Kindergarten Reading/Read Alouds

I've been focusing a lot of energy on literacy this year because it's a great way to learn vocabulary and I personally love the heck out of it.  But I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around re-creating the feeling of snuggling with my mom in bed while she read to me in the classroom.  So I reached out to the experts.  Here is the email I sent to Mike Coxon and Bryce Hedstrom, two superstars in creating life-long readers:

So I was inspired to finally buy the Read-Aloud Handbook and read
another book called Book Love this year.  As I'm trying to wrap my
brain around how to make this work in the FL classroom, I have a
question that I'm hoping you can lend some experience to.

I started doing Kindergarten Reading on Wednesdays, but with my French
1 kids, the books that we were able to do were pretty lame, so I
started taking 10-15 minutes that day to additionally read aloud to
them from a book in English (my reasoning being that there is a ton of
cultural information in there and I really thought I would just read a
chapter...but they LOVE it).  The feeling in the class when I'm
reading is magical.  It's comfy and cozy and the kids are able to just
relax and enjoy the story.  How do I take that magical feeling and
transform it into the TL?  I talked for quite a while last week with
Jeremy Jordan and our Reading Specialist, but I don't think the
reading specialist quite got it.  Jeremy had a couple of ideas, but
suggested that I should also get advice from you two "big dogs."

This is rambling, and I apologize, but there's a lot going on in my
brain about this.  With Kindergarten Reading, it definitely has it's
place, but it is way more interactive and I'm working really hard to
keep the language in bounds appropriate to their various levels.  With
a read aloud (from what I can gather from the Read-Aloud Handbook),
part of the beauty is that the students are exposed to a higher level
of language than they would be if I am sheltering sheltering
sheltering vocabulary to make it 100% comprehensible.  So, do I 1)
choose a book that I know they can understand most of (and if
so...what?), 2) pick a book that they probably won't understand as
well, but maybe one with a familiar storyline, 3) hold off on read
alouds until the upper levels, or 4) Scratch this whole idea and do
more Kindergarten reading or FVR.

Does all of this make sense?  My goals with Read Aloud are to expose
kids to new vocabulary and to create that warm fuzzy feeling.

Thanks in advance for reading this long, rambling, mess of an email.

Bess Hayles

And here is Bryce's response:

Hi Elisabeth,

Reading aloud can indeed magical. There is a connection there that you do not find elsewhere. The best way to help you with this is to set up a contrast. Your questions and commentary are so deep and well written that I am compelled to give an in depth answer.

When I read aloud to my students I am trying to recreate the close and tender feeling of reading to my daughters on my lap at night when they were little. I am close to my grown daughters and they are both eloquent and avid readers. I attribute it partially to the close feelings we shared as I read to them every night. They heard my voice and they could tell I cared. they associated those good feelings with books.

I am also trying to transmit the joy of listening to my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Pyle, read to our class after lunch. He read to us every day and sometimes he even read for an hour. Once or twice he read for the rest of the day. I learned to love reading because of that. I have re-read almost all of the books he read to us then: Where the Red Fern Grows, Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, When the Legends Die, Little Britches, Man of the Family and many others. That is a long-term reading win. God bless you, Mr. Pyle.

That absolutely does not happen, cannot happen, will NEVER happen to my high school students regarding reading in the current educational environment. Many English teachers are now forced to do close reading or deep reading with their students. The result is that reading now teaches students to hate reading. Reading is not something they enjoy, it is something they analyze in excruciating detail. I am willing to bet any amount of money that high school students that are forced to read a book over a period of weeks and analyze it sentence-by-sentence will never read any of those books again and worse, they will probably never read anything else like that again for pleasure for the rest of their lives. the result will be De facto illiteracy--they will be able to read but they won't because they will have been taught that reading is loathsome, something you are forced to do. Good intentions gone horribly wrong.

Go for the feeling in examples #1 & #2. Ditch #3.

Here is how I do it:

To paraphrase to ideas of Stephen Krashen, keep it comprehensible and interesting:

Keep it comprehensible.

1. Adjust the level of your speech. Students cannot see the print on the page, even if it is a big book. Use that to your advantage. Change the level of your "reading" to match the level of your students. I have used the same book all day long for kindergarten reading in level I, level 2 and level 4/AP by altering the level of speech in each class. It is easier to go from harder to easier. Just paraphrase in language that is comprehensible to the kids sitting in front of you.

2. Check for understanding. Do frequent comprehension checks to make sure they are with you. These are more informal than in a normal lesson and usually appear as side comments in the TL: "Wow, that must hurt! Has anyone fallen down like that? You? Really? when? What happened?

Keep it Interesting:

3. Alter your voice. Do not read like a machine. Use the read aloud tips from "Reading Magic" by Mem Fox: High/Low, Fast/Slow, Loud/Soft and Pause. Alter the tone, volume, speed and cadence and use dramatic pauses to make them want more.

4. Use different voices. Students that are listening to you do not have the advantage of being able to scan ahead to see who is speaking. They need to hear it instantaneously. So I do the main characters in distinct voices, usually based on their personalities: haughty, crafty, sneaky, innocent, caring, etc. The narration is in my own normal voice.

5. Pick books that are interesting to you and them.  If you like it you enthusiasm will be contagious. Don't read something to them just because you think you should. That is terrible modeling for the students. Let you admiration and love for the content in the book overflow and shower your students. They will pick up on it. You also need to take their interests and sensibilities into account, but do not go too far down that road, they are in your class because they want to learn something from you. They can easily get the pop culture

Practical Tips:

6. Change the body, change the mind.  Students sit in a different place and in a different way when we do read alouds. I have a plush rug that a student rolls out and students sit on it. I sit on the floor. My student teachers who are often female usually prefer to sit on a chair in front of them. Students that cannot fit on the rug move their chairs into a tight semi-circle around it. Those that cannot fir in the semi-circle of chairs have to stand behind them. No one can sit in a chair that is not around the rug. That creates an outcast, someone that is disengaged. I tell them that it is because they need to be able to see the pictures so that they will know what is going on.

7. Consistency. We do Kindergarten Reading every Thursday at the end of the period. No matter what. It doesn't matter if they have behaved or misbehaved. It doesn't matter if it is homecoming week or some other crazy event is going on. They can depend on it and look froward to it. So do I.

8. Cookies. Student volunteers bring cookies to share. This idea and the feeling of holding a cookie and eating it bring back memories of when school was fun, of when the teacher liked them and they liked each other. I do not beg for cookies. I do not mention it much at all. Students arrange it. We almost always get volunteers to bring cookies. We give them an applause and a sincere thank you. That helps to keep the cookie train rolling.

Does this clear it up?

---
Bryce

And then Mike chimed in as well:

Hey Bess,

I agree with what Bryce mentions about using different voices and altering your voice. I also recommend reading with soundtrack music lightly playing in the background.  When I read aloud I am standing and dramatizing the story as I read (be careful you will get dizzy at first). 

You mention that "warm an fuzzy feeling" when reading.  I always had the goal of making reading exciting or entertaining because I wanted them to enjoy it so they would do it on their own.  

When you contrast what a typical History or English class might do when reading aloud (if they read aloud), there is a more serious and academic approach.  The TPRS novels and children's books that are available give us an opportunity to step out the "teacher role" and be an entertainer. 

I want the kids to get a little bit lost in what we are doing which is why the voices or music can help "fool"them.  This does take work but I think Reading Aloud helps students really get into reading AGAIN.  Towards the second half of the year FVR is more successful because of the Read Aloud sessions. 

Bryce also mentions body positioning.  I have had kids lay on the floor while doing Read Alouds (which has been great).  I have even gone to other parts of the school to act out scenes (I found it to be too distracting). IF I remember...you have some cool chairs in your room so it looks like you are set up reading :)

Sounds like you are on the right track.  Your personality seems like a perfect fit for dramatizing Read Alouds...hope these ideas help!

Talk soon,

Mike

Lots of great information there!

Still here?  Here are some videos I made of me doing Kindergarten Reading with my French 3 class before and after getting advice.  What do you think?