines the effects of interactive read-alouds in reading instruction in an AIS class as a means to foster growth in comprehension and literacy skills. The central question, what happens when read-aloud activities include explicit instruction of reading comprehension and is incorporated into the instruction of students receiving AIS, was explored. The literature review section discusses previous research observations on the use of a designed read-aloud curriculum for teaching comprehension of narrative texts in elementary level classrooms. The research study was conducted in a small rural school district in western New York, with three AIS students identified as such by their scores on the New York State English Language Arts exam. It assessed the use of designed curriculum – using read-aloud practices such as thinking aloud, creating opportunities for text based discussion, and modeling good reading behaviors - in order to help students develop a range of comprehension strategies that would enable them to make meaning while significantly interacting with a text. Research data included the students' performance on benchmark assessments, continuous progress monitoring, and work samples as well as the students' abilities with both a fluency passage and MAZE, to chart growth, if any, that students made in their reading comprehension, higher level thinking, or reading fluency. Conclusions from the study support the use of a designed read aloud curriculum to increase reading comprehension for AIS students.
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Using Think-Aloud Strategy to improve English reading comprehension for 9th grade students in Saudi Arabia.This study was designed to investigate what effect the incorporation of the Think-Aloud reading strategy into a Saudi Arabian middle school curriculum would have on the reading ability of students, in terms of both information retention and comprehension of material. Two groups of 23 students were studied. One group was designated as the control group, receiving traditional instruction, and the other was the treatment group, which received explicit instruction using the Think-Aloud strategy. A total of four assessments were administered to obtain data, and were then graded on a rubric scale for analysis. The results showed that the students in the treatment group had, in the majority of cases, improved their reading comprehension; as measured by the assessments, while the control group’s scores remained the same. These results lead the researcher to conclude that the incorporation of the Think-Aloud strategy has much potential as a topic of research for incorporation into future curriculum in Saudi Arabia.
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The adaptability of read alouds.The basis for this research is to examine the topic of the adaptability and flexibility of read alouds in the elementary classroom. [The] question [of] how elementary teachers can capitalize on the flexibility of the read aloud instructional strategy in order to enhance reading motivation and literacy skills of all their students is best answered through an extensive literature review. The synthesis of the review produced several pertinent findings: that active engagement in read alouds appears to increase the vocabulary size and word meaning of early elementary students, that an interactive read aloud approach has positive effects on the vocabulary development and comprehension of English language Learners, that teachers frequently use the interactive read aloud approach with narrative texts to focus on language plan and development, and that impactful read alouds occurs as a result of teacher’s explicit planning and involving frequent cognitively challenging questioning to improve students’ comprehension, These findings have a strong application to teacher practice in the elementary classroom and therefore will be presented to elementary teachers through an[d] in-person professional development workshop.
