Steven L. Layne serves as Professor of Literacy Education at Judson University in Elgin, IL, USA where he teaches courses in children's literature and directs the university's Master of Education in Literacy programme.
There is something very special that takes place in classrooms
where teachers spend time daily reading aloud to students. In his
new book, In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice,
Steven Layne clearly articulates research-based reasons why reading
aloud to students benefits their literacy development. Research
overwhelmingly supports the positive impact of reading aloud to
students. Reading aloud increases comprehension, enhances early
reading skills and speaking skills, improves vocabulary
acquisition, improves parental involvement and student motivation.
From a student’s perspective, listening to teacher read-alouds
benefits their syntactic development, vocabulary acquisition,
comprehension, and fluency, as well as reading skills such as
pronunciation and inflection. Read-alouds improve students’
writing, engagement, attitudes, and understanding of text types.
They broaden students’ thinking and imagination, and improve
cultural sensitivity. They build rapport between teacher and
students, and they deepen emotional intelligence.
Layne calls us to be prepared to intelligently respond to the
question, why are you reading
aloud? In the context of high-stakes testing and accountability,
every single moment of classroom life comes into focus. Teachers
are often unprepared to defend the practice of reading aloud when
it is implied that read-aloud is not a good use of instructional
time.
“If someone asks you why you’re reading aloud to the third graders
and your first response is
“Because it’s so much fun, and we all enjoy it,” we’re in trouble.
Big trouble. We’re not in trouble because you’re wrong. No, it’s
fine to include that as the seventeenth bullet point of your
calculated and confidence-inspiring response. We’re in trouble
because that’s too fluffy an answer to be your first go-to when
someone is questioning your pedagogy. You sound like a Smurf. Stop
it. You’re an educator—you need to sound like one (Layne, 2015, p.
11).”
Steven Layne provides practical and important tips to help you
establish read-aloud time in your classroom. He gives practical
advice about selecting appropriate read-aloud texts and suggests
ways to structure read-aloud time that protect the integrity of the
activity and build a positive, respectful classroom climate. Layne
also offers suggestions for launching a new read-aloud book and
integrating read-alouds into the daily routine of the classroom. He
sprinkles the book with expert testimonials, expert position
statements, letters between teachers and authors, and practical
application of solid research. This wide variety of voices blends
together seamlessly to support the love of reading aloud.
Layne’s voice is strong and clear in this book—you can feel his
passion for this topic. His sense of humor is refreshing and it
rings true—so much that I found myself laughing and refreshed, as
if I were reading a great beach book. Moreover, the book is so
comfortably written it feels more like you are having a
conversation in a cozy coffee shop, sitting in a big overstuffed
chair next to the fireplace. All the while, Layne provides a great
reminder of the value and importance of reading aloud daily to
students of all ages: “The single most important activity for
building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is
reading aloud to children (Anderson et al., 1985).”
Michigan Reading Journal, Aug 2016
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