Read Aloud, Reach Every Learner
This RIF-hosted webinar features literacy expert Dr. Molly Ness sharing research on why reading aloud is one of the most powerful practices for building children’s language, comprehension, and emotional well-being. The session offers practical, evidence-based strategies—such as interactive read-alouds, think-alouds, rereading texts, and continuing to read aloud beyond age nine—to help families and educators make reading a joyful, everyday habit.
About Dr. Molly Ness:
Dr. Molly Ness is a former classroom teacher, reading researcher, and teacher educator with a doctorate from the University of Virginia and 16 years as an associate professor at Fordham University. A nationally recognized literacy advocate, she leads Dirigo Literacy, hosts the End Book Deserts podcast, serves on the New York State Dyslexia Task Force, and helps schools implement research-based reading instruction.
Dr. Molly Ness’s books:
- Read Alouds for All Learners
- Making Words Stick by Molly Ness, Katie Pace Miles | Scholastic Education
Subscribe and listen on Apple podcasts
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Karly: our guest facilitator is amazing.00:00:02.530 --> 00:00:05.200
Um, so would love to welcome her now, Dr. Molly Ness.00:00:05.470 --> 00:00:14.590
Um, Dr. Molly Ness is a former classroom teacher reading researcher and longtime teacher educator, um, with a doctorate in reading education from the University of Virginia.00:00:14.975 --> 00:00:22.415
She spent 16 years as an associate professor at Fordham University and is the author of Five Books, a respected literacy leader.00:00:22.655 --> 00:00:26.795
She has served on the International Literacy Association's Board of directors.00:00:27.095 --> 00:00:35.040
Helped found the New York chapter of the Reading League and supported schools, districts, nonprofits, and publishers in implementing research-based reading instruction.00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:40.980
In 2024, she joined the New York State Dyslexia Task Force and founded Regal Literacy.00:00:41.180 --> 00:00:45.830
A consulting firm dedicated to translating the science of reading into classroom practice.00:00:46.190 --> 00:00:59.070
Um, on top of all of that, she's also the creator of the End Book Deserts podcast, which advocates for book access for all children and is also just released a, uh, another new book with, uh, on off orthographic mapping with Scholastic.00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:07.500
And while she's not doing all this amazing literacy work, um, she's cheering on her hockey loving daughter, learning to fly fish or hiking with her mischievous.00:01:07.765 --> 00:01:08.575
Golden Dole.00:01:08.575 --> 00:01:13.045
So, uh, with that, turning it over to you, and thank you, Dr. Molly and s for joining us.00:01:13.285 --> 00:01:14.995
Molly Ness: Well, thank you for having me.00:01:15.055 --> 00:01:20.575
Um, I have long known about the work of reading is fundamental from my days of classroom teaching.00:01:20.575 --> 00:01:24.205
So thrilled to be here and to talk about my favorite topic, which is reading aloud.00:01:24.535 --> 00:01:26.785
Um, where will we go tonight?00:01:26.815 --> 00:01:28.575
Uh, we'll talk a little bit about this.00:01:28.770 --> 00:01:29.730
Science of it.00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:33.540
Some will be familiar and some will be kind of mind blowing, new stuff.00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:45.180
And then we're really gonna focus on what happens when authors are the ones reading to children as, um, RIF has some amazing resources and opportunities here.00:01:45.470 --> 00:01:52.040
And then I'll give lots of ideas about how to make your homes or your classrooms.00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:54.710
A place in which read alouds are joyful.00:01:54.980 --> 00:02:01.570
Reading aloud is a shared activity for students of all ages and all content areas.00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:05.020
So let's start with this gorgeous quote.00:02:05.020 --> 00:02:09.065
40 years ago, the, um, first like federally funded.00:02:10.140 --> 00:02:14.730
Report call, uh, specifically about literacy instruction came out.00:02:14.790 --> 00:02:26.040
Um, it was be, it was called Becoming a Nation of Readers, released in 1985 and calling reading aloud as the single most important activity for building knowledge and literacy success.00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:26.790
So we've long known.00:02:27.685 --> 00:02:41.485
The value of read alouds, and I'm going to specifically focus on the value of read alouds for not just students, but also home read alouds because the science is affirming in, uh, in both different capacities.00:02:41.725 --> 00:02:51.775
So you'll hear me talk tonight about how read alouds build language comprehension, and language comprehension is one of those terms that we often throw around without explicitly defining it.00:02:51.775 --> 00:02:52.975
So really what it means.00:02:54.045 --> 00:03:00.825
Is your ability to make sense of language, whether that language is heard or whether it is written on the page.00:03:00.855 --> 00:03:11.895
I was in a, uh, preschool classroom in Queens, New York a few weeks ago, and the teacher was trying to tell these preschoolers to hurry up with whatever activity that they were doing so that they could move on to the next thing.00:03:12.015 --> 00:03:15.135
And she kept using the expression, telling kids to get on the ball.00:03:15.255 --> 00:03:20.265
Let's get on the ball guys, so we can wrap this up and finish our next, and move on to our next activity.00:03:20.525 --> 00:03:24.485
And a four-year-old turned to me and said, what ball is she talking about?00:03:24.485 --> 00:03:25.985
I don't see a ball.00:03:26.165 --> 00:03:28.025
That's language comprehension.00:03:28.025 --> 00:03:37.175
Because this student didn't understand the implied or or inferred message behind, um, the discourse that was that was being spoken.00:03:37.715 --> 00:03:49.445
So language comprehension is the unconstrained skills at the top part of Hollis Scarborough's reading rope that when I say unconstrained, I mean it's limitless and because it's limitless.00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:52.710
And doesn't have a clear scope and sequence.00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:55.110
It can often be sort of overwhelming to teach.00:03:55.410 --> 00:04:00.720
There's so many vocabulary words, how do I start, how do I know when I, um, can end?00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:01.680
What comes next?00:04:01.950 --> 00:04:17.730
And so those language comprehension skills as we have conversations about reading instruction, um, have to be an explicit focus, not just those sort of clearly mapped out scope and sequence components of word recognition or lifting words off the page.00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:24.490
So when I talk about read alouds, we sort of all know what it is, but there's a couple of things that I wanna focus on in this definition.00:04:24.490 --> 00:04:30.115
First, I'm talking about a read aloud in using it interchangeably as interactive read aloud.00:04:30.975 --> 00:04:35.085
Because the key component here is that conversation and that engagement.00:04:35.085 --> 00:04:40.485
It's the serve and volley of language and it's all around high quality texts.00:04:40.485 --> 00:04:45.495
And I wanna just point out that not, I am not specifically saying high quality picture books.00:04:46.145 --> 00:04:51.695
High quality children's literature because texts can be so broad and for so many different grade levels.00:04:51.875 --> 00:05:06.005
What I love about, um, reading as fundamental their online resources is they have read alouds for nonfiction texts, as well as classic picture books moving all the way up into, um, older reader, uh, support services.00:05:06.005 --> 00:05:11.305
So again, it's high quality text, which is inclusive of so many different components.00:05:11.605 --> 00:05:12.595
The good news is.00:05:12.840 --> 00:05:16.800
Read alouds are one of our favorite things for kids to listen to.00:05:17.190 --> 00:05:30.960
Um, many of our students, this is the thing that they remember most about their second grade teacher or their fifth grade teacher, um, that beloved read aloud, that experience sharing conversation and engagement around a text.00:05:31.110 --> 00:05:36.030
So let's dive a little bit into the science of read alouds as I cite, um, some of this research.00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:38.940
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you're interested in.00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:41.240
Reading the articles themselves.00:05:41.510 --> 00:05:49.940
I'm gonna start first by sort of skimming quickly over the research, which is likely familiar to you in your parent gut or in your teacher gut.00:05:49.970 --> 00:05:57.380
Even if you don't know the citations or the research itself, you've likely seen this effect when you read aloud to students and children.00:05:57.770 --> 00:06:03.890
We know that, uh, read alouds are more likely to lead to students reading themselves.00:06:03.890 --> 00:06:06.740
You are more likely to be, identify, or have.00:06:06.845 --> 00:06:09.125
Self-efficacy in your reading ability.00:06:09.455 --> 00:06:12.725
If you are read to, I saw this as a classroom teacher.00:06:12.725 --> 00:06:20.625
I would read a chapter book by Andrew Clemens and my students would gravitate towards the rest of the Andrew Clemens books that were in the classroom library.00:06:20.895 --> 00:06:25.185
We know that kids who are read to have better academic achievement, they have.00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:29.180
Better background knowledge about all sorts of content areas.00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:40.700
They have better comprehension skills and they have more robust vocabularies, not just the words that they receive, their receptive vocabularies, but also their expressive vocabularies.00:06:41.250 --> 00:06:44.760
We, uh, the words that they themselves use in writing or speaking.00:06:44.910 --> 00:06:52.410
We also know that kids who are read to have better higher order critical thinking skills and can deeply engage with the text.00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:59.850
When we read aloud to kids, we get, uh, we provide them a model, uh, that then can translate to their independent writing.00:07:00.510 --> 00:07:20.575
Uh, there's actually a fair amount of research that shows that when we read aloud to kids in math, uh, their computational ability, their quantitative
reasoning skills increase, and then again, so much research around just how, uh, vocabulary and communication, um, is improved when kids listen to read alouds.00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:32.530
We also know that, uh, read Aou build kids early language and literacy skills, their phonological awareness or their ability to, um, understand and manipulate the sound structure of our language.00:07:32.710 --> 00:07:45.340
I'm showing a very recent meta-analysis, which is a synthesis of all of these studies showing an effect size, a quite large, um, or quite robust effect size, um, about phonological awareness skills.00:07:45.850 --> 00:07:52.180
And I love showing this image because I wanna just sort of differentiate between what you're seeing with these, uh, brain scans.00:07:52.330 --> 00:07:53.440
Let me be very clear that.00:07:53.820 --> 00:08:00.000
So you're not looking at an individual brain, you are looking at groups of 4-year-old children.00:08:00.210 --> 00:08:06.660
So there's a group of about 40 or 50 kids that their images are all stacked on top of each other.00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:08.370
And these are the kids in blue.00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:13.470
And then there's another group of about 40 or 50, also four year olds.00:08:13.530 --> 00:08:17.110
And what you're seeing is brain scans that are in red.00:08:17.455 --> 00:08:20.905
And when I show these to people and ask them, well, what do you notice?00:08:20.905 --> 00:08:21.685
What's the difference?00:08:21.895 --> 00:08:26.455
Many people often comment the blue, the kids are using more of their brain.00:08:26.455 --> 00:08:33.695
We're seeing more activation, more oxygenated, blood flowing throughout their brain, and we assume that more.00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:36.030
Is better now.00:08:36.030 --> 00:08:44.370
I'm actually pulling from research that came out of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, a researcher named John Hutton.00:08:45.030 --> 00:08:50.250
Uh, everyday media sources like CNN and USA today picked up on it.00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:53.095
So let me give you the backstory of these two images.00:08:54.695 --> 00:08:57.035
Let's start with these kids in red.00:08:57.365 --> 00:09:07.265
These are four year olds preschoolers who are read to frequently, and typically speaking, the research, uh, defines frequently as like five or more times a week.00:09:07.685 --> 00:09:09.185
What you're seeing here.00:09:09.510 --> 00:09:16.260
Is activation in the portions of the brain that are really largely responsible for language and literacy development.00:09:16.530 --> 00:09:20.670
These are the parts of the brain that lead to academic success and achievement.00:09:20.880 --> 00:09:26.850
And later, as kids get explicit instruction in reading, become what we know as the reading brain.00:09:26.910 --> 00:09:36.630
So just by listening to read alouds, we're seeing brain activation activation that serves as the springboard for later reading skills versus.00:09:37.295 --> 00:09:43.175
Same age of kids preschoolers who are spending up to two hours a day on devices.00:09:43.175 --> 00:09:47.135
And those devices are tablets, gaming systems, all the things.00:09:47.405 --> 00:09:51.815
And what we're seeing here is mass disorganization, chaotic activity.00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:58.200
Under development of those parts that are so specific to language and literacy processes.00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:07.290
So as early as four years old, we can literally see differences in the neural structures of kids who are read to versus kids who are not kind of mind boggling.00:10:08.390 --> 00:10:13.250
We know that, um, read alouds are a huge source of vocabulary.00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:21.410
I love this notion that picture books are a lexical reservoir because of the richness of vocabulary that they provide.00:10:21.650 --> 00:10:24.020
We know that children's literature.00:10:24.325 --> 00:10:43.855
Has more rare words being words that are sophisticated words that kids are unlikely to hear in everyday conversation and just listening
to television that they encounter more of those sophisticated, rare vocabulary words in a picture book than they would hear otherwise.00:10:44.155 --> 00:10:48.475
And the, uh, text that I always use as an example of that is Pizza.00:10:48.475 --> 00:10:49.675
Pizza by William Steig.00:10:50.405 --> 00:10:52.265
Super simple picture book.00:10:52.415 --> 00:10:54.095
I could read it to a 3-year-old.00:10:54.455 --> 00:10:55.415
Here's Pete.00:10:55.415 --> 00:10:57.065
Pete wants to go outside and play.00:10:57.065 --> 00:11:03.275
You can see his baseball glove and ball, but it's raining outside, so he has to do something inside instead.00:11:03.365 --> 00:11:07.595
And his father makes up this indoor activity where they make him into a pizza.00:11:07.625 --> 00:11:08.255
Super fun.00:11:08.255 --> 00:11:12.215
Read aloud for a young kid and look at this one sentence.00:11:12.965 --> 00:11:17.525
Pete's father can't help but noticing how miserable his son is.00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:25.810
The words, noticing the words miserable is a three-year-old likely to hear those words in everyday conversation?00:11:26.050 --> 00:11:27.070
Probably not.00:11:27.070 --> 00:11:34.060
But the picture book gives us a, um, a, a perfect opportunity to introduce those sophisticated vocabulary words.00:11:35.065 --> 00:11:52.535
We also know that there are socio-emotional benefits that when kids listen to read alouds, particularly in narrative text, they have
more developed, uh, conflict resolution skills, more sensitivity, more empathy better self-regulation, less uh, disruptive outbursts.00:11:53.645 --> 00:12:15.735
We know, uh, from this brand new article, a 2025 article that when we read picture books that model some of this emotional literacy, we give kids emotional
vocabulary to express their feelings and use that as a way to, uh, start conflict resolution to, uh, build those life skills and that socio-emotional learning.00:12:16.920 --> 00:12:21.660
We also know that there are physiological benefits of listening to read alouds.00:12:21.660 --> 00:12:25.050
And this science every time I present it, is wild to me.00:12:25.290 --> 00:12:28.650
Let's first start in a neonatal intensive care unit.00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:38.250
The NICU is where our premature babies go, uh, to be, uh, to get medical care until they're medically robust, to be discharged home.00:12:38.640 --> 00:12:39.750
And, uh.00:12:40.545 --> 00:12:43.995
We know this from a study that happened at the University of Virginia.00:12:44.085 --> 00:12:49.605
Um, and if you've not seen a NICU in real life, you've likely seen one on a hospital drama.00:12:49.605 --> 00:12:53.355
You know that babies are in incubators with these wires and these monitors.00:12:53.670 --> 00:13:09.690
And what happened in this reading garden, they took babies and either whisper, read to them because they were tiny, like less than four pounds and very premature, real low birth weight, or they read to them at normal frequency and duration.00:13:09.780 --> 00:13:16.920
And because these babies were hooked up to all of these wires and monitors, they found something that kind of blew their mind.00:13:17.220 --> 00:13:19.410
They found that babies had.00:13:19.935 --> 00:13:31.425
Their heart rates decreased while their oxygen rates increased, not just during the read aloud, but up to 30 minutes to 60 minutes after the read aloud.00:13:31.425 --> 00:13:38.055
So in other words, just from listening to a read aloud, these babies reached medical homeostasis.00:13:38.055 --> 00:13:40.605
And I wanna show a super quick video of this.00:13:40.785 --> 00:13:41.895
A good friend of mine.00:13:42.630 --> 00:14:04.530
Is a grandmother of a baby who was in the NICU and she knew the science, and she would go in and she would do a read aloud to the baby in the nicu, or she would
use something called a Tony Box, which is basically an a modern day version of a Fisher-Price record player where you can have a baby or a child in its crib.00:14:04.770 --> 00:14:06.480
Listen to some sort of read aloud.00:14:06.900 --> 00:14:07.800
Don't worry.00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:09.990
In this super quick video, it's like 40 seconds.00:14:10.290 --> 00:14:13.200
If you can't hear the sound, it doesn't matter.00:14:13.410 --> 00:14:23.700
But what I want you to do is focus in when the camera pans up to the uh, baby Blair's heart monitor and see what happens with the numbers.00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:24.210
Here we go.00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:34.605
-: Olivia looks with her mother, her father, her brother, her dog, Harry and Edwin, the couch.00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:43.770
In the morning after she gets up and moves the cat and brushes her teeth and combs her ears and moves the cat under, Olivia gets dressed.00:14:44.370 --> 00:14:46.290
She has to try on everything.00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:50.255
On sunny days, Olivia like to go the games.00:14:50.895 --> 00:14:51.735
Molly Ness: Wild, right?00:14:51.735 --> 00:15:05.305
You can see the heart rate going down, down to the point where this hospital, the doctors started noticing this and would ask the, my friend, this literacy advocate and colleague.00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:07.140
What, why was she reading aloud?00:15:07.140 --> 00:15:11.220
This baby's too young to understand what's going on, and she showed them the science.00:15:11.220 --> 00:15:14.400
And in this NICU in Texas, this is now the standard of care.00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:17.010
And what you saw, uh, was a Tony Box.00:15:17.010 --> 00:15:21.840
I just screenshot this at, um, when I was down at Target or Kohl's.00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:22.650
You can see them.00:15:22.930 --> 00:15:25.720
Great gifts were coming up on holiday season.00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:33.740
If you have a baby shower to go to, this is a great way to bring literacy into your life because of the importance of those physiological benefits.00:15:34.605 --> 00:15:43.455
We also know that children who are older, these are school age children now that I'm gonna be talking about, who are hospitalized for longer durations of time.00:15:43.455 --> 00:15:48.335
These are kids who are have things like childhood cancer or what have you.00:15:49.205 --> 00:15:55.145
This amazing study focused on what happened to these hospitalized children.00:15:55.325 --> 00:15:57.605
Let me explain the data that you'll see.00:15:58.550 --> 00:16:00.860
So I'm showing you two different sets of data.00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:02.660
We've got a group in blue.00:16:03.050 --> 00:16:06.020
These were kids who listened to stories.00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:10.820
The group in red, these were kids who did not have story time.00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:14.120
Instead, what they had was they did games and riddles and puzzles.00:16:15.470 --> 00:16:20.270
This first row across, what I'm showing you is oxytocin.00:16:20.270 --> 00:16:22.910
Oxytocin is your feel good chemical.00:16:23.150 --> 00:16:34.250
The stuff that, when you get that warm fuzzy feeling because you're snuggling with your dog on the couch after drinking, uh, you know, a pumpkin latte, and you feel that warm fuzzy, that's your oxytocin.00:16:34.670 --> 00:16:38.480
Look how sharply it increases for the blue kids, the storytelling kid.00:16:39.605 --> 00:16:42.245
The next row across is cortisol.00:16:42.275 --> 00:16:45.635
Cortisol is your stress hormone, your kind of fight or flight.00:16:45.635 --> 00:16:51.455
What kicks in to give you the energy burst to out chase to to outrun the tiger that's chasing you.00:16:52.760 --> 00:17:00.290
Look at how sharply the cortisol, the stress hormone decreased for the kids in blue, the storytelling group.00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:04.100
And then the final row across is the pain scale.00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:07.490
If you've been to a hospital or a doctor's office, you've seen this.00:17:07.490 --> 00:17:10.190
This is the series of smiley faces that goes from green.00:17:10.825 --> 00:17:14.485
To red, and the doctor asks you, how is your pain?00:17:14.485 --> 00:17:15.865
And you point to the picture.00:17:15.865 --> 00:17:16.975
That's grimacing.00:17:17.455 --> 00:17:19.835
This is completed by kids themselves.00:17:19.835 --> 00:17:29.100
These hospitalized children evaluated their levels of pain before the read aloud and then after the read aloud and look again, how sharply it decreased for the kids in blue.00:17:29.715 --> 00:17:43.235
So in a nutshell, this environment, which is probably the most anxiety provoking environment you can be in, which is a hospital what we saw, the good stuff increases the oxytocin and the bad stuff.00:17:43.235 --> 00:17:47.915
The pain and the stress decreases just by listening to a read aloud.00:17:48.125 --> 00:17:54.665
Now, if that can be true in a hospital, imagine the power and possibility at home and at school.00:17:55.505 --> 00:18:05.815
So, um, one of the amazing things about rally to read is that we have the opportunity for authors to do these read-alouds to children.00:18:05.815 --> 00:18:10.475
And I'm gonna share some data around what happens when authors read to children.00:18:10.475 --> 00:18:13.955
And I'll first start by the fact that I, as an adult.00:18:14.660 --> 00:18:18.560
And many other people who are literacy advocates and lifelong readers.00:18:18.770 --> 00:18:25.910
We see authors as celebrities and as photographic evidence of this, I'm gonna show you the times that I got to fan girl.00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:32.270
On the right, Jason Reynolds and the lovely woman behind the mask is Judy Bloom.00:18:32.450 --> 00:18:36.260
She has an independent bookstore in Key West Florida.00:18:36.620 --> 00:18:41.780
I went there knowing that she owned this bookstore, um, in January.00:18:41.780 --> 00:18:43.340
I just wanted to go see it.00:18:43.610 --> 00:18:52.580
Uh, her bookstore has, um, is specializes in band books because Judy was one of the first authors really to, to take on, um, book banning.00:18:53.585 --> 00:18:59.645
I did not expect on a Saturday afternoon that she would be, be there literally stacking the shelves herself.00:18:59.645 --> 00:19:05.075
And so I, of course, when I met these authors, what did I do as a reader?00:19:05.105 --> 00:19:16.835
I went back and reread all of the books that they had written because I had this now personal experience, a personal connection to an author, and that's what happens with kids as well.00:19:17.255 --> 00:19:26.255
And as evidence of this, I wanna share some data that comes from this zany creative, just fun-loving family.00:19:26.495 --> 00:19:28.685
What you are looking at is you are looking at.00:19:29.195 --> 00:19:54.845
Author, illustrator, husband and wife, team Robbie Bear and Matthew Swanson, who got the crazy idea to take a bus, not a full-size school bus, one of the
shorter school buses, pack their four children and two dogs into this bus and spend an entire school year driving across the country visiting Title One schools.00:19:55.425 --> 00:20:10.245
They did, they chose Title One schools that don't typically have the funding to bring in authors and illustrators to, um, have conversations with kids about literacy as well as to give out books to these Title one schools.00:20:10.485 --> 00:20:12.105
Yes, they visited Hawaii.00:20:12.105 --> 00:20:16.935
They didn't take the bus to Hawaii, they flew there, and yes, they visited Alaska.00:20:17.055 --> 00:20:19.845
So in, um, conjunction with this.00:20:20.195 --> 00:20:24.341
Busload of books thing, uh, which took place from 2022 to 2023.00:20:26.060 --> 00:20:28.070
They, um, had these assemblies.00:20:28.070 --> 00:20:39.830
They did these book giveaways, and they also collected data about what happens when authors and illustrators visit kids and talk to them about the importance of reading and literacy.00:20:40.040 --> 00:20:46.910
We sort of instinctually know that good things happen, but we didn't really have a ton of data actually showing this.00:20:46.910 --> 00:20:52.340
And you can look into Matthew and Robbie and find out their amazing children's books.00:20:52.675 --> 00:20:53.845
Super fun.00:20:54.055 --> 00:20:58.735
They have a ton of them as well as this crazy busload of book tours.00:20:58.765 --> 00:21:00.385
Again, four children.00:21:00.385 --> 00:21:05.515
Their children, I believe at the time were 10th grade all the way to third grade.00:21:05.515 --> 00:21:09.670
They had this popup kind of tent at the top of the, uh, the bus.00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:19.460
Where, um, the kids slept and they literally were in campgrounds for the entire and driveways of, uh, of very gracious readers for this entire year.00:21:19.760 --> 00:21:23.030
And so what did the data show?00:21:23.150 --> 00:21:27.590
And this is, um, not yet published, uh, but it is going to be published.00:21:27.590 --> 00:21:30.075
So, um, please follow up if you want any of it.00:21:30.710 --> 00:21:45.110
So they asked students about their motivation and how they were using their free time and whether literacy was a part of it before they did this author visit, and these school assemblies and these book giveaways.00:21:45.470 --> 00:21:47.810
And then after reading.00:21:48.890 --> 00:22:05.030
And what they found, not surprisingly, is that students were more motivated to engage in reading and writing activities based on author visits, based on these book giveaways, based on the excitement around these assemblies.00:22:05.330 --> 00:22:06.740
But most importantly.00:22:07.585 --> 00:22:18.145
The students who typically had attitudes about reading that were more positive they had an extra dose of those good sorts of things.00:22:18.145 --> 00:22:28.015
And they found this with both reading and writing, that students who were a part of these visits who got the chance to interact with these authors had higher.00:22:28.270 --> 00:22:37.330
Levels of independent reading, more positive associations with writing and reading just from the author interaction.00:22:37.330 --> 00:22:47.740
And so they were able to take some of what we instinctually know, which is that good things happen when kids interact with authors and really quantify that into some data.00:22:47.860 --> 00:22:52.750
And that's one of the reasons why I am so excited about Rally to read.00:22:52.920 --> 00:23:13.080
You can have, as you go to the website, you'll find things like the author Drew Daywalt reading the actual book that he authored, the
Day Crans, uh, the Crans Made Friends, and there are also a ton of activities in the Rally to Read website that come along with the book.00:23:13.080 --> 00:23:14.220
So this is one of those.00:23:14.970 --> 00:23:26.190
Had this been a thing when I was a parent and needed, you know, 10 minutes to change the laundry or take a shower, I would have my, my daughter at home watch the read aloud.00:23:26.190 --> 00:23:37.560
Maybe I'd join in and then we would watch it again and do some of these interactive activities that are planned both for school applications as well as home applications.00:23:38.395 --> 00:23:42.895
So let's talk then about ways to build reading motivation at home.00:23:42.895 --> 00:23:48.775
It is a question that I'm asked time and time again is how do you get your child to read books?00:23:48.985 --> 00:23:53.755
The number one thing I ask is how often does your child see you read books?00:23:53.785 --> 00:24:02.065
And I don't mean reading on a device or reading on a Kindle, because too often, even though we may be reading.00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:06.250
An app on our phone that's a Kindle app or what have you.00:24:06.610 --> 00:24:09.970
Kids don't naturally associate that with reading.00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:17.230
So I ask parents and caregivers, how often do you, does your child see you reading in hard copy?00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:23.585
A magazine, a newspaper, a cookbook, a beach read, a mystery, whatever you're doing.00:24:24.125 --> 00:24:28.925
Because that's really the best way to get your child to read books.00:24:28.925 --> 00:24:35.345
We know the old adage kids do as they see and not just as they hear so many parents.00:24:35.345 --> 00:24:38.225
This is a hot topic in their minds.00:24:38.495 --> 00:24:41.255
Uh, Scholastic does this lovely survey.00:24:41.950 --> 00:24:45.400
Every year that's representative of families all across the country.00:24:45.760 --> 00:24:57.730
And we're starting to see data that this is an increasing cause for concern for parents that they're wanting kids to read for fun, for independent reading outside of school.00:24:57.730 --> 00:25:01.900
And we see an increase, just a pretty significant increase over four years.00:25:02.410 --> 00:25:09.460
And we know the reasons kids are busy, they're overscheduled, they're rushing off to sports practice or play practice.00:25:10.005 --> 00:25:15.045
Whatever their activity is, social media, phones, all of those things.00:25:15.045 --> 00:25:26.115
And, but we know the value of when kids read just even 20 minutes, how much of a, uh, bang for your literacy buck kids are getting.00:25:26.115 --> 00:25:27.405
So what does that look like?00:25:27.645 --> 00:25:29.115
What do I do in my house?00:25:29.115 --> 00:25:31.960
I'm gonna show you some of the pictures, um, that are just.00:25:32.605 --> 00:25:39.685
You know, I literally snapshotted with my phone, um, because these are ways that I build reading in my home and community.00:25:39.685 --> 00:25:41.665
The first one is in my family room.00:25:41.665 --> 00:25:42.925
We literally have a log.00:25:42.925 --> 00:25:53.455
It's a piece of poster board that tracks what we've read on a yearly basis, and at the end of the year, new Year's day or New Year's Eve.00:25:53.740 --> 00:25:55.450
We look at it, we talk about it.00:25:55.450 --> 00:26:12.730
We set reading goals for next year, and you can see that my daughter back in 2021, she had a real sense of pride of logging all of the titles
that she was reading, and we would talk about the books that she loved and ones that she wished had a sequel and all those sorts of things.00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:17.170
The other photos show the value of finding a cozy spot.00:26:17.170 --> 00:26:18.460
Now, maybe it is.00:26:19.135 --> 00:26:27.265
A good old fashioned tent or a dog bed that you have in a, uh, that you put under the dining room table with a blanket and make a fort.00:26:27.355 --> 00:26:31.315
I came home one day and my child was literally reading in the laundry basket.00:26:31.315 --> 00:26:40.075
I opened the basket to put my work clothes in and out, pop my child reading whatever she was reading, and if that's what it takes to get kids to read.00:26:40.435 --> 00:26:42.145
That's what what we're gonna do.00:26:42.925 --> 00:26:48.655
We also have to push past the notion that these read alouds have to be this post.00:26:49.255 --> 00:26:59.845
Bedtime, I'm sorry, pre-B bedtime activity, meaning yes, there is a value in doing a snugly right before, um, you're winding down for the day.00:27:00.065 --> 00:27:04.295
But that doesn't work for every family and for every caregiver schedule.00:27:04.535 --> 00:27:08.225
I know that when I was a professor, I was teaching until nine o'clock at night.00:27:08.300 --> 00:27:10.445
Did I have the energy to come home and do that?00:27:10.445 --> 00:27:10.895
Read aloud.00:27:11.085 --> 00:27:11.955
Not always.00:27:12.045 --> 00:27:18.945
So we had to find, other times, we did read alouds when my daughter was in the bathtub because she's a captive audience.00:27:19.095 --> 00:27:23.955
We would do read alouds when we were waiting on the sidelines for hockey practice.00:27:24.195 --> 00:27:30.590
Even now, we do these books, each of these books that you're seeing this day in history for kids and an animal a day.00:27:31.175 --> 00:27:37.155
These are super short little passages you can learn about an animal that you've never encountered.00:27:37.335 --> 00:27:45.585
I read it to my daughter, literally as she is unloading the dishwasher and we are putting the lunchboxes together and doing all that stuff in the morning.00:27:45.995 --> 00:27:49.540
And the idea here is that it doesn't have to be.00:27:50.675 --> 00:27:53.915
An activity of 15 minutes start to finish.00:27:53.915 --> 00:28:03.425
These little moments add up and we catch kids when we can, where we can for those read alouds in a way that works for your schedule and their attention.00:28:03.785 --> 00:28:11.110
I walked into a school once and went to the bathroom and on the back of the bathroom stall was this, the toilet papers.00:28:11.865 --> 00:28:13.605
To get the scoop while you poop.00:28:13.755 --> 00:28:15.105
What a great idea.00:28:15.105 --> 00:28:23.895
You are literally a captive audience when you're in that bathroom stall, and you better believe that this school librarian would change these toilet papers.00:28:23.955 --> 00:28:25.545
And what did she see?00:28:25.955 --> 00:28:30.275
You read about that book, who's coming to the library to check out those books?00:28:30.275 --> 00:28:37.935
I just thought this was such a brilliant idea and certainly could be do something, something that we emulate at home.00:28:38.325 --> 00:28:43.245
We also have to make sure that when we talk about independent reading at home.00:28:44.100 --> 00:28:56.940
It is all about this acronym of arc access for a relevance and choice, meaning we can't pass judgment on books that kids wanna read.00:28:57.150 --> 00:29:08.190
When Scholastic surveys kids, the number one and two thing that they wanna read about is books that are funny and books that are gross.00:29:08.520 --> 00:29:12.090
Well, what happens when we say, oh, you can't read that book.00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:14.580
We kill their reading motivation.00:29:14.580 --> 00:29:23.070
So we want to make sure that all kinds of books are always available and that we're quieting the inner critic and not passing judgment.00:29:23.520 --> 00:29:30.870
We also have to make sure that what we don't incentivize reading, uh, that, that we what, let me rephrase that.00:29:30.870 --> 00:29:37.080
That we incentivize reading with literacy activities, meaning when kids read.00:29:37.510 --> 00:29:53.290
We take them to the library and get them a cup of hot chocolate, or they earn more read aloud minutes when they do well on a spelling test or that we have, um, gifts be literacy focused.00:29:53.290 --> 00:29:55.510
So again, we're coming up on holiday season.00:29:55.690 --> 00:29:58.450
Let's give kids magazine subscriptions.00:29:58.450 --> 00:30:00.760
There's a million different kids magazines.00:30:01.090 --> 00:30:01.750
Um, in other words.00:30:02.330 --> 00:30:02.960
These things.00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:13.190
What we know from research is that when we say to kids, okay, if you do your reading, you earn a pizza party or you earn 15 more minutes of movie time or screen time.00:30:13.220 --> 00:30:20.630
What we're unintentionally doing is giving kids the message that reading is something that has to be rewarded.00:30:20.750 --> 00:30:26.720
We have to help kids understand that reading is the in incentive and the reward itself.00:30:27.930 --> 00:30:33.570
And again, just other pictures of not passing judgment on the books that kids want to read.00:30:33.570 --> 00:30:38.100
We may not wanna read the gas we pass, but kids sure do.00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:42.570
In my house, we have book clubs, so we will take a topic.00:30:42.750 --> 00:30:44.910
I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.00:30:45.210 --> 00:30:46.470
If you've seen the movie.00:30:46.470 --> 00:30:47.910
Don't give any, any spoilers.00:30:47.910 --> 00:30:49.560
We're going to see it Thursday night.00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:53.280
But we had a book club where I was reading his memoir.00:30:53.280 --> 00:30:57.900
My daughter was reading the Who Is series and then what do we do?00:30:58.050 --> 00:31:03.630
We had a big old reading celebration where we came together.00:31:03.690 --> 00:31:11.790
We talked about things that we had learned and there's a million different ways that you could do this with, um, something that is coming up in your families.00:31:11.970 --> 00:31:13.710
Have a reading book club.00:31:13.760 --> 00:31:23.330
Based on a topic where you're coming up with different texts that are at different levels and still sharing, um, across, uh, across these different text genres.00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:31.760
We know also that teenagers who read not surprising, better impact on their mental health.00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:38.690
You can see that kids who read are less likely to be anxious or sad or depressed.00:31:38.690 --> 00:31:40.010
So I'm not just talking.00:31:41.340 --> 00:31:43.020
About our early childhood kiddos.00:31:43.290 --> 00:31:50.130
I'm really also talking about our teenagers, our middle schoolers, and our high schoolers, and even our young adults.00:31:50.460 --> 00:31:52.290
Now here is super cool research.00:31:52.290 --> 00:31:55.680
We know that when adults do the read alouds.00:31:56.030 --> 00:32:16.340
We as the caregiver also benefit, and I'm just screenshotting a couple of articles that literally show our mood, our interpersonal
relationship over of, uh, with who we are reading to also improves, decreases in stress, all of those things, so mutually beneficial.00:32:16.730 --> 00:32:19.580
Well, now in our remaining time, let's focus on.00:32:20.515 --> 00:32:21.475
Okay, you've sold me.00:32:21.475 --> 00:32:22.765
I wanna do these readouts.00:32:22.795 --> 00:32:30.895
How am I going to make the most of them so that my kids get as much of that language comprehension as possible?00:32:31.075 --> 00:32:34.855
So I'm gonna walk through maybe five or so different big takeaways.00:32:36.315 --> 00:32:42.135
Summarized here first, we're gonna decla fight the decline at nine, and I'll explain what that means.00:32:42.405 --> 00:32:42.885
Next.00:32:42.885 --> 00:32:48.405
We're going to use our read alouds as a way to think aloud, and I'll show you what that looks like.00:32:48.885 --> 00:32:56.565
We're going to intentionally read to kids that is at, with texts that are above their grade level.00:32:57.105 --> 00:33:00.255
And then, um, for our younger kiddos.00:33:01.050 --> 00:33:11.850
We're gonna talk about something called print salient, or print focused read alouds, and then, um, really intentionally including nonfiction text in our repertoire.00:33:11.850 --> 00:33:14.700
So let's start first with the decline at nine.00:33:15.600 --> 00:33:22.890
So the decline at nine comes from Scholastic data, which shows that when kids hit.00:33:23.265 --> 00:33:31.965
Nine years old, right at about third or fourth grade, we see a significant decline as you see in this graph.00:33:32.985 --> 00:33:39.565
At that read, uh, in read alouds that happen at home and read alouds that happen in school.00:33:40.135 --> 00:33:52.135
And when you probe the data, you find out that parents and teachers assume that kids think the read aloud is too baby-ish, or, oh, they can read on their own.00:33:52.135 --> 00:33:54.145
They don't need me anymore.00:33:54.145 --> 00:33:56.485
So they naturally sort of fade out.00:33:56.485 --> 00:33:57.060
These read alouds.00:33:58.015 --> 00:34:04.825
But what's amazing is when then you look at the other data, which is the kid facing data.00:34:05.590 --> 00:34:14.860
All of the kids say, I wish my parent, I wish my teacher kept reading aloud to me after I was nine years old.00:34:15.130 --> 00:34:19.540
So this is the incentive to fight the decline at nine.00:34:19.600 --> 00:34:29.380
I know this is something that I was conscious of when my daughter was like third or fourth grade, but that's the time to start introducing more sophisticated text.00:34:29.740 --> 00:34:37.810
PIC and, uh, chapter books that introduce conflict and themes that are big and juicy for conversation starters.00:34:38.020 --> 00:34:46.450
So now that you're aware of the tendency to decline at nine, we can intentionally fight against it.00:34:47.215 --> 00:34:53.087
And again, here you see the same data basically explaining why well-intentioned parents.00:34:53.372 --> 00:35:00.482
Stopped those readings at home so that you can really intentionally fight against that trend.00:35:00.482 --> 00:35:01.172
And here we go.00:35:01.172 --> 00:35:04.112
We start to see kids didn't want it.00:35:04.112 --> 00:35:08.822
They wished their parent would continue those read alouds.00:35:09.459 --> 00:35:13.449
So, let me then move to thinking aloud.00:35:13.809 --> 00:35:26.739
So one of the things that we know as we talk about re interactive read alouds, that the majority of language interaction during read alouds is the parent or the caregiver or the teacher.00:35:27.159 --> 00:35:38.289
Asking kids questions, and when we ask kids questions, the intent is often to build their understanding of whatever we're reading.00:35:38.649 --> 00:35:50.889
And we actually know that questioning kids doesn't really improve their comprehension, but what does improve their understanding is something called a think aloud.00:35:51.984 --> 00:35:58.164
Think alouds are super simple to do as a parent or as a classroom teacher.00:35:58.374 --> 00:36:07.644
What you are doing is you are modeling through first person narrative language, the invisible processes that are going on in your head.00:36:08.004 --> 00:36:16.914
The benefits of it are, first of all, you're showing students how to successfully navigate through this text and make meaning of it.00:36:17.994 --> 00:36:25.494
But you're also modeling a reading behavior that students then can take and apply to their reading.00:36:25.584 --> 00:36:27.624
So what does it look like?00:36:27.714 --> 00:36:30.204
So I give kids a heads up.00:36:31.509 --> 00:36:37.179
I give them before the read aloud, Hey, sometimes you're gonna see me when I'm reading.00:36:37.329 --> 00:36:45.849
My finger will be on the side of my head, and when my finger is there, I'm talking about all of the thinking that I'm doing in my head.00:36:46.439 --> 00:36:50.519
If you don't see my finger there, I'm just reading the book.00:36:50.699 --> 00:36:52.739
Well, why do I do this visual cue?00:36:53.189 --> 00:37:04.709
Because otherwise language is just language and kids can't differentiate when the language is, um, from the book itself or when the language is internal thought processes.00:37:04.889 --> 00:37:07.859
So I give kids that visual differentiation.00:37:08.129 --> 00:37:09.419
Well, what does it look like?00:37:09.929 --> 00:37:12.719
You can see that with any of these sentence starters.00:37:13.009 --> 00:37:19.039
You could be ready to do a think aloud with the kid waiting for tonight's bedtime story.00:37:19.399 --> 00:37:35.299
We might say, well, I don't understand, or I'm confused here, or I'm wondering to show how you're asking a question of the text, or Now I understand to show how you're clarifying something, or I'm getting the sense that.00:37:35.664 --> 00:37:37.344
To model an inference.00:37:37.344 --> 00:37:47.754
So all of these sentence starters are ready to go and can be applied widely for any age kid and any content area and what we know.00:37:47.754 --> 00:37:55.674
So we could take something like the Beloved Mo Willem book, Knuffle Bunny, and do an inference model.00:37:55.674 --> 00:37:56.274
An inference.00:37:56.274 --> 00:37:58.134
The author's giving me a clue.00:37:58.494 --> 00:38:01.014
About where this book takes place.00:38:01.104 --> 00:38:05.634
It tells me down the block, which lets me know she lives in the city.00:38:05.934 --> 00:38:08.754
We're showing kids how we're making an inference.00:38:09.399 --> 00:38:17.409
So that they're better gonna understand not just this portion of Knuffle Bunny, but how to make inferences when it's their turn to do the reading.00:38:17.499 --> 00:38:21.579
And you'll have to sort of take my word for it or follow up to get the, uh, research.00:38:21.849 --> 00:38:32.769
But what we know is that think alouds are highly, highly impactful and beneficial, and they're even ready to go in some of the rally to read resources.00:38:32.979 --> 00:38:34.899
If you go to how to Catch a Turkey.00:38:35.784 --> 00:38:42.234
We're heading into Thanksgiving season, so I will, I'm, uh, this is will likely be a popular read aloud.00:38:42.234 --> 00:38:47.274
Well, you can see that thought bubble riff has planned the think aloud for you.00:38:47.274 --> 00:38:51.264
It is ready to go, so take advantage of those resources as well.00:38:53.124 --> 00:39:04.584
The next point I wanna make is that we should be reading aloud to students at text that is above their age level or their grade level, and here's why.00:39:05.334 --> 00:39:12.144
We know that kids listening comprehension what they can understand when they are listening to somebody else.00:39:12.474 --> 00:39:26.004
Read the text, either you a teacher or an audiobook that they can understand at a high, higher level than what they are able to understand when they are doing the reading.00:39:26.574 --> 00:39:29.694
We actually know from longstanding research.00:39:30.894 --> 00:39:39.114
That our reading comprehension and our listening comprehension don't actually align until kids are in like seventh or eighth grade.00:39:39.114 --> 00:39:45.114
So what you're seeing here is along the X axis, the horizontal axis, or kids' ages.00:39:45.759 --> 00:39:51.399
The blue is what kids can understand when they are listening to a text.00:39:51.759 --> 00:40:02.079
The red is what they understand when they are doing the word identification, when they're doing the reading themselves, and look at the big gap between the two.00:40:02.139 --> 00:40:05.139
So let's take age eight, right around third grade.00:40:05.834 --> 00:40:13.664
We can be reading to kids who are eight years old at books that are for fourth graders, or fifth graders or sixth graders.00:40:13.814 --> 00:40:22.034
And because we're doing the hard work of lifting up the words off the page, kids can get to the understanding because their listening comprehension is higher.00:40:22.824 --> 00:40:24.474
Then they're reading comprehension.00:40:24.654 --> 00:40:26.214
Well, what are the benefits of that?00:40:26.394 --> 00:40:36.564
We're exposing kids to vocabulary and language structure and background knowledge that they couldn't access in the text that they are independently reading.00:40:36.894 --> 00:40:44.634
So we intentionally have to read aloud to books that are above kids' age level or grade level.00:40:45.894 --> 00:40:47.244
Now, another big takeaway.00:40:48.459 --> 00:41:06.849
This is focused more towards our littles, our three year olds, our four year olds, our five year olds, is to do what we call print focused read alouds, or sale or print, uh, centric read alouds in which we intentionally draw kids attention.00:41:07.389 --> 00:41:09.519
To the words on the page.00:41:09.669 --> 00:41:18.879
We know from eye tracking software that kids, when they are listening to a read aloud, what do their eyes go towards?00:41:18.999 --> 00:41:33.324
The print, the illustration and what we want to call their attention to is also the words on the page because as we call their attention to the words on the page, we're building their early literacy skills.00:41:33.924 --> 00:41:36.384
So what does that look like?00:41:36.564 --> 00:41:42.384
Super easy to do with our preschoolers, our three-year-olds to about six year olds.00:41:43.254 --> 00:41:56.454
We wanna make sure that we're choosing books that have lots of stuff going on with the words on the page, where there's different fonts, where the print goes in different colors and typographies and directions.00:41:56.694 --> 00:41:57.144
So.00:41:57.909 --> 00:41:59.079
This picture book.00:41:59.349 --> 00:42:02.409
Well, why do you think the author wrote help?00:42:02.799 --> 00:42:04.539
Three times in Red?00:42:04.539 --> 00:42:08.709
We can call kids attention to the exclamation points.00:42:09.249 --> 00:42:14.159
We can call kids attention to this the words in the illustration.00:42:14.159 --> 00:42:14.759
So here we see.00:42:15.544 --> 00:42:19.654
The label of laundromat, I can call kids' attention to it.00:42:19.744 --> 00:42:23.254
Oh, I see a sign that sign reads laundromat.00:42:23.464 --> 00:42:29.224
That lets me know that this is a place that they are going to do their laundry.00:42:29.764 --> 00:42:32.704
We might draw in the beloved elephant and piggy books.00:42:34.199 --> 00:42:44.279
These speech bubbles let us know who is talking when Elephant is talking or when Gerald's talking, it's gray, and when Piggy is talking, it's pink.00:42:44.609 --> 00:42:48.179
We have exclamation points, we have capital letters.00:42:48.599 --> 00:42:55.799
All of these different formats and font features, kids don't naturally pick up on themselves.00:42:56.279 --> 00:42:57.659
So what do we have to do?00:42:57.869 --> 00:43:05.939
Call their attention to it, and I'll give you a second to take a look at some of the things that we could simply integrate with our read alouds.00:43:06.623 --> 00:43:08.243
We could draw their attention to.00:43:08.363 --> 00:43:09.863
These letters are darker.00:43:10.373 --> 00:43:11.963
I wonder why they did that.00:43:11.993 --> 00:43:14.003
The jar says cookies on it.00:43:14.123 --> 00:43:19.043
It lets me know that this jar holds cookies for my really young children.00:43:19.073 --> 00:43:20.873
I might just simply model.00:43:21.593 --> 00:43:22.973
How to handle a book.00:43:23.333 --> 00:43:27.113
I read top to bottom, left to right at the end of a line.00:43:27.203 --> 00:43:29.543
I sweep my finger across.00:43:29.993 --> 00:43:34.403
As kids get to be older, I might invite them in.00:43:34.673 --> 00:43:36.953
Can you show me a capital letter?00:43:37.403 --> 00:43:39.443
Can you help me count the letters?00:43:39.443 --> 00:43:40.493
In this word?00:43:41.213 --> 00:43:46.523
Can you find a letter that's like the letter that your name starts with?00:43:47.783 --> 00:43:51.623
Again, we know that kids don't focus on the print.00:43:51.623 --> 00:43:54.653
Their eyes naturally gravitate towards the illustrations.00:43:54.938 --> 00:44:07.958
And when we do these print focused read alouds, we build their early language skills and some of the books that are in the rally to read have awesome print focused, read aloud opportunities.00:44:07.958 --> 00:44:11.828
I just screenshot that same book the day the Crayons came home.00:44:12.188 --> 00:44:17.258
We can see hello from the rug, different typography, cursive print.00:44:17.768 --> 00:44:25.358
We can see an image of a postcard, so we could talk to kids about, oh, this is where the address goes.00:44:25.388 --> 00:44:26.738
Here's how I read this.00:44:26.738 --> 00:44:28.628
I see some words in capital letters.00:44:28.808 --> 00:44:30.458
Help me find a question mark.00:44:30.758 --> 00:44:34.808
All those sorts of things, drawing their explicit attention to it.00:44:36.158 --> 00:44:37.568
The last tip I want.00:44:38.198 --> 00:44:46.838
To share is to intentionally include nonfiction texts or read alouds at home and at school.00:44:48.173 --> 00:44:48.923
Why?00:44:49.373 --> 00:44:57.773
Because we don't naturally gravitate towards nonfiction and informational text, both at home and at school.00:44:57.953 --> 00:45:04.373
So this 2023 survey looks at pre-kindergarten teachers and what they were reading aloud to kids.00:45:05.003 --> 00:45:09.743
And what you can see is just a tiny portion of them were nonfiction books.00:45:10.523 --> 00:45:12.353
I don't think I included the statistic.00:45:12.383 --> 00:45:13.073
Oh, here I did.00:45:14.048 --> 00:45:19.028
Parents don't typically read informational text or nonfiction texts.00:45:19.028 --> 00:45:29.048
It isn't always a snugly and you know, the warm, fuzzy bedtime experience to read a book about the water cycle or a biography.00:45:29.348 --> 00:45:30.848
But here's the catch.00:45:31.388 --> 00:45:39.608
Kids in K through five spend about half of their day reading nonfiction and informational texts.00:45:40.163 --> 00:45:43.223
But we're setting them up for a challenge.00:45:43.493 --> 00:45:51.203
We're not reading nonfiction text at home and in early childhood classrooms, we're gravitating towards fiction texts.00:45:51.473 --> 00:46:00.563
Well, no wonder kids struggle with nonfiction text, which has different types of vocabulary, different types of structure.00:46:01.298 --> 00:46:05.483
Kids are not getting enough exposure to it, and so we can improve this.00:46:06.248 --> 00:46:09.968
By intentionally including nonfiction texts.00:46:09.998 --> 00:46:11.258
So what would that look like?00:46:12.068 --> 00:46:23.588
Well, we have to treat some of these nonfiction texts as wander around, and by that I mean you don't necessarily have to read that book start to finish.00:46:23.738 --> 00:46:28.718
So what I often would do is I would take a book about zebras and I would say.00:46:29.963 --> 00:46:31.973
I'm gonna go feed the dog.00:46:32.033 --> 00:46:34.043
Here are three sticky notes.00:46:34.553 --> 00:46:49.823
Take a look at the pictures in this book and put three sticky notes on the pages you wanna read together because we can allow kids to help navigate and follow their curiosities as we use these nonfiction texts.00:46:49.853 --> 00:46:55.523
Another thing that I did in my home and classroom, we had a parking lot in my house.00:46:55.613 --> 00:46:58.103
It was literally the inside of the broom closet.00:46:58.868 --> 00:47:03.698
We all know that kids ask a million questions and we don't always know what to do with those questions.00:47:03.698 --> 00:47:05.108
Sometimes they're really great questions.00:47:05.108 --> 00:47:06.998
Sometimes you can just answer and move on.00:47:07.268 --> 00:47:11.018
But what we would do is I would say, that's a great question.00:47:11.018 --> 00:47:12.338
Let me put it in the parking lot.00:47:12.338 --> 00:47:14.078
I'm gonna write it on a sticky note.00:47:15.038 --> 00:47:24.248
Then before it was time for our weekly trip to the public library, we'd go to that parking lot and I'd read the questions that my daughter had asked.00:47:24.803 --> 00:47:35.333
That week, and I would say, all right, let's choose two sticky notes and find the answers to these questions at the library in nonfiction texts.00:47:36.263 --> 00:47:45.668
So for example, one night we were looking at the stars, I. I pointed out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and my daughter asked me, well, where's the medium Dipper?00:47:45.968 --> 00:47:47.378
That's a great question.00:47:47.408 --> 00:48:05.198
It went into our parking lot, and then later that week when it was time for a weekly visit to the public library, or we were going through
the reading as fundamental libraries, we could have said, how about we try to find a book that answers this question super easy to.00:48:05.678 --> 00:48:11.258
Have in terms of home and school and then also shows kids that their questions are valuable.00:48:11.498 --> 00:48:17.648
And that question asking and being curious and inquisitive is a thing that we want to encourage.00:48:17.978 --> 00:48:31.778
And, uh, what's great about the Literacy Central feature in reading is fundamental is that there are so many nonfiction and informational texts that are on there and those resources are ready for you to use.00:48:32.581 --> 00:48:33.421
So, um.00:48:34.276 --> 00:48:59.926
I hope that you are visiting the Literacy Central Hub because there are just so many resources to take advantage of, both in the variety of books, the, um, intentionality of the
resources that are planning for cl for classroom read alouds, as well as home read allows, and then those rally to read videos that are going to be shared from now, I believe until March.00:49:00.256 --> 00:49:01.726
And I know that when.00:49:02.701 --> 00:49:10.081
We create these classrooms and homes, that reading aloud is a part of the fabric of your conversation.00:49:10.331 --> 00:49:11.801
We create environments like this.00:49:11.801 --> 00:49:15.971
This is the bumper sticker that if you were to see me driving in town, this is my bumper sticker.00:49:16.451 --> 00:49:19.121
And then one night I came home from work.00:49:20.366 --> 00:49:21.596
My daughter was six years old.00:49:21.596 --> 00:49:24.446
She had posted this picture on her.00:49:24.446 --> 00:49:26.636
She had posted this sign on her bedroom door.00:49:26.846 --> 00:49:29.846
If you come in when I am reading, get Out.00:49:29.876 --> 00:49:39.746
And I know that we as adults, we've all had days where we just wanna take a book, crawl under the covers, and have the world and every other disturbance get out.00:49:39.746 --> 00:49:42.776
Because this shows how invested kids are.00:49:42.776 --> 00:49:48.751
When we read aloud to them, we help transform them into readers that want nothing more.00:49:49.391 --> 00:49:52.151
Then to be left alone with a good book.00:49:52.901 --> 00:49:59.531
So thank you for the work that you are doing in classrooms and communities and homes where you're creating those environments.00:49:59.771 --> 00:50:08.861
I will share out my contact information for you to, uh, continue to reach out with questions or, um, requests for resources.00:50:08.861 --> 00:50:13.361
Happy to share any of that data, um, and those, uh, research articles with you.00:50:13.451 --> 00:50:15.341
And I will hand it back to Carly.00:50:16.386 --> 00:50:18.126
Karly: Oh, thank you so much, Molly.00:50:18.126 --> 00:50:19.386
This was amazing.00:50:19.386 --> 00:50:21.276
I know folks were really enjoying it.00:50:21.276 --> 00:50:23.316
I even saw a question come in last minute.00:50:23.316 --> 00:50:25.386
So we do have a couple minutes, if you don't mind.00:50:25.726 --> 00:50:35.056
So the question says, uh, what does research and evidence tell us about reading once without a think aloud and engaging students in the think aloud on the second read?00:50:35.176 --> 00:50:38.806
So, at best, during first read, or is there an opinion on this?00:50:38.896 --> 00:50:40.396
Molly Ness: Yeah, so it's a really good question.00:50:40.401 --> 00:50:40.581
A great question.00:50:41.086 --> 00:50:42.076
It's a great question.00:50:42.226 --> 00:50:50.686
We actually, um, I have never seen peer reviewed articles that compare the two, meaning one control group and one treatment group.00:50:50.736 --> 00:50:51.816
I've never seen that.00:50:51.816 --> 00:50:54.546
So all we can say is sort of instinctually based.00:50:55.026 --> 00:50:57.126
And there's some thought about that.00:50:57.126 --> 00:51:06.636
I know, um, a beloved children's author that I often see at conferences believes that the first read aloud should just be a straight read aloud.00:51:06.666 --> 00:51:07.836
We don't teach into it.00:51:08.601 --> 00:51:10.641
We don't stop for read, uh, thinking aloud.00:51:10.641 --> 00:51:11.991
We just do the read aloud.00:51:12.861 --> 00:51:15.026
I also, and I sort of, I, I, when I think about it.00:51:16.701 --> 00:51:21.501
And he sort of refers to it as like, it should just be a gift, it should just be an uninterrupted gift.00:51:21.501 --> 00:51:25.731
And I sort of think about it, well, we're just giving them a gift and not helping them unwrap it.00:51:25.971 --> 00:51:32.751
Because we know that many times teachers and parents don't do those second or third reading readings.00:51:32.751 --> 00:51:37.131
So to assume that that's gonna happen in the second iteration is a big assumption.00:51:37.351 --> 00:51:38.971
So I tend to do them during.00:51:39.841 --> 00:51:40.741
The think aloud.00:51:41.041 --> 00:51:46.441
But what I do in multiple rereads is I include kids as readers more.00:51:46.591 --> 00:51:55.051
So my questioning, my engagement of kids as it's the second or third read aloud will elevate the number of times that they've done the read aloud.00:51:55.051 --> 00:51:56.551
So if it's a second rereading.00:51:57.496 --> 00:52:01.186
I might say, remind me what happened on this page or this page.00:52:01.276 --> 00:52:06.076
You retell me from the pictures, what you remember, and then we can increase that.00:52:06.236 --> 00:52:15.926
So that we're transferring some of that conversation and responsibility to kids as, uh, the, in those multiple rereading, which research supports multiple rereads for many different reasons.00:52:17.891 --> 00:52:18.221
Karly: Awesome.00:52:18.251 --> 00:52:26.171
Yeah, that was a great question and something I was thinking about too, Molly, is I personally love to use multiple reads as an opportunity to teach different levels of vocabulary.00:52:26.171 --> 00:52:32.501
So maybe focusing, you know, for more complex books that have maybe different tiers of vocab, I like to use multiple reads for that.00:52:32.501 --> 00:52:33.071
So Sure.00:52:33.071 --> 00:52:35.051
It feels validating to hear you say those things.00:52:36.086 --> 00:52:40.331
Molly Ness: It's always good as a parent or teacher when you're like, the research says I'm doing something right.00:52:40.631 --> 00:52:41.171
Karly: Yes.00:52:41.171 --> 00:52:42.161
No, a hundred percent.00:52:42.671 --> 00:52:44.051
Aaron and I talk about that all the time.00:52:45.671 --> 00:52:47.951
Well, thank you all so much for joining.00:52:47.951 --> 00:52:58.331
I know this is it might be super late for you where you're calling in, so I really, really appreciate your time and thank you so much for just like, Dr. Ness said for everything you're doing for your students and your community.00:52:58.601 --> 00:53:01.061
Um, and feel free to reach out to us if you need anything.00:53:01.061 --> 00:53:07.721
You'll receive a follow up email with the link to the recording as well as A PDF, uh, certificate and then some links.00:53:08.056 --> 00:53:10.636
To ensure that you have everything you need after this.00:53:10.636 --> 00:53:13.226
So, thank you so much and thanks again Molly.00:53:13.226 --> 00:53:15.986
It was great to see you and I'm sure, we'll, I'm sure we'll chat soon.00:53:16.376 --> 00:53:16.766
Sounds good.00:53:16.766 --> 00:53:17.336
Thank you.00:53:17.756 --> 00:53:18.446
Thanks everyone.00:53:18.446 --> 00:53:18.896
Goodnight.00:53:18.961 --> 00:53:19.181
Bye.
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