Literature
Fluency Idol: Using Pop Culture to Engage Students and Boost Fluency Skills
Calo, K. M., Woolard-Ferguson, T., & Koitz, E. (2013). Fluency Idol: Using Pop Culture to Engage Students and Boost Fluency Skills. The Reading Teacher,66(6), 454-458. doi:10.1002/trtr.1148.
This article encourages teachers to give students multiple opportunities to practice and apply their oral reading strategies. The authors not only believe that reading aloud is important for fluency and comprehension, it also helps create meaning within text. A new activity introduced by the authors called “Fluency Idol” is implemented into their classrooms and summer clinics as a way to promote fluency from a unique standpoint. During this activity, students are given one week to practice a poem which then on Friday, is given a turn to stand up in front of the class with a microphone and recite. After all participants recite their poem, a winner is announced offering a friendly competition within the classroom. This practice allows students to apply their fluency and comprehension in an exciting way beyond the walls of a pencil and paper. By completing this type of read-aloud students are able to push themselves and practice their abilities to read-aloud; students are also encouraging one another resulting in a positive classroom environment and the formation of supportive friendships. Lastly, the authors believe that with the strong impact that media and pop culture have on young minds, that these positive perspectives will aid in their engagement to the classroom and “foster a genuine love for reading”.
Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension
Gibson, A., & Gold, J. (2001). Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension. The Tutor. Retrieved April 4, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-aloud-build-comprehension.
Gibson and Gold immediately engage the reader by reminiscing on a fond memory that most children have with their parent or guardian; reading aloud a classic goodnight story. Although a simple way to settle children down at night, the impact made in that moment enhances not only their sleep, but the future of their literacy. This article primarily focuses on the connection that reading aloud has a benefit on how a reader develops a deeper understanding and appreciation of a book by “inviting the listener into a conversation with the author”. Reading aloud promotes a reader to model the connections made within the story and portray it effectively in order to form relationships between the audience and the characters of the story. Primarily, this article encourages those who read-aloud to read in a way that will create meaning and enable the reader and listener to connect the book to itself, other forms of text, and the universe as a whole.
Sign Up for Reading: Students Read Aloud to the Class.
Hurst, B., Scales, K. B., Frecks, E., & Lewis, K. (2011). Sign Up for Reading: Students Read Aloud to the Class. The Reading Teacher,64(6), 439-443. doi:10.1598/rt.64.6.6.
This article provides the reasoning behind the benefits of having an assigned student to read in front of the class every single day, a concept that goes by the name of, “Sign up for reading”. Not only does the article mention that this application provides students with the optimal practice time to enhance their reading skills, it also leads to the occurrence of genuine classroom participation between students. This article presents the fact that with read-aloud in front of the class, this student is also likely to lead the class in a group discussion to converse about the book, its’ related topics, and also encourage other students to join in on the read-aloud activity as well. This activity also creates a sense of leadership in the students as it allows them to teach and model for other students; students are engaged because their peer is teaching them as compared to the teacher, as well as a preferred chosen book topic. Overall, implementing the “Sign up for reading” activity into the classroom sounds like a win for all in the classroom
Building Oral Language with Read-Alouds and Picture Books
Wadsworth, R. M. (2008). Building Oral Language with Read-Alouds and Picture Books. NAESP,5(3), 1-3. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
This article is provided by a retired elementary principal, Reba Wadsworth. She invites readers to think less on the requirements teachers must meet for their students, and more on the development of readers. She states that read aloud is one of the most powerful instructional practices due to its ability “to motivate, encourage, excite, build background, develop comprehension, [and] make connections” between students and the text. One of the most impactful quotes within this article was that teachers “must attempt to provide all children with a foundation that will enable them to risk trying new concepts”. With reading aloud, students are forced to relax while also furthering their knowledge of a concept. The students are also provided with time to observe how fluent reading is modeled. Overall, Wadsworth encourages all teachers through this article to read-aloud with students starting in the early years and continuing further than high school.
Print Referencing During Read-Alouds: A Technique for Increasing Emergent Readers Print Knowledge.
Zucker, T. A., Ward, A. E., & Justice, L. M. (2009). Print Referencing During Read-Alouds: A Technique for Increasing Emergent Readers Print Knowledge. The Reading Teacher,63(1), 62-72. doi:10.1598/rt.63.1.6.
Within this article, authors encourage teachers to implement read-alouds not as a way to enhance and support children’s literacy skills but also as a tool to promote their appreciation for printed text. The authors propose a new idea referred to as, print referencing. Through this concept children are noticing the fundamentals of the text they are reading and being read to. The authors note that the idea of print referencing increases the interest of the of the actual text as a child reads by focusing on the form, function, and features of the text printed on the page. A few key points mentioned in this article that the authors believe are important to note to children are: pointing out number of words on a page, how the author placed the words on the page, and finding letters that are in the child’s name. To effectively implement this practice into a read-aloud lesson, teachers will integrate the print referencing strategy exclusively when they begin to teach the literacy skill. The authors of this article want to reach the minds of teachers to show that although the comprehension skills of literacy are important, developing an appreciation in students for printed text is just as important.