Mary Ann Zehr:   EDUCATION WEEK

Mention teachers’ practice of reading aloud to their students and a typical image comes to mind: In a cozy corner of an elementary classroom, youngsters are gathered on a rug, listening intently to Charlotte’s Web.

But, in fact, many teachers across the country are reading to students in middle and high schools, too, and some education researchers say more teachers of adolescents ought to be using the same strategy.

English teachers are reading aloud to teenagers classics ranging from the Odyssey to Of Mice and Men. History and social studies teachers are voicing the words of the Declaration of Independence and letters home from U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War. Even some math and science teachers are reading to adolescents in class.

The technique is getting attention amid a bigger push for improvement in adolescent literacy, as educators emphasize that literacy is not just a concern for the elementary grades.

Many teachers made reading aloud a regular practice after attending sessions at education conferences by Jim Trelease, a journalist and the author of the Read-Aloud Handbook, published by Penguin in 1982. Now retired, Mr. Trelease has been a longtime crusader for getting parents and teachers to read to students of all ages.

“If the only thing a teacher shares is from a textbook, how are you going to get students excited about reading?” he said in a recent interview.

Other teachers found by trial and error that reading aloud worked for adding interesting content or making literature come alive for students. And some educators say they read to their classes to model good reading, such as by asking comprehension questions as they go along, or simply because students love it.
Some of those ideas might have come from Read It Aloud!, a book published in 2000 by the International Reading Association based on a column advocating reading-aloud techniques for secondary-level students.

“Words of caution.” Some educators and even those who are fans of reading aloud say the approach should not be overused. They say a teacher’s reading aloud shouldn’t become a crutch for students who don’t want to read anything on their own. And, most research about reading aloud has been conducted on elementary school students; findings on how the strategy affects adolescents are limited.

For the full article go to:
•    http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/06/16read_ep.h29.html?tkn=UN[Fx3bLjkKLdQye5ls2RalA9K576xX0pBAu