Based
upon these findings, it appears that reading aloud to young children shows
some, although not definitive, benefit in building a strong literacy foundation.
Through the observation, assessment and interventions of hundreds of
children moving from an understanding of unconventional to conventional
literacy, these studies provide some guidance as to the best teaching approaches
to use with early literacy learners and /or the people who read to them.
Despite some findings that reading aloud does not have as significant an
impact on future reading success as is generally believed, reading aloud is a
major social activity with many preschoolers, a warm and close activity shared
with parents and a true vocabulary builder during classroom read alouds. The
frequency of read-aloud experiences is a large but still unproven factor in
reading success and the recent focus on the quality of these sessions may be the
key to future success. Nonetheless, the value, motivation and desire to read
must be imparted during these and earlier literacy experiences. And to not read,
or to assure parents that reading aloud is not as significant a practice as was
once thought seems to be a step in the opposite direction in our attempts to
foster successful readers.
Therefore, from the literature, and despite the action
research findings, the following are practices
that should be implemented by parents, teachers and early childhood programs.
~Early childhood programs should continue to
promote family literacy based programs through parent training, provision of
books and /or promoting daily or frequent reading to young children.
Incentive programs such as Read Across America, and RIF offer parents
information and incentives to read their children.
~Programs need to share and provide information and training to parents and teaching staff in different or explicit approaches to reading and discussing books. Within this training, programs should provide information about the appropriate selection of books, the attending abilities and areas of interest of young children and suggestions for language expansion or print awareness activities based upon the age and interest levels or the children.
~ Teachers
should model good reading practices and approaches while reading aloud to
children in their classroom daily and at all grade levels.
Books should be selected carefully based upon the intended audience,
their interest, attending abilities as well as the lesson focus.
Teachers and parents should take the time to pre-read the books before
reading them aloud to children to establish fluency as well as to determine a
focus in the reading.
~ Early
childhood teachers and care-giving adults should target and direct children's
attention to different aspects of the story, print, vocabulary and sound symbol
relationships. Teachers should engage children in discussions about the story,
highlighting story concepts such as character, emotions and story line.
Re-reading books may be an important activity to reinforce vocabulary and practice
interactive reading. A teacher might tape or observe their own reading style to
observe whether one approach is used consistently and how children respond to it.
Record children's comments, discussions, questions and responses. Try
to expand on the approach to reading to ensure that children can view books in
different perspectives. One interesting approach to reading found in an
intervention study was to read the text first before showing children the
illustrations in an attempt to prevent over reliance on picture cues to gain
comprehension. (Justice & Ezell, 2002).
~ Teachers
need to be cognizant of the various backgrounds brought by the children to their
learning environment and select books, carry out discussions and provide various
activities that are sensitive to these cultural and social differences.
(Champion, Katz, Muldrow & Dail, 1999)
~ Several
studies used extension activities to further reinforce the concepts, vocabulary
or events learned in a book. One activity may be story dramatization, where
children have props and opportunities to act out stories.
~ Teachers should create opportunities to provide extra read aloud experiences to
students, particularly those at risk, such as 1:1 sessions or small group read aloud .
Trained staff, assistants, volunteers and students can fill the void for
these children who come to school with this ‘pre-existing' disadvantage.
~ Children with special needs will benefit from those teaching strategies that employ scaffolding, particularly when the adult provides high levels of support and low demands initially to assist in the performance of children who may need more support to successfully interact with the text. The techniques of direct questioning, giving information, clarifying, providing feedback, eliciting, pausing and restating in addition to providing concrete examples and opportunities for a multisensory experience with the text are recommended.