Did YOUR School Teachers Read Aloud to Your Class?

[mathmarm]

When you were a child in school, did your teachers read aloud to you in class? At what grade did it stop?

When you were a child in school, were the students required to/allowed to read aloud to the class? At what grade did it stop?

 

 

[Renai]

I don't remember any elementary teachers reading aloud to the class, but I have few elementary school memories. I do remember an English teacher reading aloud often in the 10th grade. He was so boring, but committed. In community college, there was a history teacher that would read aloud. First time I ever thought history could be interesting.

 

I remember the class reading round robin through about 6th grade. After that, it's a blur.

[Kalmia]

I clearly remember being read to by elementary school teachers. Of course, picture books in Kindergarten. I also remember a dreamlike sequence of read-alouds that would happen right after we came in from recess. I am sure Island of the Blue Dolphins was among the titles. I was in elementary school in the 1970s. I am sure our middle school teachers did not read aloud to us. Middle school began in 5th grade.

 

Jim Trelease has a couple of chapters about the teachers using read-alouds in The Read Aloud Handbook. (A complete aside, I just came across the 1982 edition of The Read Aloud Handbook and unlike the modern version which is choppy and full of studies and sidebars, it reads like a single passionate essay advocating the read aloud. The book list isn't as complete, but I greatly prefer the writing.)

 

I believe the students took turns reading aloud as they were learning to read. I think this also stopped in middle school, but I do remember one occasion in middle school when we had a substitute who asked us to take turns reading aloud in our social studies book and one boy decided to pretend he was a terrible reader, slowly sounding out the words he knew perfectly well. I recall feeling very sorry for that substitute teacher. Of course with a town as small as ours, I'm surprised she didn't call his mother to report his poor progress in reading!

 

Other responses in this thread reminded me that I had a math teacher in 7th grade who read The Hobbit aloud to us. He was let go at the end of the year for not teaching enough math. Sigh, we loved him. Also my high school teachers would read aloud short passages of literature we were working on, often to introduce the day dramatically, but they never read complete books.

 

[Loowit]

I don't remember teachers reading aloud except in 5th grade. The teacher read us a few books, but the one that sticks out is Where the Red Fern Grows. I cried for hours at the end. She read it at the end of the day and when I got home I was crying. It took my mom a while to find out what was wrong.

 

In Junior High and High School we had to read aloud in class at times. I hated it. I am good at it but many classmates weren't and it was hard to listen and follow along. I understand why they did it but I really didn't enjoy it at all.

[...................]

My second grade teacher did.  She read aloud Charlotte's Web and I spent 4 months being totally lost.  I think, because I was not an auditory learner and bored easily that I would just tune out.  I had no idea what that book was about and absolutely hated "read aloud" time.  When it came time for everyone to make a diorama, all I knew was that there was a spider named charlotte and a pig named wilbur and that's about it.  

 

Bad memory.  

 

Overall, I was a straight A student, in the gifted program, etc. 

 

BUT Read Aloud in the classroom setting did NOT do a thing for me.

[Mom22ns]

I think all of my elementary teachers read aloud to us. I think it stopped in 7th grade which was Jr. High. We went to 50 minute periods and no teacher had time to spend reading any more. I do remember reading aloud in Sr. Lit, both the teacher and turn taking by the students. It was an honors course and the most challenging course I had in high school, far more challenging than many of my college classes. I don't really remember what was read aloud, just that it happened.

[MotherGoose]

I remember so clearly, and with delight, my 3rd grade teacher reading aloud the first "Boxcar Children." That's all I remember of anyone reading aloud besides "round robin." The memory of that teacher reading aloud is one thing that inspired me to homeschool and to read aloud to my children.

[Joker]

I remember teachers reading to us through elementary school. The best year was 4th grade because she read Anne of Green Gables and we watched the movie. I don't remember teachers reading aloud after 6th grade but I do remember having to read aloud well into high school.

[maize]

My third grade teacher read to us, I still remember some of the books she read.

[Arcadia]

From 1st to 6th read aloud was during language class. From 7th to 10th, read aloud was during literature class. PreK and K, teachers read to us.

[JenneinCA]

Not as far as I remember, in any grade.

[Farrar]

Yes, in kindy and first grade. Not after that unless you count the excruciating taking turns reading a textbook.

 

When I taught, I read aloud to my middle schoolers with great success.

[VeritasMama]

I went to a K-6 public elementary school in a small town (though it was the "big city" by my rural state's standards). ALL my teachers read aloud every day. Every teacher I had read aloud for 20-30 minutes when we came in from lunch recess, some of my teachers also read aloud in the mornings. It must have been a school policy. When I student taught 10 years ago in the same state, the teachers in the school all read aloud after lunch as well.

 

These are some of my favorite school memories, I remember at least one book that was read each year. Some of my favorites were Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in first grade, the entire Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder in 4th grade, and my 5th grade teacher read several Roald Dahl books including The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My sixth grade teacher read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.

 

My teachers also had quality classroom libraries we could read books from in our free time when our work was done. This is how I read Caddie Woodlawn and Anne of Green Gables, to name a few.

 

Starting in 4th grade we read literature selections as an entire class, sometimes taking turns reading out loud. I remember reading James and the Giant Peach and the Sign of the Beaver as a whole class.

[Sharpie]

The only grade I remember being read to was 4th.  I distinctly remember my teacher sitting in a rocking chair with all of the students on the floor while she rocked & read "Island of the Blue Dolphins".   Incidentally she was my favorite teacher because she read to us. 

[GrammarGirl]

My public school 2nd and 3rd teachers did. I switched to Christian school in 4th grade and don't remember being regularly read aloud to until my 10th grade English teacher read us Silas Marner; I loved her for that (and many other reasons.)

[laughing lioness]

My 8th grade lit teacher read to us every day: Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. Good stuff. That's the only teacher I remember actually reading outloud.

We read outloud in 6th and 7th grade, standing alongside our desks, which were in rows, facing front. 

[Syllieann]

The school I attended for grades 2-4 went to the library once per week and the librarian read aloud to us. I vividly remember Bunnicula. I went to a different school for 5th and 6th. My 5th grade teacher read aloud weekly. My 6th grade teacher didn't. I don't think there were any read alouds in junior high. Round robin reading was throughout elementary. I always hated that because I couldn't stand to read at the pace of the slow readers so I would read ahead and then get admonished for not following along. My memories of that are awful and really made me have a lot of negative feelings toward the slower kids and school in general. In self-educating as a homeschool parent I learned that it is actually detrimental to the better readers to be forced to read at the speed of the slower readers.

[SKL]

Yes, at least some of them read to the class.  I remember my 5th grade teacher doing it for sure.  I also remember my high school English teacher reading aloud sometimes.

 

As far as the kids reading to the class, I remember us taking turns reading assignments, but I don't remember one kid going up and reading a storybook after KG.  Of course that doesn't mean it never happened.  :P

[SKL]

My kids, who are in "brick and mortar" school, reported being read to at least through 2nd grade (so far).

[KrissiK]

Oh yes! I still remember my 6th grade teacher reading us Caddie Woodlawn. I can't remember what grade it was, but I heard Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Blue Willow read aloud... and probably a bunch of others.

[HS Mom in NC]

I'm 41.

 

Yes. K-3 the teachers read aloud every day after lunch recess and she kept the lights off and we put our heads on our desks. The librarian read aloud to us too.

 

Yes.  Through out all my school years there were times students were asked it read aloud in class.  It drove me crazy how slow some kids were (even though high school) so I always volunteered because I could read aloud effortlessly.

[Caroline]

I remember it all the way through high school. 

 

George Selden came to my elementary school and read to us from A Cricket in Times Square. That was in third grade. 

[Freckles]

yes, we were read to by our teachers from k-5th grade. I teach first grade at a private school. My favorite book to read to my class is Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. I'm looking forward to it again this year. I will also be reading "Charlotte's Web." I loved story time. In school we would sit on the floor and braid each others hair while we listened. One story that sticks in my memory is my fifth grade teacher read "Save Queen of Sheba."

[songsparrow]

I have clear memories of reading aloud from our books in 6th grade - the teacher would go around the room asking each child to read a paragraph or two out loud.  I remember that I found it stressful - if your concentration wandered and you lost your place when they came to you, it was embarrassing; it was also embarrassing for kids who were struggling readers.  I don't remember if the teachers read to us.

 

I have almost no memories from my middle school classes.  

 

In my high school classes, English teachers would read passages from the literature that we were discussing.

 

My kids' teachers read to them through 4th grade (after which they each started homeschooling) - usually literature selections.

 

 

[Bootsie]

I had teachers read aloud to the class all through elementary school and I remember one teacher and seventh and eighth grade reading books to the class as "free reading"--not just passages from the material that we were studying.  We had an option of either listening or reading our own material at the time.  

 

I remember reading out loud, also, even some through high school, from specific passages that we were studying or even in the social studies or science textbook

[texasmama]

I don't recall one way or the other.

 

My mother was a public school teacher and read aloud Charlotte's Web every year to her classes.  She taught mostly 2nd and 3rd grades.

[SkateLeft]

My 2nd grader teacher was the last one who read aloud to me. She read Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak, and to this day, it's still one of my favorite kid books.

 

I hated that round robin reading that we did in class in elementary school. I was an avid early reader, and class reading always seemed so ridiculously slow. I'd read ahead so I could figure out which lines would be mine to read on my turn. Then, I'd try to memorize them so I could say them without looking at the page, and my teachers would get irritated with me. That boredom is a big part of why I decided to homeschool years ago.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I remember through sixth grade.

 

It was my favorite part of the day in 6th.

[Paige]

My kindergarten and 10th grade teacher read books aloud to us. From K-5th grade, the librarian always read us a story when we went to the library. I don't recall any other teachers reading out loud regularly. 

 

In class, we took turns reading out loud from textbooks and stuff when there was stuff to read up until about 6th grade. Does that count? I also hated that part. It took so long and was so painful when the other people were poor readers. It was painful for me because I wanted to just move on and also painful to watch because the other people were uncomfortable and I hated to see them on the spot like that. 

[nansk]

We never read whole books in school. We only had excerpts in our textbooks. Even in high school, when we did Shakespeare and Jane Austen, it was still just excerpts.

 

Only one teacher, in 10th grade, ever read to us, and she read something outside that year's textbook. She had a lovely voice and wonderful diction. It was a treat to listen to her. I aspired to be able to read (and speak) like she did.

[hellen]

I remember my fifth grade teacher reading The Hobbit to us. She read other things but that's the only book I remember. She also played old records while we were doing schoolwork. My favorite was In The Still of the Night.

[BlessedMom]

Not that I remember.

[Mandy in TN]

I know that we had reading groups where the students read aloud at least through grade 3. I switched schools after that. My mom and grandmother always read to me. Anyway, if the teachers read at school, I guess it wasn't as interesting as what my mom chose! :-D

 

My dh remembers his teachers reading Andersen's fairy tales and children's versions of Shakespeare. :-o

 

Mandy

[Mandy in TN]

My big boys went to a Veritas Press model school for a couple of years before we started homeschooling, and a lot of reading aloud happened there! :)

[lea1]

Read aloud time was one of my very favorite things about school.  I specifically remember my third grade teacher reading a lot to us and we would always beg for another chapter.

 

The funny thing is that I could still remember parts of a book that she read that really made an impression on me.  I was telling my ds (8.5) about it one day and telling him the parts I could remember of the book.  It just so happened that he had recently read it!  I had picked it up at our homeschool consignment shop and didn't even realize it was the same book because I never remembered the name of it.  When ds told me that sounded just like this book he had recently read, I reread it and, sure enough, that was it.  Very sweet memories, especially of third grade.

 

I think we were read to until we moved to 7th grade, Jr. High School.

[a27mom]

In elementary k-6 we were read to fairly regularly. In jr high I can not remember being read to. In high school my English teachers read aloud regularly.

 

Funny I never though about it, but in elementary and high school I was in the same school district in upstate NY. In jr high we were temporarily living in California. I really don't recall being read to there.

[Curlymom]

I remember that we read aloud to each other, and I think that my teacher was a part of that as well. I went to a tiny private school in elementary that combined upper elementary into one class so I had the same teacher for three years. We would read novels aloud to each other, there were fewer than 10 of us in the class so I'm sure she took over at some point. But there was definitely no reading aloud when I started public school for junior high.

[MariannNOVA]

Yes. My sixth grade teacher read aloud to us every day. She read THE WIZARD OF OZ books aloud to us. My eighth grade English teacher was the last teacher who read aloud to the class. Students read aloud until I graduated high school. I attended private, classical methodology schools.

[Miss Marple]

Yes.  I remember quite a few of my elementary year teachers reading aloud every day.  I remember Little Britches being one of the books in 6th grade.  I don't remember any teachers reading aloud after that unless it was just an excerpt - esp. in English literature classes.  But whole books were read aloud through 6th grade.  I attended very average public schools.

[Desert Strawberry]

Yes, my teachers read aloud till at least 5th grade. We all read aloud until at least 6th. I believe we continued to read together sporadically after that until... college lit? If we include poetry.

Just reading a novel to the class for enjoyment alone, 5th grade.

[ocelotmom]

When you were a child in school, did your teachers read aloud to you in class? At what grade did it stop?

When you were a child in school, were the students required to/allowed to read aloud to the class? At what grade did it stop?

 

I recall my 4th and 5th grade teachers reading to us. I don't recall anything after that. Or before that, for that matter. But the 4th and 5th grade teachers read some good books. 6th grade was middle school in my district, so 5th would have been a natural stopping point.

 

I remember students reading aloud in class up through high school.

 

From 4th grade I remember Huckleberry Finn  and The Human Comedy.

 

From 5th grade, Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt, which remains one of my favorites.

 

I'm sure there were others both years (I think we did Homer Price in 4th, as well), but those are the memorable ones.

[Serenade]

I remember the elementary school librarian reading aloud to us. She read to us a lot. I can't remember, though, if she read weekly or several times a week. I know one book she read us was The Cay. I think she also read us Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth. These are some of my fondest memories from elementary school. The best librarian ever -- maybe someone else on these boards remembers one Mrs. Rose from Eastern Elementary in Greenville, NC.   

 

ETA:  Reading this in my head before posting almost made me cry.  These are the kind of memories that teachers don't get much credit for, but students remember for a long, long time. 

[Dancer_Mom]

I remember being read aloud to throughout elementary school.  It is actually one of my fondest memories from school; the anticipation of hearing the next chapter each day.  I want to say that at least 30 minutes per day were spent on this in the classroom.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Summer of the Monkeys... those are the ones that immediately come to mind.  I can't really imagine school without it.  Read alouds are one of my strongest memories from elementary school.

 

[Ellie]

No to both questions, although one teacher read to us at least a little, when I was 10/fifth grade, but I only remember one book.

 

OTOH, when I taught in a little one-room, multi-grade school for three years, I read aloud to the whole school, one chapter a day, every day, right after lunch. :-)

[Rachel]

I remember being read aloud to in elementary and in high school English.  Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, Where the Red Fern Grows, and The Hobbit are books I remember from various grades.  I don't remember what we read in high school but I do know 3 different teachers read aloud to us, although I think in my senior English class it was excepts not entire novels.

 

As far as students reading aloud, I only remember going around the room taking turns by paragraphs.

[Veritaserum]

I remember my 4th grade teacher reading aloud. My 6th grade teacher did, too (different school). I can't remember if any of the other teachers did and I was certainly unaware of any school policy.

[stripe]

When you were a child in school, did your teachers read aloud to you in class? At what grade did it stop?

When you were a child in school, were the students required to/allowed to read aloud to the class? At what grade did it stop?

I don't clearly remember elementary readalouds, but I feel like my 6th grade history teacher had us read aloud from our text. I remember him talking about Cleopatra. It's fuzzy. In 8th grade (Romeo and Juliet) and 12th grade (Much Ado About Nothing), we read aloud/ "performed" Shakespeare plays in English class. We had a poetry teacher throughout high school who visited us regularly and made us read our poems aloud.

 

I remember hating the way some people read, so I definitely heard other students read aloud. A lot of kids skipped what was in parentheses, for example. I always felt like someone had told them that was what to do -- but why?

 

I can't really recall teachers reading aloud, except a really bad psychology teacher in college who (yawn) read the textbook to us.

 

I remember my mom reading to me when I was quite small, but I am certain it didn't continue past the age of 8 at most, probably because I could read to myself.

[OneStepAtATime]

I think maybe not past 5th grade but my memories are a a bit fuzzy.  I do recall my 5th grade teacher reading to us, though.  She had really, really long fake brown eyelashes and I remember having trouble focusing on the story because I was waiting for her eye lashes to fall off.   :lol:

 

I don't recall any middle school teachers reading stories to us.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

All my teachers read aloud through 6th grade.

 

We did not read round robin in most of elementary because there was only one other student in my grade in elementary school.  I went to a one room school house.  

 

My fourth grade year was in an American elementary classroom.  This was the only time I was in a graded reading group.  I vividly remember having a turn reading round robin and coming across a new word that I didn't know how to pronounce.  I read it phonetically the way a Japanese person would.  Everyone laughed.  I still remember how embarrassed I was!  

[Princess Ariel]

Yes! I remember especially my second grade teacher reading The Boxcar Children original book and also my fifth grade teacher reading lots of books to us. I loved her New Hampshire accent as it made the stories sound extra special. My first grade teacher often sang to us with her guitar which was great but I am not sure if that counts, LOL!

I loved being read to in school because I have no memories of my mother ever reading to me:(