According to “The Power of Reading Aloud to your Students: Guidelines and Top 5 Reading Strategies”, it claims that, “Reading aloud every day to children is a research-based, proven way to motivate your students to read on their own, model good reading, promote critical thinking, and create a sense of community in your classroom” (“The Power of Reading Aloud”). Reading aloud provides children with sensory imagery that they might not be able to imagine when looking at words on a page and reading to themselves. The language of newspapers differs from the language of a picture book and therefore, must be read differently also. Reading aloud to children can teach them how to differentiate between these two types of tones and sentence structures. With this come criteria that should be followed in order to successfully engage the listeners. In the book, Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature, by Lester Laminack and Reba Wadswroth (2006), they analyze six types of read-alouds: books that address standards, demonstrate the craft of writing, build community in the classroom, enhance vocabulary, motivate children to read independently, and demonstrate fluent reading. With whatever book is chose to be read, these guidelines should be followed in order to be successful. “Read-aloud weaves a rich tapestry of wonder and thoughtful reflection that gains strength and momentum when built upon a wide range of subjects and differing text structures” (Linda Hoyt).
The Princess and the Pea by Hanz Christian Anderson, retold by Wendy Hoh, illustrated by Suvidha Mistry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnVaYFsk4Js
This book is about a young prince who is trying to find his true love, which he believes, can only be a “true” princess, but after searching and searching, he could not find any girl that was a “true” princess. One stormy night a princess comes to the castle and asks to stay the night until the storm is over. The queen of the castle uses this as an opportunity to find a bride for her son and puts a tiny pea under twenty mattresses, and twenty blankets to test if this girl is a true princess or not. In the morning the queen asks how the princess slept to which the princess replies, “miserably”. This proves to the king, queen, and prince that she is a “true” princess because only a true princess would feel the pea under all of those mattresses and blankets. The prince marries the princess and they live happily ever after. The woman that recorded this reading demonstrates a great reading aloud technique according to the six standards of Laminack and Wadsworth. She reads fairly slowly in order to understand each word and articulates the words very well. This enhances vocabulary and can teach children the proper pronunciation of words when listening to it. She demonstrates very fluent reading and does not stumble over her words at any point. Her voice is also very soothing, which makes the story more desirable to listen to, which would motivate children to want to read the book on their own. This book would build community in the classroom because there is a male and female protagonist so that no gender feels left out or unengaged. Lastly, the reader addresses the craft of writing and standards by changing her voice with the punctuation that is demonstrated in the sentences.
Snow White by The Brothers Grimm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1Pe95MW-8
This story is about a beautiful girl, named Snow White, who is treated very badly by an evil and vain queen who desires the young girl’s beauty. The queen gets so overcome by jealously that she tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple. However, a prince eventually comes to the house of the seven dwarves and sees her coffin and asks the dwarves if he can have it. The dwarves allow him to take it and when his servants are carrying the coffin away they stumble and drop it and the bit of poison apple that Snow White ate came out of her throat and she wakes up. The prince then marries her and they live happily ever after. This reading aloud of the story is very different because it is accompanied by music in the background. This is very effective in influencing the mood as the story changes. At the beginning of the story a happy tune is playing, but as the story goes on and the challenges of the plot start arising it changes to solemn, and even eerie music to match the setting. This is a great way to motivate children to read on their own because music is more appealing to children than just words, so it adds entertainment value to the story. The woman reading this story demonstrates very fluent reading. She has a very calming and smooth voice and articulates words very well. She never stutters, which enhances the vocabulary of the story. This read along demonstrates the craft of writing by adding music to it and enhancing each aspect of the plot to make it even more interesting to listen to. The only error would be that it might not build community in a classroom because it is such a traditional fairytale story that the young boys might not be interested in it.
The Princess and the Pea by Hanz Christian Anderson, retold by Wendy Hoh, illustrated by Suvidha Mistry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnVaYFsk4Js
This book is about a young prince who is trying to find his true love, which he believes, can only be a “true” princess, but after searching and searching, he could not find any girl that was a “true” princess. One stormy night a princess comes to the castle and asks to stay the night until the storm is over. The queen of the castle uses this as an opportunity to find a bride for her son and puts a tiny pea under twenty mattresses, and twenty blankets to test if this girl is a true princess or not. In the morning the queen asks how the princess slept to which the princess replies, “miserably”. This proves to the king, queen, and prince that she is a “true” princess because only a true princess would feel the pea under all of those mattresses and blankets. The prince marries the princess and they live happily ever after. The woman that recorded this reading demonstrates a great reading aloud technique according to the six standards of Laminack and Wadsworth. She reads fairly slowly in order to understand each word and articulates the words very well. This enhances vocabulary and can teach children the proper pronunciation of words when listening to it. She demonstrates very fluent reading and does not stumble over her words at any point. Her voice is also very soothing, which makes the story more desirable to listen to, which would motivate children to want to read the book on their own. This book would build community in the classroom because there is a male and female protagonist so that no gender feels left out or unengaged. Lastly, the reader addresses the craft of writing and standards by changing her voice with the punctuation that is demonstrated in the sentences.
Snow White by The Brothers Grimm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1Pe95MW-8
This story is about a beautiful girl, named Snow White, who is treated very badly by an evil and vain queen who desires the young girl’s beauty. The queen gets so overcome by jealously that she tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple. However, a prince eventually comes to the house of the seven dwarves and sees her coffin and asks the dwarves if he can have it. The dwarves allow him to take it and when his servants are carrying the coffin away they stumble and drop it and the bit of poison apple that Snow White ate came out of her throat and she wakes up. The prince then marries her and they live happily ever after. This reading aloud of the story is very different because it is accompanied by music in the background. This is very effective in influencing the mood as the story changes. At the beginning of the story a happy tune is playing, but as the story goes on and the challenges of the plot start arising it changes to solemn, and even eerie music to match the setting. This is a great way to motivate children to read on their own because music is more appealing to children than just words, so it adds entertainment value to the story. The woman reading this story demonstrates very fluent reading. She has a very calming and smooth voice and articulates words very well. She never stutters, which enhances the vocabulary of the story. This read along demonstrates the craft of writing by adding music to it and enhancing each aspect of the plot to make it even more interesting to listen to. The only error would be that it might not build community in a classroom because it is such a traditional fairytale story that the young boys might not be interested in it.
Cinderella by The Brothers Grimm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjwU0gbtmE
This story is about a young girl whose life is changed when her mother grows sick and dies and her father remarries an evil woman with two evil children. They mistreat Cinderella and make her life very miserable for her. One day, the king of the land throws a huge party for his son to find his future wife and get married. Cinderella begs to go to the party, but her evil stepmother refuses. So Cinderella goes out to the magic tree her father had gotten for her and asks it to give her clothes to go to the ball. When she goes to the ball, the prince falls in love with her and her stepmother and stepsisters do not recognize her. Eventually she has to leave and the prince still does not know who she is, but she leaves behind her golden slipper and after many obstacles he finds her and they get married and live happily ever after. This reading of the story is not very effective for children. The man who read the story reads it extremely monotonously which would bore children and does not motivate them to read on their own. Even though he does demonstrate fluent reading and articulates the words clearly, his tone makes the story sound so undesirable that children might not even listen and learn how to pronounce the words. This reading would not establish a sense of community because children would not be engaged in the story in any way. The reading does not demonstrate the craft of writing because the readers voice stays the same throughout so the listeners cannot tell where the punctuation should be placed or when the sentences change tone. When reading to children it is important to be overly dramatic to a certain extent in order to engage them in the story because their attention spans are shorter than adults.
References
Oczkus, Lori. "The Power of Reading Aloud to Your Students: Guidelines and Top 5
Read-Aloud Strategies." Reading.org. International Reading Association, Sept. 2010. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. http://www.reading.org/Libraries/books/bk813-2-oczkus.pdf/.
This story is about a young girl whose life is changed when her mother grows sick and dies and her father remarries an evil woman with two evil children. They mistreat Cinderella and make her life very miserable for her. One day, the king of the land throws a huge party for his son to find his future wife and get married. Cinderella begs to go to the party, but her evil stepmother refuses. So Cinderella goes out to the magic tree her father had gotten for her and asks it to give her clothes to go to the ball. When she goes to the ball, the prince falls in love with her and her stepmother and stepsisters do not recognize her. Eventually she has to leave and the prince still does not know who she is, but she leaves behind her golden slipper and after many obstacles he finds her and they get married and live happily ever after. This reading of the story is not very effective for children. The man who read the story reads it extremely monotonously which would bore children and does not motivate them to read on their own. Even though he does demonstrate fluent reading and articulates the words clearly, his tone makes the story sound so undesirable that children might not even listen and learn how to pronounce the words. This reading would not establish a sense of community because children would not be engaged in the story in any way. The reading does not demonstrate the craft of writing because the readers voice stays the same throughout so the listeners cannot tell where the punctuation should be placed or when the sentences change tone. When reading to children it is important to be overly dramatic to a certain extent in order to engage them in the story because their attention spans are shorter than adults.
References
Oczkus, Lori. "The Power of Reading Aloud to Your Students: Guidelines and Top 5
Read-Aloud Strategies." Reading.org. International Reading Association, Sept. 2010. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. http://www.reading.org/Libraries/books/bk813-2-oczkus.pdf/.