Vocabulary Instruction and the Read Aloud: Another Meaningful Exposure to Words

The read aloud can be a multifaceted instructional tool. It can be used to sparking the joy of reading and it can also be used to model for students what good readers do naturally when they read. In my work as a literacy coach, I have seen teachers use read alouds as ways to discuss challenging topics, as ways to give students a fun brain break, and as ways to teach ideas for comprehension skills. They have also used the read aloud to model fluent reading and to teach ideas like cause and effect and making inferences and yes, they also take the opportunity to tell student the meanings of unfamiliar words. The read aloud as an instructional tool can be a powerful way to reinforce key ideas that you have worked on during your whole group and small group instruction. I want to discuss ways to get the most out of your read aloud time with students. For your read aloud to be beneficial, students must be willing to engage and interact with you while you read it. They will not learn or experience anything if they are not paying attention to you. So, lets start there. Let's begin by considering the types of books to choose.

Types of Books

One of the first things you should consider is the types of books you choose to read to your students. The books should not only serve your purpose, they should also be books the students would be interested in hearing you read. It is also important that students see themselves reflected positively in those books. I am reminded of a video I saw about diverse books, see it here: Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors. Here are some other tips to think about when choosing a good read aloud:

• Is the book topic one that would interest your students?
• Is the book interesting, inviting, and engaging?
• Does the book have award winners, excellent authors,  and/or high-quality illustrations?
• Does the book have words, concepts, or ideas that children need learn?
• Have you chosen to read this genre before? (if not, consider it)​

Once you have decided on a book, it is important to READ it (pregnant pause). I am not sure how many times I have just picked up a book from the shelf, to read to my students to "fill the time" without reading it first. I honestly wouldn't tell you anyway 😂; but a few of those times I missed teachable moments, or stumbled over words that I could either not say correctly or didn't know the meaning of, or both. It is important to read the book BEFORE reading it to your students. When you read it, pay attention to words students may not know, look at any illustrations in the book to see how the author and illustrator worked together to tell the story. I would also pay attention to any teachable moments that are shared in the book because after all, if the books is a good fit for a read aloud, it is worth reading again and again. All of my favorite read alouds are filled with sticky notes with messages to myself as reminders of things to focus on during reading. I am not even afraid of letting student see the notes although there are also clear sticky notes you could buy.  As a rule of thumb, I would focus on one type of skill or idea for each read aloud, but I would also just read the book to my students just for the fun of it. When I taught second grade, my students favorite book was David Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes. I read the book often and invited students to read it on their own as well. It is important to note here that If the book has a lot of unfamiliar words, I would focus only on a few of them each read aloud, but would mention to student that we learned the meaning of the word when we read it previously. Now that we have chosen a book, how can we keep students interested while we read to them?

Keeping Them Engaged

Okay, so you have chosen a book to read and you are excited! The students are excited too, but remember they are 6, 7, or 8-ish. Understand that child development experts say that a reasonable attention span for a child is 2 to 3 minutes per their age so typically able children 6 to 8 years old may have an attention span of about 16 to 18 minutes. Read more about that in the article Normal Attention Span Expected by Age. Here are some things you can do to get and keep their attention while you read.

1. for words you don't need to pre-teach think of a quick synonym and insert synonym for the word into the story and keep reading after a quick pause.
2. Use the illustrations in the story to help carry meaning and keep students attention.
3. Be dramatic some verbs lend themselves nicely to either you or the students quickly acting them out and keep reading. Just remember not to get too far off track.
4. Use your voice. Getting loud or quiet as the story leads you keeps the children's attention. Taking a quick pause while reading will catch the student who got distracted by something on the carpet or on the ceiling and grab their attention again. I might do this right before saying a word that is new and different.
5. Vary the pace of your read- aloud. This can keep students attention as well. Switch from reading some short sentence quickly to pausing and reading some sentences more slowly. 

Here is a short video I found a while back helps drive in this point: Using Read Alouds to Introduce Vocabulary

​Using the read-aloud as an instructional tool is one way to ensure that the incidental, incremental nature of vocabulary acquisition can be more intentional and meaningful.

Thank you for reading,

Dr. Pearl

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