Parents commonly read to their young children, and teachers of early grade-levels read to their students as well, but teachers seem to drop the practice of reading aloud to their students as they get older. However, being read to can be a beneficial practice for middle and high school students alike. Here are five reasons you should read aloud to your students.
1. Engaging Listeners
Minds can easily wander, but reading aloud to your class creates an auditory level of sensory perception that can help students engage with the subject matter. Students will all hear the same material at the same time. No student will be behind or ahead. Additionally, many standardized tests contain listening activities, so reading aloud to your middle school and high school students help prepare them for the test without directly engaging in test-prep activities.
2. Comprehension
Reading out loud to your students will force them to slow down rather than skim through a piece too quickly. While some students may retain information easily at such a speed, other students may struggle with reading speed and comprehension. Reading out loud to your students will help equalize the field.
3. Flexibility
An activity such as reading aloud to your students will give you the freedom to integrate discussion into the reading time. Because you will know that all students will be in the same place in the reading, you can facilitate discussion by pausing in the text to ask students for their responses. This whole-class close reading exercise is especially helpful when you want to guide students and help prepare them for quizzes or writing prompts.
4. Reading Your Audience
Students react when you read to them. You can see what parts of the text surprise, excite, or confuse them. You can use this gathered information to guide your class discussion, and the students will have a chance to interact directly with the text. Also, this is one of the best parts of reading to students. We became English teachers because we love literature, and sharing these stories with our students is one of the best parts of the job.
5. It’s Fun
Engaging with a text can be fun and exciting for an individual, but reading aloud to your class will create a body of readers all engaging together. It provides students with a shared experience that you can use in class for future examples. Hearing a story out loud creates an all-new perspective while provoking imagination in the reader and listener alike.
These resources will help students analyze text in class.
Literary Analysis with Sticky Notes
The Novel: A Unit for Any Novel
