While learning about how children learn to read and the different strategies parents and teachers can use to help move the process along, I have often thought about my own experiences of learning to read. If you ask any adult, many will say that one day it just clicked for them, and presto they could read. However, for people like me, people that struggled with learning to read for various reasons, those sometimes painful memories are still vividly etched in my mind. I can recall the many times I cried because the words are the page just would not make sense. I remember groaning as if I were in pain when my parents said it was time to read for my Sustained Silent Reading. I can remember shrinking down in my chair and hiding behind my desk and books, hoping that the teacher would not call on me for popcorn reading. But mostly, I remember hating to read. It was hard. It was boring and I hated every moment of it.
The strategies my teachers used to improve my reading, in my opinion, did very little help. They only strengthened my distaste for reading. It was drill after drill. It was repetitive. My teachers thought they were helping, but I was only spiraling down. Everything changed on my 8th birthday. My parents bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Each night, my father would read a chapter to two from the book. During this read-aloud, he would turn it into a production. He would change his voice for the different characters and would even have me read aloud parts too. This nightly ritual of a read aloud turn the switch on for me. After we finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I reread all on my own. When I was done with it, my parents went out and purchased the second and third ones for me. They were quickly devoured.
So what did my father do that finally let reading "click" for me? My teachers were of course doing read-alouds in our classroom. However, reading alone with my father was a special thing we did that was free of frustration and stress that I often felt while in the classroom. He showed me how fun reading could be. If it was not getting too late, we would even act out scenes from the book. I got to play with the book and reading, which I was not given time to do in the classroom.
In Chapter 6: Interactive Read-Aloud of Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier, the authors aim to change how children experience learning to read. Their goal is to make learning to read enjoyable and interactive. One method to get students to engage in reading is the interactive read-aloud. Similar to a read aloud, this strategy takes it a step further. The authors describe this method as "purposeful, planned instruction" that "provides the teacher time to model the reading process through think-alouds and interactive discussions" to help students "engage with books in a safe, risk-free environment." Interactive read-alouds not only model the reading process, but they demonstrate mean-making and text connections, but to the self, other texts, and to the world. Through these read-alouds, students can practice their developing reading skills with the help of their teacher and peers.
The strategies my teachers used to improve my reading, in my opinion, did very little help. They only strengthened my distaste for reading. It was drill after drill. It was repetitive. My teachers thought they were helping, but I was only spiraling down. Everything changed on my 8th birthday. My parents bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Each night, my father would read a chapter to two from the book. During this read-aloud, he would turn it into a production. He would change his voice for the different characters and would even have me read aloud parts too. This nightly ritual of a read aloud turn the switch on for me. After we finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I reread all on my own. When I was done with it, my parents went out and purchased the second and third ones for me. They were quickly devoured.
So what did my father do that finally let reading "click" for me? My teachers were of course doing read-alouds in our classroom. However, reading alone with my father was a special thing we did that was free of frustration and stress that I often felt while in the classroom. He showed me how fun reading could be. If it was not getting too late, we would even act out scenes from the book. I got to play with the book and reading, which I was not given time to do in the classroom.
In Chapter 6: Interactive Read-Aloud of Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier, the authors aim to change how children experience learning to read. Their goal is to make learning to read enjoyable and interactive. One method to get students to engage in reading is the interactive read-aloud. Similar to a read aloud, this strategy takes it a step further. The authors describe this method as "purposeful, planned instruction" that "provides the teacher time to model the reading process through think-alouds and interactive discussions" to help students "engage with books in a safe, risk-free environment." Interactive read-alouds not only model the reading process, but they demonstrate mean-making and text connections, but to the self, other texts, and to the world. Through these read-alouds, students can practice their developing reading skills with the help of their teacher and peers.
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