Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep. 118: Oral Language Acquisition through Read Alouds

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Ep. 118: Oral Language Acquisition through Read Alouds · New Teacher Talk

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  Welcome to New Teacher Talk.
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  I'm so glad you decided to tune into this episode and
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  hopefully you're finding other episodes of great support to
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  you as you continue your teaching journey.
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  New Teacher Talk is here for all your teaching needs.
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  My name is Leana Malinowsky,
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  and I am an elementary teacher in New Jersey.
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  I have about 17 years of teaching experience,
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  primarily teaching first grade.
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  However, I've taught various grade levels and subjects,
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  and I've worked with general education, special education,
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  and ESL students.
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  I am the 2022-2023 Middlesex County Teacher of the Year,
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  top four finalist for State Teacher of the Year,
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  recipient of the 2023 Winslow Coyne Reitner Excellence in
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  Teaching Award,
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  and I am also a Certified Structured Literacy Dyslexia
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  Specialist through CERI.
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  I always share with people that I have three loves of my
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  teaching life: special education, literacy,
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  and teacher leadership.
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  This is why I'm very excited to be here with all of you,
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  sharing my love for literacy and hopefully igniting yours.
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  I know what it's like to be in your shoes, my friends.
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  In fact,
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  I'm still with you because I'm always on a quest to learn
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  more and understand how to teach reading better.
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  I mean, let's face it,
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  we know that our college classes haven't or don't teach us
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  everything we need to know about teaching reading.
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  Hence why I always suggest joining the Facebook group,
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  the Science of Reading,
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  what I should have learned in college,
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  and other reading groups to network and learn more about
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  best practices.
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  We need more support as educators to teach literacy.
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  This is what motivates me to share with all of you what
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  I've learned through my own reading, webinars, podcasts,
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  and years of experience in the classroom.
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  So today we are going to discuss a great topic that I've
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  recently been trying to learn more about,
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  oral language acquisition through read alouds.
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  As usual,
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  I'm going to refer back to Scarborough's Rope by Dr.
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  Hollis Scarborough and The Simple View of Reading by Goffin
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  Tumner.
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  The simple view of reading reminds us that there are two
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  sides to the reading comprehension equation,
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  decoding and language comprehension.
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  Scarborough's reading rope further breaks each of these
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  sides down with word recognition,
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  such as decoding and phonological awareness,
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  and then language comprehension,
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  which includes background knowledge, vocabulary,
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  language structures, verbal reasoning,
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  and literacy knowledge.
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  While we won't dive deeply into all of these today,
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  I will focus on the ones that are part of the language
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  comprehension side.
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  I also want to pause for a moment to mention here that we
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  are focusing our thinking on the language aspects of
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  reading,
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  which firstly has more components and make up a large part
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  of our comprehension of text.
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  And secondly,
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  this is the area that many who are skeptical about the
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  science of reading feel is ignored and that phonics takes
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  precedent.
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  Now, of course,
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  it's true that part of the science of reading is a focus on
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  foundational skills.
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  Without them,
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  early readers won't acquire the necessary skills to read
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  print.
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  Language, however, is equally important.
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  After all,
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  our human brains are wired for language and speaking,
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  not for reading.
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  And in order to read,
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  we need to develop efficient language skills.
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  Think of it this way.
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  If we only focus on letters and phonics,
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  our brain wouldn't be able to piece the puzzle together to
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  read completely, also the other way around.
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  So when we focus on developing language,
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  we automatically focus on the necessary skills for reading.
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  So how do read-alouds tie in here?
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  I like to think of read-alouds as your wings to fly as a
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  teacher and also help your students fly as well.
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  Reading aloud is a great way to provide a model,
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  how to read accurately and fluently.
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  So often students,
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  especially older students such as middle or high school age
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  who have difficulty understanding what they read,
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  have fluency difficulties.
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  This needs to be addressed by explicit instruction,
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  but seeing and hearing reading with expression, accuracy,
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  and at an appropriate pace helps them understand how they
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  should sound.
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  You can use your reading as a reference point.
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  For example,
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  when working with a student who is practicing fluency,
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  you could say, remember how I read the story?
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  I changed my voice and tried to make it sound how I feel
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  the character would have felt at that time.
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  You can also discuss how you didn't read so quickly that
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  you made errors, such as omitting and inserting words,
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  or read them incorrectly, but you read it accurately,
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  which is more important.
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  Reading texts aloud also affords a great opportunity to
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  discuss vocabulary.
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  One of the areas on the reading room and introduce students
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  to new words that may not be familiar to them.
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  What better way to increase conversation skills and
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  encourage students to use better word choices?
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  In fact,
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  I can attest this tends to happen naturally during and
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  after reading aloud.
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  For my first grade students, I often catch,
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  with air quotes of course,
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  them using new words when they talk to each other because
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  they want to sound grown up or like the book,
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  or even like Miss M.
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  By using books with more sophisticated language,
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  we challenge our students to learn and use these new words
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  and get them feeling excited about language.
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  Might I add here,
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  read alouds are not just for elementary students.
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  Older students also enjoy being read to and this helps them
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  engage in opportunities to discuss the books,
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  increase their oral vocabulary, and have rich discussions.
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  I've learned through different webinars, articles,
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  and books that read alouds are an opportunity to use
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  challenging texts in the classroom,
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  expose students to authentic stories,
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  and develop their oral language skills.
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  Even if foundational skills are in need of support here,
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  the students you work with will still need to strengthen
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  their ability to use advanced language,
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  which naturally supports their learning of decoding,
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  encoding, and fluency.
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  Another superpower of read alouds is the ability to grow
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  and expand on background knowledge.
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  I'll pause here to mention that education reporter Natalie
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  Wexler has shared her thoughts on background knowledge and
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  how it's linked to literacy success.
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  In fact,
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  her book called The Knowledge Gap explains this in more
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  detail.
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  She frequently mentions how students who come to school
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  with limited experiences and exposure to general knowledge
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  have a harder time learning to read.
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  Using read alouds is a way for us as educators to bring
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  different experiences to life for our students,
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  especially in my opinion with informational text.
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  Why not read a book about volcanoes,
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  show a related video that includes the newly learned
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  vocabulary,
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  and discuss the different places around the world that have
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  volcanoes?
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  From one book, students can dive deeper into a topic,
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  expand their general knowledge, learn new vocabulary,
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  and even strike up conversations with others about it.
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  This is how we grow oral language, my teacher friends.
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  Oh, and coming from a first grade teacher,
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  please believe me.
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  Although some students may need additional support and
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  prompts to discuss,
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  just watch your little's eyes light up when you start
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  talking about volcanoes.
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  They may not be ready to decode these words on their own in
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  text,
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  but they are ready to talk about them aloud and with you
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  and others.
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  Like we say in my class,
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  we are not afraid of using big words.
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  When it comes to read-alouds,
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  I'd like to add that doing this gives all students,
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  of course, but especially your special education, your ELL,
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  EL, bilingual students,
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  an opportunity to learn alongside their peers about topics
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  with new vocabulary and language structures.
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  I recently heard from William Van Cleve that there is a
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  syntactic variety between languages and they are structured
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  differently.
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  This makes reading aloud very important for these students
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  so they can hear how words are structured into sentences,
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  hear from us teachers as well as peers,
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  and have opportunities to practice speaking correctly.
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  Now, this can get tricky at times, my friends,
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  because we all know there is often a difference in how we
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  speak versus how authors compose text.
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  As well, there's language, dialects, and variants.
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  Nonetheless, students can, should,
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  and have the right to hear formal English and how authors
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  use language and their variations in their work.
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  Hearing a text read aloud is a great way to discuss how the
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  author structured the sentences, aka the syntax.
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  If students see and hear accurate and various sentence
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  structures,
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  this helps them apply this to their own writing.
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  Students will need to do a wealth of their own writing and
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  read aloud texts serve as guides for how to write.
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  Now,
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  we could spend a whole other podcast session together on
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  how reading and writing are synced and affect each other.
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  But for today,
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  let's leave it with the thought that syntax and hearing
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  strong examples is important.
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  ELL students also hear vocabulary words in context during
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  read aloud time,
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  and they're encouraged to use these words more with peers
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  during their discussions.
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  This is authentic and yet practical,
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  the perfect match to helping all students expand their
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  language and therefore their literacy skills.
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  Reading aloud is how many students experience different
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  forms of literature, such as poems, genres,
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  such as realistic fiction, fantasy,
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  and learn about the power of stories.
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  I mean, let's be honest.
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  And my math teachers out there,
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  this may not always apply to you,
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  but we tend to remember more stories than we do statistics
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  and figures.
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  Stories leave a lasting impression on us,
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  and without exposure to these types of texts,
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  students would miss out on recalling some of these fond
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  memories.
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  Think of it like a circle.
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  Language development supports reading.
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  Reading aloud supports the finer strands of the language
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  development and around it continues.
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  Whether your students are general education,
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  special education, or ELL, first grade or seventh grade,
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  they all benefit from hearing a read aloud.
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  And what's more, talking about the story or topic after.
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  Read aloud stories are what makes texts accessible for
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  students who do struggle with decoding and foundational
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  skills and helps early learners to gain exposure to related
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  content minus the pressure of reading it on their own
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  before they learn the technical skills needed to read these
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  words.
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  And might I add as a teacher,
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  I never get tired of reading aloud in my classroom.
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  Read alouds offer me the time to share some of my favorite
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  stories and topics with my students.
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  Uplift the energy and feel excited to learn.
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  Whenever families ask me about reading at home,
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  although not the cure all for reading success,
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  I always encourage them to read books together to work on
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  concepts of print, talk about the story,
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  and so students can practice having these discussions about
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  what they read and realize that it's an integral part of
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  family and home life, school life,
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  in all they do now and will do in their future.
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  My advice for you today is to take a few books and practice
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  reading aloud.
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  I know this sounds silly and unnecessary, however,
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  I can't tell you how many adults admit they don't feel
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  confident reading aloud to students.
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  Just like anything else,
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  practice makes permanent and helps you to feel confident
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  reading aloud to your students.
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  Secondly,
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  I encourage you to visit websites such as Reading Rockets
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  and the International Dyslexia Association to learn more
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  about oral language acquisition through read alouds and the
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  importance of oral language in literacy development.
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  Also,
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  don't forget to check out the resources New Teacher Talk
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  has on social media for more information on oral language
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  in the classroom.
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  Remember, friends, the more confident you feel,
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  the more confident your students will feel.
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  And together, we can raise our future readers and leaders.
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  If you liked this episode,
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  please be sure to check out others I have hosted on
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  literacy.
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  I hope you become a regular follower of this podcast
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  channel.
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  And remember, as a new teacher, we are here to help you.