While every day could be called "Read Aloud Day" in Pre-K and K, once a year there's a time when people around the world are encouraged to real aloud and advocate for literacy as a human right. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, World Read Aloud Day organizers suggest that you:

Click here to learn more or follow @Litworldsays on Instagram or Twitter.

Every Pre-K teacher knows that read alouds are an important part of literacy instruction--but you may not realize just how critical this daily activity is. A new research brief from the ILA reminds us that in-school time may be a child's only encounter with books. (See article on "book deserts" below.) What's more, read alouds come with a long list of benefits--not just increased vocabulary, but development of background knowledge and an understanding of print conventions, among other things. And they're enjoyable.

In fact, says the ILA, "Reading aloud to children is so important that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents read aloud to their infants from birth."

Click here to download "The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and Independent Reading."

Want something more interactive? Participate in an #ILAchat on Twitter tomorrow, Thursday, January 10 at 8 p.m. The topic: "The Right to Read Aloud: Teachers' Voices Around Best Practices." (Note: our March speaker, @JoEllenMcCarthy, will be participating.)

Literacy specialist and national consultant JoEllen McCarthy wants teachers to use read alouds to both promote a love of reading and to create a more caring classroom community. In this interactive workshop she'll help you enhance your practice and will share a framework for choosing and selecting texts for both literacy and life lessons. Literacy From the Start: Thinking, Talking and Learning Together Date: Thursday, March 28, 2019 AM Session: 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Eastern Suffolk BOCES, Patchogue PM Session: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Western Suffolk BOCES, Wyandanch Registration fee: $35 per person Click here for details and to  REGISTER NOW.

In an "old school" read aloud the teacher reads and the students listen, says staff developer Valentina Gonzalez. More interactive read alouds, on the other hand, offer opportunities for the teacher and students to process the text together--an approach that is especially important for ELLs. 

For starters, as in every read aloud, the teacher is modeling proficient reading. But in a carefully planned, interactive lesson, the teacher also models thinking about the text (what's happening? what is the character doing and why?) and encourages students to talk about it. "Students get to hear what is happening in the reader's head. They are also able to experience a text that is at a higher level than they are capable of reading on their own."

Read more about the benefits of interactive read alouds and how to plan them.

In many big-poverty neighborhoods, children's books are a rarity, says a new study from Susan Neuman of New York University. She took this project  extremely seriously according to an article in The Atlantic Magazine. She and her co-author, Naomi Moland, walked and biked the streets of communities in Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. looking for businesses selling any kind of print resources for children of any age. 

"Take D.C.'s Anacostia neighborhood," reports the magazine, "...nearly all the population is black and 61 percent of children live in poverty. When the research was conducted in the summer of 2014, it didn't have a single store selling books for preschoolers, and there were only five books available for kids in grades K-12. In other words, 830 children would have to share a single book."

What about public libraries? Neuman found that less than 10 percent of families report taking advantage of this free resource--perhaps because they're not familiar with using libraries or because they're reluctant to put their name on a card associated with a government entity.

So Neuman took her research to the next level: with funding from JetBlue, she set up a vending machine in Anacostia where kids could select books for free. The result: 27,000 books were given away! Neuman's take away: people do deeply care about their children and their learning; they just lack resources.

Read more.

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• Your name
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