Effects of Teachers' Reading-Aloud Styles on Vocabulary Acquisition and Comprehension

This week’s article is about a study that was completed to show how teacher's reading-aloud styles can influence vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in early elementary grades.  “Just reading,” “performance,” and “interactional” are the three styles of read-alouds that contributes to success in vocabulary and comprehension for elementary students.  We are told that read-alouds are very important in the classroom; however, teachers are sometimes confused on how these read-alouds should be used to increase literacy learning and comprehension.

 There has not been one particular style that has been proven to be more effective.  Each student comprehends and learns differently.  Some students may comprehend best by the just reading style.  Other students need more discussion, such as the performance style, which encourages discussion before and after the reading, or interactional style, which simultaneously discusses the material throughout the story.  Researchers found that the interactional style worked best with students that had memory abilities below the group average.

I believe the best way to figure out which style is more effective is based on each individual child.  One style is not better than the other one.  It just depends on the type of learning style your student possesses.  We have learned that discussion and analyzing different things increases comprehension.  It only makes sense to use this in the classroom.  I agree with the authors’ conclusion that verbally mediated, interactional, and performance reading aloud styles are more effective for vocabulary acquisition than just reading aloud with no discussion or analysis.

 

 
Questions:

1. How does a teacher know what read-aloud style works best?

 
2.  How does a teacher incorporate multiple styles of read-alouds in his/her class?

Read-Alouds

I really enjoyed reading about read-alouds, and how they can be incorporated into any content area.  As a future teacher, I will definitely use this instructional tool in my classroom.  I believe read-alouds are a positive way to get students motivated and excited about reading.  If you think about it, kids are being read to at a very young age starting with their parents, grandparents and siblings.  As a young child, I always loved being read to.   I believe that is why I love to read now.  Read- alouds are just another way for teachers to expose his/her students to an assortment of reading materials. By doing read-alouds, students are able to easily make those connections that teachers like them to make when reading. 

I found the survey that the article talked about very fascinating. I have to say I was surprised to see how many teachers actually did read-alouds compared to the teachers that did not.  My husband and his friend are both history teachers, so I asked them if they did read-alouds in their classroom. Sadly, they did not even know what a read-alouds was.  I explained to them what a read-aloud was, and why they were important to incorporate them into their classes.   Both of them said they did not have time to do read-alouds in their class. However, they teach at a school where I believe the students would really benefit from read-alouds. I really encouraged them to find time to incorporate some type of read-aloud in their class.

 Shared reading and think alouds are other effective strategies teachers could incorporate into their instructional time.    It is important for teachers to know the difference between all the strategies, and when to use each one appropriately.  However, when teachers take the time to plan and use one of these strategies, students will be more engaged in the lesson. All these strategies allow the teacher to model good reading and thinking skills.  Therefore, students will take what has been modeled and apply it when reading independently. 

Questions:

How much more would students learn if they were in a classroom where the teacher did read-alouds versus a teacher that did not?

How does a teacher know when read-alouds are effective in his/her classrooms?