A PowerPoint Presentation that shows why teachers of all grades and all subjects should read aloud to their students regularly.

1. The Case for Reading
Aloud to Students
Brian Ferguson
Teacher Librarian
South Davis Junior High

2. Why do we encourage parents to read aloud to
their children?
• Help children acquire early language skills
• The one-on-one attention is nurturing for children
• Help children develop positive associations with books and reading
• Build a strong foundation for school success

3. How does early reading at home help with
school success?
• Children are exposed to characters and stories beyond their immediate
experience
• Children learn the relationship between print and knowledge
• Children hear new words and ideas
• Children get practice in listening

4. Socio-economic status dramatically effects
language development by Age 3
• The average welfare child hears 616 words per hour
• The average working-class child hears 1251 words per hour
• The average professional class child hears 2153 words per hour
“The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3”
Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley

5. Vocabulary correlates highly with intelligence
• You can’t “think” about something you don’t have words for
• Conscious thinking is word based
• Your vocabulary is the basis of your background knowledge
• Critical reading and writing skills are tied to your vocabulary

6. The number one predictor for school success is
reading ability
• Knowledge is word-based
• The cumulative knowledge of mankind is stored as text.
• Knowledge is acquired most efficiently through reading.
• Mastery of knowledge is usually demonstrated through writing.
• Children who don’t read proficiently by 4th grade are four times more likely
to not graduate from high school.

7. The number one predictor for school success is
reading ability
• Knowledge is word-based
• The cumulative knowledge of mankind is stored as text.
• Knowledge is acquired most efficiently through reading.
• Mastery of knowledge is usually demonstrated through writing.
• Children who don’t read proficiently by 4th grade are four times more likely
to not graduate from high school.

8. Who are these non-readers?
• Not listening to the teacher
• Lack of focus on assignment
• Noisy, disturbing others
• Wasting class time
• Instead of “Active Engagement” with the lesson, they actually have well-
developed “Active Avoidance” skills

9. Who are these non-readers?
• Not listening to the teacher
• Lack of focus on assignment
• Noisy, disturbing others
• Wasting class time
• Instead of “Active Engagement” with the lesson, they actually have well-
developed “Active Avoidance” skills

10. Non-readers are those who haven’t been read
to enough
• Their vocabularies are smaller so grade-level texts are frustrating
• They never made the childhood connection between reading and comfort
• They lack exposure to interesting stories and ideas
• People around them do not read
• Books represent boredom to them, not curiosity

11. Listening Precedes Reading
• Until about 8th grade, students’ “listening level” exceeds their “reading level.”
• Reading to students allows them to engage with texts they cannot yet read on
their own.
• Listening to a good reader teaches reading skills such as pacing, phrasing,
inflection, and pronunciation.

12. A person’s
vocabulary
develops in
a very
particular
order

13. Vocabulary
skills flow
from
Listening to
Speaking to
Reading to
Writing

14. One cannot learn
to read a word one
cannot say.
And one cannot
say a word one has
never heard.

15. Antediluvian
• Pronunciation: ˌan(t)ēdəˈlo͞ovēən
• Definition: Very old-fashioned
• Usage: “His antediluvian ideas are preposterous!”
• Derivation: Latin ante meaning “before” and diluvium meaning “flood”

16. Epistemic
• Pronunciation: epəˈstemik, epəˈstēmik
• Definition: Cognitive, relating to learning, or involving knowledge;
• Usage: “The monk’s epistemic dissertation was an engaging study of New
Testament beliefs.”
• Derivation: The ancient Greek epistēmē meaning “scientific knowledge”

17. Laconic
• Pronunciation: ləˈkänik
• Definition: using few words
• Usage: “Jerry’s laconic sense of humor endeared him to the crowd.”
• Derivation: After Laconia, the region of Greece including the city of Sparta,
whose inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were famous for
their blunt and often pithy remarks.

18. Reading aloud is beneficial at all levels
• Preschool and Lower Elementary
• Upper Elementary
• Junior High / Middle School
• High School
• College
• Post Graduate

19. All teachers in all grades and all subject areas
should read aloud to their students
• They should be reading aloud regularly
• They should read both fiction and non-fiction
• Reading aloud is a way to present information orally but in a “voice”
different from the teacher lecturing
• Reading aloud is especially good for introducing new units of study and for
broadening students’ background knowledge of a subject

20. Reading Fiction
• Improves reading comprehension
• Increases vocabulary
• Develops the imagination
• Demonstrates story structure
• Improves empathy

21. Fiction formats
• Story (Prose)
• Poetry and Lyrics
• Drama

22. Reading Non-fiction
• Improves Reading Comprehension
• Increases Vocabulary
• Develops background knowledge
• Teaches facts about a topic
• Models good informative writing

23. Non-fiction Formats
• Article
• Essay
• Pamphlet
• Letter
• Biography
• Memoir
• Travelogue

24. “I have more important things to teach than
just reading to my students”
• The basic concepts and vocabulary of your subject area?
• The history and background of your subject area?
• The processes and procedures of your subject area?
• The important people in your subject area?
Like what exactly?

25. You can read on any topic you can lecture
• It will be more engaging
• It will be more authentic
• It will promote further reading

26. Benefits
• Raises test scores
• Introduces readers to new titles, authors, illustrators,
genres, and text structures
• Builds a sense of community
• Provides opportunities for extended discussions
• It is pleasurable
Frank Serafini & Cyndi Giorgis, 2003

27. Benefits
• Connects readers with content area subjects
• Demonstrates response strategies
• Increases reader’s interest in independent reading
• Provides access to books that readers may not be able to experience on their
own
• Provides demonstrations of oral reading and fluency

28. Benefits
• Helps readers understand the connection between reading in school and
reading in life
• Provides demonstrations of quality writing
• Supports reader’s development

29. Students can also read aloud in your classroom
• The textbook
• Books brought in by the teacher
• Their own writing

30. Sources
• The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease http://www.trelease-on-
reading.com/rah-intro.html
• Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer by Annie Murphy
http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/print/
• Novel Finding: Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy by Julianne Chiaet
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-
fiction-improves-empathy/

31. Sources
• Great Kids web site interview with Jim Trelease.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/
• The Importance of Reading Aloud http://www.reachoutandread.org/why-we-
work/importance-of-reading-aloud/
• “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3” by Betty Hart
and Todd R. Risley, American Educator, Spring 2003.

32. Organizations
Parents Reading to Kids
• Read Aloud 15 Minutes Campaign http://www.readaloud.org
• Reach Out and Read Coalition http://www.reachoutandread.org
Reading Your Own Writing Aloud
• Writing Center - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/reading-aloud/