Listen to Reading

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

~~ Emilie Buchwald

    That above quote is SO true. Our children's first experience with books often comes from sitting on a parent's or grandparent's lap, listening to our favorite stories being read to us. It is through this experience that we learn what fluent reading should sound like. It exposes us to new vocabulary, ideas, and genres. Being read to can often help start a life-long love of reading. One of my favorite memories is of my mom reading me a chapter from Stuart Little every night at bedtime when I was about five. To this day I still love that book, and more importantly, I love to read.

   Because of the power of being read to, this past week we introduced the fourth of our daily literacy activities-"Listen to Reading." Listen to reading involves using books on tape or CD and following along with the text while hearing the story read through our headphones.  We have 2 listening centers and each week there are two books at each to listen to. One is a "must read" book, so that we can all experience and discuss the same text, and the other is a choice book. Some weeks there are comprehension activities to go long with the stories and some weeks we listen just for the pure joy of being read to. We spent time as a class discussing the purpose for Listen to Reading  and we came up with the following ideas:

• We can learn new words.
• We can hear good fluency.
• We can practice our comprehension.
• We can hear stories that aren't "just right" books for us to read alone.
• Hearing lots of stories can help us with our writing. (by being exposed to new vocabulary and writing styles)
• It's fun!

  This year we will also be using parent volunteers during our literacy block to read aloud to students one on one, as we work to create literacy-rich environments for all of our students. We can definitely use your help! If you are interested in coming in to read to individual students during our literacy blocks, reading out loud to the entire class as a "guest reader," or if you have children's books on tape or CD that you'd be willing to let us borrow for a week or two-we'd really appreciate the help!

   Keep reading aloud to your children! It is such a powerful tool!