Week 11 Asynch Assingment
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School
Central Michigan University *
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Course
335
Subject
Communications
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by ChiefBook6026
Skyllar Milius
Professor Block
EDU 335
Mar. 28, 2024
Article Summary
The article, “Ready to Learn from Start: The Power of Interactive Read-Alouds" by Tanya Wright talks about the importance of interactive read-alouds in pre-K and early elementary school classrooms. The Author states that the phrase, “In kindergarten through third grade, kids learn to read, and then in fourth grade and beyond, kids read to learn”, is often used to promote the idea that the early years of schooling should be focused on helping children decode fluently. She then explains that fluent decoding is important for independent reading, but for a child to comprehend, learn from, and enjoy reading, they need background knowledge and vocabulary. The reader also needs to know and understand how text works, how it's constructed, and how texts are used. Even if children do not know how to independently read, they can still learn from reading through interactive read-alouds. Interactive read-
alouds are adults reading text to children and providing an opportunity for discussions of the text. Interactive read-alouds are super beneficial, if they are done properly. First, instructional practices for read-alouds, that are effective, are interactive. The teacher and students are participating in extra-
textual talk, which supports literacy development in early childhood and elementary grades. Second, the
most effective read-aloud techniques are planned and purposeful. In addition. Effective interactive read-
aloud should happen multiple times a day and throughout different content areas. In a study the author performed, 55 classrooms and 600 hours were observed. It was found that, on average, 8.36 minutes
are spent engaged in read-alouds of literature and 1.7 minutes were spent engaged in read-alouds of information texts. The authors explains that means that most teachers were not doing read-alouds with information texts. Doing interactive read-alouds provides opportunities to support children in building knowledge about the world, this knowledge can help support children’s comprehension of new texts. An important note that the author states is that you can ‘t wait for children to become fluent in decoding before you start to build their knowledge of the world. Start reading out loud to them including a large range of texts and
genres. The more someone reads (or listens to what is being read) the more they will know, the more a person knows the better they will be able to read. Also include texts that connect to student’s cultural knowledge, the author suggests that this may support reading comprehension. The author mentions how studies show including interactive read-alouds in other subject areas is effective, it can also introduce different ideas into the classroom to support content-area learning goals.
In addition to knowledge about the words, that author states that knowing the meaning of the words in the text is crucial for comprehension. Vocabulary can be built as readers are exposed to texts that have more challenging words. This can be done before students are independent readers as well. The author mentions that while students are still learning to decode fluently, teachers can support vocabulary development by doing read-alouds with texts that are more challenging than what they can read by themselves. Another way you can support vocabulary development is by providing child-friendly explanations of new words in the text. The author also suggests that read-alouds are a great opportunity
for active processing of words. Providing opportunities to discuss the word(s) directly after the read-
aloud, supports children in learning more new vocabulary. It is also important that in early childhood, children learn about basic concepts about print. The author suggests one way of learning these concepts is from adults showing children how print works.
You can also do interactive read-alouds, this can show how print works and can support children as writers. The author mentions that in these read-alouds, there is modeling of strong writing. Students can
observe text structure, use of dialogue, and word choice; Students can use the list of features to help them in their own independent writing.
In connection to students being about to observe strong features of writing in interactive read-
alouds, read-alouds can also provide an opportunity to teach a broad range of skills and strategies that they will need as independent readers. The author explains that in early childhood years, learning phonological awareness is important and this can be done through read-alouds. Teachers can engage in read-alouds to model different reading strategies; this also is an opportunity to explain why and when you use them. Read-alouds also provide opportunities in supporting students to think deeply and discuss
the meaning of the texts. The author pointed out that discussions about the text can be hard, but she mentions that researchers have studies methods for supporting discussions during childhood and elementary years of school. The studies recommended that teachers should ask open-ended questions and support children to understand and analyze the decontextualized language in text. The author states that children love to listen and participate in interactive read-alouds. Additionally, read-alouds enable children who are not able to independently read yet to experience the way that reading feels as a fluent reader. The author concluded her article by stating that “we suggest that read-alouds are an ‘essential instructional practice’ for supporting literacy in pre-K and early elementary school classrooms.
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Article Questions
After summarizing the article, you will write a second section describing, in your own words, how the information in the article will inform your practice. What did you learn that you will apply to your literacy instruction? -
Something that I learned, which can directly be applied, is the statistics about on average how long teachers spend on read-alouds that are informational texts. This is something that surprised me, I will be sure to add read-alouds with informational texts to my literacy instruction. What are some specific ideas you learned from the article that you can apply to your classroom? -
One specific idea is about the different types of interactive read-alouds. This article talks about interactive read-alouds that are based on vocabulary, subject area, knowledge of the word, and about text concepts. Another idea is when the author is talking about different ways to support discussion, she mentions open-ended questions and making sure the student comprehends what they are reading.
What questions do you still have?
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I don’t have too many questions. I think the only one I have is more specifically how should set up a read-aloud, like lesson plan wise how should I do it? Or how do I make sure I am setting up a purposeful and planned out read-aloud.