In a couple of weeks children will head back to school here in Australia. I have seen posts on social media nearly every day with teachers asking for books to read to their class. This might sound bossy but it is not rocket science - teachers need to read books too! If you love a book - your class with love that book. BUT perhaps it is time to think about moving away from the popular books the children can easily access from stores like Target etc and instead select books that your students might never experience.
How will you find these books?
- Step one visit your school library.
- Step two talk to the Teacher-Librarian.
- Step three gather up a bundle of books that look appealing and read.
- Step four - ask other teachers (but remember the book you share with your class needs to be one YOU love).
- Step five - look for more books (there are tons of lists to explore BUT to repeat myself remember the book you share with your class needs to be one YOU love).
I am not talking here about books linked to a syllabus or curriculum outcome or a grade topic from your class content (History; Geography; English). This post is about the joy of reading to your class - the joy of just reading a wonderful book (novel as a serial each day or a picture book or a poem or two) with no hidden agenda, no written tasks, no busy work just reading and sharing wonderful books.
Why read to your class?
I found this fabulous list of six reasons every teacher should read to their class from OzLit Teacher. Please take a few minutes to read the full article but here are the six reasons explored by Narissa Leung. I have added some highlighting and tweaked the order :
Read-alouds immerse students in the joy of reading for pleasure
Read-alouds expose students to new authors, texts and genres
Read-alouds provide a shared experience
Read-alouds provide students with a model of fluent reading
Read-alouds give students access to books outside of their independent reading level
Read-alouds Expose students to new vocabulary
These quotes come from Reading Books aloud - Teaching readers, knitting hearts
When a committed teacher chooses books carefully to instruct, inspire, evoke feelings of empathy and action, students come to understand the skill required to engage readers with texts.
Kids come to see and experience how readers read with accuracy, automatically, expression, intonation, phrasing and prosody.
In the interactive read-aloud where teachers stop at pivotal moments and invite thoughtful discussion matched to specific evidence from the selection, students also begin to understand the finer points of meaning-making.
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