Transcript What might students do while reading aloud

Reading aloud as a literacy
learning strategy
John Munro
Thinking about reading aloud
• What types of reading aloud do you have students
do?
• How often do you ask students to read aloud?
• When do you ask them to read aloud?
• What attitudes do they have to reading aloud?
• What do you do to help students to read aloud?
Why is Reading Aloud
Important?
• When you read individual words aloud you
convert a letter cluster (or orthographic) to sound
(or phonological) knowledge.
• When you say aloud a sentence, you link a set of
separate ideas into a relationship.
Why is reading aloud important?
Saying the ideas aloud helps you to link
• the ideas in your mind, link the new concepts and talk
about them,
• think about and analyse what you said using your oral
language knowledge and to
• remember the relationship; retain sentences in short term
memory.
The difference between reading
silently and reading aloud
When you read aloud the process of actually saying
aloud the string of words sets up an ‘articulatory
loop’ that builds links in the reader’s mind.
This feedback loop (hearing what is said) builds
further learning by helping students link ideas.
How does reading aloud help
readers ?
Reading aloud helps readers to
• convert a sequence of letter strings into a relationship of
words
• remember what they had read, retain ideas in short term
memory
• display their knowledge.
How reading aloud helps readers to
improve their reading ?
It helps readers
• see reading as a “sandpit” in which they can
experiment with actions to achieve a goal.
• to think about what they read, learn and practise a
range of reading actions or strategies, for example,
to convert a text into images or actions
• learn to convert letter strings to sounds, chunk
unfamiliar words and say words “automatically” .
• learn and use new sentence templates
How does reading aloud help teachers ?
• It gives teachers ‘a window’ on what readers do
while they read. They can see how the reader
goes about acting as a reader or ‘comprehending’.
• Teachers can use students’ reading aloud to get an
insight into student cognitive processes.
• Hearing other students say the words (teacher can
hear and address misunderstanding).
Teacher beliefs about reading
aloud
• avoid it because students can’t do it.
• it was a bad idea.
How do your students score with reading
aloud ?
When reading aloud, how often do students
Never Always
•read few words automatically and need to work out how to
say them ?
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•read words incorrectly ?
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•hesitate and take longer to say written words ?
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•have difficulty using what they know about words to read
unfamiliar words ?
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•use letter by letter reading strategies ?
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•show poor use of punctuation; show 'run on reading',
inaccurate intonation?
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•say, omit or add words that don't fit with the grammar of the
written sentence ?
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How do your students score with reading
aloud ?
When reading aloud, how often do students
Never
Always
•say words that don't fit with the meaning of sentence,
substitute words that clash in meaning but don't recognise
clash ?
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•not know when to re-read ?
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•neglect to self correct ?
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•use poor intonation and poor fluency; they read too fast or
too slowly, stop inappropriately, read word by word, don’t
show natural language fluency ?
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•say words that don't fit with context or topic of the text ?
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•not use context to give meanings of novel terms ?
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How do your students score with reading
aloud ?
When reading aloud, how often do students
Never
Always
•have difficulty deciding when to re-read because grammar
or meaning is disrupted in sentences read ?
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•have difficulty monitoring reading to ensure
comprehension, re-reading miscues inconsistent with theme
?
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•seem to feel helpless as readers ?
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•have low expectations, low efficacy and believe that
success is beyond their control ?
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What reading aloud activities could
you use?
Different types of reading aloud for different purposes:
• Interactive reading aloud to teach particular reading strategies.
• Dramatic reading to teach how to vary intonation, pause, tonal
and expression patterns.
• Scaffolded reading with a better reader, paired or shared reading
with a peer to teach reading actions.
• Solo reading, reading aloud to self or on tape to teach fluency.
• Choral reading (chorus), small group or whole class to teach
fluency.
• Shared reading, read plays, novels, poems etc with other readers.
• Repeated or multiple readings of the same text to teach fluency.
How do you build reading aloud into
your teaching ?
Three phases when students read aloud
at the GKR phase
while reading
phase
getting students’
knowledge ready for
reading about the topic
and developing a reading
plan
readers process
the text and
self-monitor
post reading
review phase
Build a classroom climate that
supports reading aloud.
• Discuss with students why reading aloud is important
• Model oral reading strategies (pause, punctuation,
expression, re-read and self-correct)
• Reassure the students that they do not have to read word
perfect; Reading aloud not about word-perfect, errorless
reading but discovering what the writer wants to tell them.
• Relax the reader before reading.
Build a classroom climate that
supports reading aloud.
• Encourage risk taking and experimenting with praise
• GKR for reading aloud: show pictures and discuss
• Prepare for success: encourage private practice
• Praise the reader
• Check for understanding; pause and ask “What question
has been answered?” (use 5Ws and How), use visual
imagery techniques (“So what would that look like?’), ask
quiz questions at the end of each paragraph.
Build a classroom climate that
supports reading aloud
• Select key words –ask others to paraphrase the meanings
• Use different group sizes, whole class, small groups, one to
one
• Use paired activities, for example, one student reads a
sentence, their peer next to them paraphrases it.
• Encourage students to read aloud often.
To prepare /select texts for reading
aloud
• Choose appropriate text; texts at the reader’s instructional
or independent reading levels; that is, they can read at
least 90 % of the words accurately
• Check readability of texts; readability measures such as
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
• Plan to have individual students read aloud in small bursts
initially; each reader reads 1 or 2 sentences.
GKR for reading aloud
The teacher can ask students to
• say in sentences what the text might say (practise linking
ideas in sentences)
• suggest words that might be in text and suggest their
spelling
• read words that they know that are similar to words in the
text
• practise reading key words that appear in the text
• say what they will do to prepare to read aloud.
GKR for reading aloud
The teacher can ask students to
• say what they will do as they read aloud; plan how they
will read
• discuss how reading aloud can help them.
• scan the text before beginning to read it and underline or
highlight key words, sentences or ideas, say where they
might pause, how they will use punctuation
• prepare to read aloud particular chunks; give them time to
do this
• relax the reader.
What might students do while reading
aloud
Reading actions to encourage while reading aloud.
The reader can:
• point to words while reading, run finger along the text, use
fingers to segment words or guide reading
• re-read sentences or sections to improve fluency or that
didn’t make sense, difficult to understand.
• self-correct errors by re-reading, self-correct
pronunciation.
What might students do while reading
aloud
The reader can:
• pause to comprehend at the end of each sentence; the
reader can paraphrase, ask questions, consolidate (“so
what that says, is…”), predict what’s going to happen next
• read at their pace and vary the pace to match difficulty of
material
• experiment while reading – predict what the text might be
about , guess unfamiliar words
• re-read to understand main idea.
After reading aloud, post reading review
• Respond emotionally, link positive feelings or attitudes
with reading aloud.
• Review their reading plan. Think about the actions that
helped you understand. What do you do to read aloud
well ?
• Discuss the purpose of the text
• Convert read information into personal knowledge
• Practise writing read text: dictation and running dictation
• Learning to say words for homework.
Self talk to automatize reading aloud
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What can I do before I start reading?
What is the purpose? Why am I reading this?
What do I know about this topic?
What will I do when I come to a word I don’t understand?
What will I do when I don’t understand an idea?
What should I be doing when someone is reading?
What should I be able to do after I have read the text?
Physically, what do I do when I read?
• What will I look for as I read?
How dictation helps students
It helps readers to
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learn sound patterns of words, phrases and sentences
focus on what is said, improve listening
automatize writing
summarize key information
learn to use the structure of sentences and punctuation.
understand their own sentences and paragraphs.
automatize the structure of a sentence, reinforcing
templates in their mind.