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I am just starting...but "What is a read aloud" ?


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Welcome to homeschooling, finlee@home!

 

A Read Aloud (often abbreviated as RA) is a book that either:

- you read aloud to the family

- everyone takes turns reading aloud to the rest of the family

 

The purpose or benefits:

- to hear well-written works out loud (Literature comes from an oral tradition), and to develop an "ear" for good sentence structure, patterns and rhythms, which later comes out naturally in your own writing

- to hear (and, hence, pick up/learn) new vocabulary in context

- because read alouds are slower, they encourage the development of the ability to remember details and sequence for a longer time, and to then mentally use those details to add/compare/contrast with new chapters, and to be able to predict future outcomes

- to make warm, wonderful memories of time shared together by sharing the excitement, the suspense, the emotion -- "living" the adventure together

- build listening and comprehension skills through discussion during and after reading

- improve memory -- to later be able to recall and/or summarize (a great study skill for high school/college!)

- broaden language skills by hearing a variety of writing styles

- gain information about the world

- develop interests in a broad variety of subjects

- develop imagination and creativity

- build skills which foster inquiry

- encourages a love of learning and discovery, because you are *sharing* the learning and discovery

 

 

You don't mention your children's ages, but things that can help getting started with read alouds:

- pick highly engaging works of high interest to all

- it takes time to build up "listening muscles" (and a read-aloud throat!), so just start with short periods -- maybe do two or three 5-15 minute periods (depending on everyone's "stamina"), for example: to start your school day all together; at lunch, or just after lunch as a transition; in the evening as the family winds down

- some students listen better if they can move -- allow use of "fidget toys", or sitting/laying/rolling on a big exercise ball

- to start, don't use this as formal instructional time -- if there is an unknown word, just give the definition on the fly and keep reading; only through in a comment or question occasionally; perhaps have a different student briefly summarize what happened previously before getting started with the next section

- if you have older children, sharing the reading aloud can be a lot of fun; in high school my 2 sons and I did Hamlet over a several week period, just doing 1-2 scenes a day, after first seeing who the characters were and we all chose who we would be -- I about fell on the floor laughing when one son chose a female character, and proceeded to read in a Monty Python-type voice... good memories! :)

 

 

Past Threads on Read Alouds

- Read Alouds (what exactly are you doing)

- Tell me about a favorite read aloud

- I want a thread about read aloud books

- Read Alouds: how long does it take you to get through a book

- Suggestions on getting kids to pay attention during read-alouds

- Boys and read alouds

 

 

ENJOY your family read aloud journey and adventures! :) Those are our very best memories from homeschooling! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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Thank you for the informative reply. I was amazed that over 70 people viewed the question and only 2 answered. I thought to myself ......1) either these folks think that I am completely ignorant and way out-of-my-league here, or 2) the question was so blatantly stupid that noone felt it worthy of a reply. :confused: But to answer your question.....my DSs will be 7th and 9th grade next year. It will be our first year of hs'ing, although I have taught ps for 15 years. ;) I got that the RAs were works that were read orally. I just couldn't see what the justification would be for older kids who already have lots of academic reading. But, I can see through you explanation the underlying benefit.

 

Thanks!!

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Thank you for the informative reply. I was amazed that over 70 people viewed the question and only 2 answered. I thought to myself ......1) either these folks think that I am completely ignorant and way out-of-my-league here, or 2) the question was so blatantly stupid that noone felt it worthy of a reply. :confused: But to answer your question.....my DSs will be 7th and 9th grade next year. It will be our first year of hs'ing, although I have taught ps for 15 years. ;) I got that the RAs were works that were read orally. I just couldn't see what the justification would be for older kids who already have lots of academic reading. But, I can see through you explanation the underlying benefit.

 

Thanks!!

 

Welcome! A high view count and no or few replies is common, so try not to take offense :001_smile:. A lot of people read the boards from their iPads, phones, Kindles, etc., and it's really hard to reply. And then sometimes people just don't have time to type even a quick reply.

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Thank you for the informative reply. I was amazed that over 70 people viewed the question and only 2 answered. I thought to myself ......1) either these folks think that I am completely ignorant and way out-of-my-league here, or 2) the question was so blatantly stupid that noone felt it worthy of a reply. :confused: But to answer your question.....my DSs will be 7th and 9th grade next year. It will be our first year of hs'ing, although I have taught ps for 15 years. ;) I got that the RAs were works that were read orally. I just couldn't see what the justification would be for older kids who already have lots of academic reading. But, I can see through you explanation the underlying benefit.

 

Thanks!!

 

As JudoMom already said, please don't take the low reply count personally. I often read posts without logging in until something just demands my reply. So, I read your question, noticed that EKS had answered it, and continued to skim other posts.

 

We typically do reading aloud well into high school here. It doesn't take the place of the student doing his or her own reading, just supplements and serves a different purpose.

 

I was actually just this morning going through the stack of books I'm collecting for my son's literature study next year and trying to divide them into "student-read" and "read-aloud" piles, based on a variety of criteria. There are some books, for example, that I want my student to have continuing opportunities to discuss. I want a chance to watch and make sure the lights are on, that he or she is really absorbing the material in a more meaningful way than a list of comprehension questions could assess. There are some books that contain things I suspect may be upsetting or especially challenging for a student sensitive about some specific thing. Rather than toss the book off the reading list, we read it together so I'm right on hand as we go along.

 

And some books are just things I really love and enjoy sharing with my kid(s).

 

So, there's my belated response, which I hope was helpful. And welcome!

Edited by Jenny in Florida
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A side note:

 

We found that doing read-alouds as "read togethers" was also beneficial, so we will sometimes read together, aloud (or maybe I should say, one reads aloud, the others read along) from multiple copies of the book.

 

B/c we have LDs in the family, read alouds were essential to helping build vocab and the sense of "language rhythm" that is helpful in writing. But beyond that, seeing the words as well as hearing them became an important concept for us, as well, so we began "read alongs".

 

Ds#1's language therapist was amazed that his vocab scores were off the charts while he struggled with decoding and spelling--it was because of the hours of read-alouds we did. Then to help his spelling, we added read-alongs to the other forms of remediation.

 

Reading together is one of the things we look back on with tremendous joy, amid all the difficult things we've traversed together.

Edited by Valerie(TX)
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..............It doesn't take the place of the student doing his or her own reading, just supplements and serves a different purpose.

 

I was actually just this morning going through the stack of books I'm collecting for my son's literature study next year and trying to divide them into "student-read" and "read-aloud" piles, based on a variety of criteria. There are some books, for example, that I want my student to have continuing opportunities to discuss. I want a chance to watch and make sure the lights are on, that he or she is really absorbing the material in a more meaningful way than a list of comprehension questions could assess. There are some books that contain things I suspect may be upsetting or especially challenging for a student sensitive about some specific thing. Rather than toss the book off the reading list, we read it together so I'm right on hand as we go along.

 

And some books are just things I really love and enjoy sharing with my kid(s).

 

So, there's my belated response, which I hope was helpful. And welcome!

 

 

We will be doing (Elements of) Literature next year, as well. I think I now understand the significance behind the RAs. Armed with this new information, I may review some of the selections and "recatagorize" or "supplement" the selections with some RAs. Just what my DS14 is gonna want to hear........:D

 

Thanks again!

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A side note:

 

We found that doing read-alouds as "read togethers" was also beneficial, so we will sometimes read together, aloud from multiple copies of the book.

 

B/c we have LDs in the family, read alouds were essential to helping build vocab and the sense of "language rhythm" that is helpful in writing. But beyond that, seeing the words as well as hearing them became an important concept for us, as well.

 

My son is 2E, so reading aloud and taking turns have allowed us to tackle more advanced books than he'd be reading on his own. We're still in middle school, but I'll be surprised if we stop at high school. It's fun for us and we can keep pushing the envelope on what my DS reads.

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A read aloud contrasts with books one reads silently.

 

I don't think many people are doing too many read alouds with high school students. It is different than with 5 year olds.

 

I am not saying don't read aloud or don't act out Shakespeare, by the way, just that non-readers and new readers are different from more advanced students.

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Just adding my vote to keep "Read-Alouds" around for a lifetime!

 

Being a no-TV family, reading aloud is our major evening entertainment. Even when my husband and I were dating--many years before our son was born--we used to read to each other every evening. (We still read some books between just the two of us.)

 

Now my son participates in the group reads most of the time. Often the listeners knit or draw or something while the designated reader shares the story. And sometimes we all listen to an audiobook together.

 

While there are time that my son and I will choose to read a book aloud for educational reasons--because it is a play, because it deals with challenging issues we want to talk about, etc.--the main reason we "RA" is to connect with each other. Can't imagine life without our stories! I definitely recommend giving it a try.

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The up-stream-swimmer-exception-that-proves-the-rule here ;) -- we did much of our Literature, History, and Science as read-alouds throughout all of high school. Older DS is an auditory learner, and does best when HEARING it; younger DS has mild LDs, so it worked best for him; and best of all we could discuss, analyze, dig deeper, and learn in the moment. And yes, there was more independent silent reading in grades 11 and 12 to help transition into college... But that's just what worked for us. :)

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I have an 8th and an 11th grader and we still do read aloud first thing every morning. I think it's one of the great strengths of our schooling; that, and the ensuing discussions, of course. We also sometimes use "listens", that is, we listen to an audio version and each work on a project of some sort. How can my reading compete with Ian McKellan reading "The Odyssey?" And I've almost finished a quilt I've been chipping away at for years! Good luck!

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We do read aloud as our first subject each morning. It's a good time to transition to school mode too. For years ds had a higher comprehension level than reading level, so read aloud time was great for those books he couldn't read but could comprehend.

 

It's also great fun, I love reading to him. I do voices and accents. We're finishing up Lord of the Rings in a few weeks. I had never read them either, I'm glad we opted to read out loud together. We've both fallen in love with Middle Earth.

 

We're doing Greek literature next year and many of those were originally read aloud anyway.

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