February 1st is World Read Aloud Day! Of course if I had it my way everyday would be World Read Aloud Day. But I am glad that adults and kids across the globe will be engaging in read alouds this Wednesday. There are so many benefits to reading aloud to students. Besides promoting a love for books and reading, there are so many other great things that happen when we read aloud to our students. Reading aloud helps develop vocabulary and spelling skills. It also helps improve listening comprehension. Reading aloud gives us the opportunity to actually model thinking while reading; we help develop comprehension skills for our students when we stop during read alouds and think out loud about what we are reading. I always feel like read alouds help strengthen the community feel of your classroom. There is something magical that happens when kids gather together and listen to their teacher reading amazing stories to them. That was always one of my favorite parts of our daily routine in my classroom. Sadly, I am tied up in some meetings during the day on Wednesday, but I am still going to block off a few time slots where I would be available to come read to some classes. I am also recruiting some other adults to be available to read as well. Check out this Google doc and fill in your name if you want to have someone come read to your class! I also have student council members who said they would be interested in reading to kindergarten or 1st grade classrooms so I will add that option to the Google doc and work out a plan for 4th graders to come in and read a story. Because I am not available for part of the day, I have created a digital bookshelf where I have recorded several read alouds. I will share the digital bookshelf on Tuesday. Please feel free to share any of these with your students, but I also hope you will choose to read aloud to your class because a recording of a read aloud is definitely not the same as someone reading the book in person in the classroom. Check out this great resource that author Kate Messner posted on her site: WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2023!The authors & illustrators listed have volunteered their time to read aloud to classrooms and libraries all over the world. These aren’t long, fancy presentations; a typical one might go like this:
Or you can check out this link to register for some live streaming read aloud events. Looking forward to lots of read aloud magic happening at Clough this week! I am almost done with Michelle Obama's book, The Light We Carry. I think I like it even more than her book Becoming! I am excited to start listening to one that was recommended to me by some of my writing friends. It's called Write For Your Life by Anna Quindlen. After reading the description of this book, I definitely knew I wanted to read it:
"Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential. When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react but reflect. Writing gives you something to hold onto in a changing world. “To write the present,” Quindlen says, “is to believe in the future.”"
1 Comment
Tara Bellefontaine
2/6/2023 10:37:18 am
I'm also listening to Spare. I love that Prince Harry narrates it.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |