Reading out loud builds fluency and comprehension, setting the stage for great discussions!
My classroom was rarely quiet during my 16 years as a high school ELA teacher.
And not just because I taught 9th graders.
Although reflection and silent reading are skills every student needs, my students spent a lot of time reading out loud in class. By this, I don’t mean that I forced round robins or other outdated practices. Those have repeatedly been shown to do more harm than good. I’m talking about voluntary, community-building, and celebratory read-alouds.
We’d regularly start class with a student volunteering to read a favorite line or paragraph from last night’s assignment. This gave me great insight into how my students had connected to and processed the texts we were about to discuss.
When we studied plays, we’d read out loud while performing, using our diction and acting choices as close reading techniques. And in discussions, students would read out loud the passages they most wanted to discuss. When someone made a claim that seemed unsupported, their peers and I would push them to read the part of the text that was informing their assertion.
The regular read-alouds made my classroom more energetic, engaging, and collaborative. Read-alouds helped me cultivate the kind of student-centered, asset-based classroom I had hoped to build when I started teaching.
What Science Says About the Benefits of Reading Out Loud
Although I was teaching high school, research suggests that read-alouds are especially important for younger children. For most students, listening comprehension exceeds reading comprehension through about age 13. As such, we should give students opportunities to leverage their strong listening comprehension.
High-quality curriculum and instruction should include read-alouds. This is so students can build knowledge and vocabulary as they develop word recognition and reading comprehension skills.
There’s plenty of science to support the educational value of reading out loud to students at all grade levels. Here’s a condensed version of what the research says.
Read-alouds:
While there is robust evidence that read-alouds are powerful across subjects, these findings come with a big elephant in the room. For read-alouds to benefit all students, every student needs to feel comfortable. And they need to be able to process and comprehend the speech of others.
Sound like insurmountable challenges?
Not with the right tools.
Introducing ClearFluency™
Students struggling to read—whether silently and out loud—need immediate corrective feedback. Unfortunately, a teacher with 20-30 students per class often don't have the capacity to give it.
Enter ClearFluencyTM, an online guided reading tool that builds fluency using patented voice recognition technology to listen to students as they read out loud.
Most reading programs only listen to students reading aloud, but ClearFluency listens and corrects them when necessary. The program lets students keep trying until they can pronounce and understand new words and fully understand a text.
ClearFluency can also read out loud to students, which helps those who benefit from hearing selections before reading them aloud themselves.
Acting as a 1-on-1 reading tutor, ClearFluency improves phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and pronunciation. It also teaches comprehension by pausing to ask meaningful questions throughout the reading process. This is the exact thing my students and I would do when we read together.
Capable Readers, Confident Speakers, Lifelong Learners
Teachers do so much to build classrooms where kids are comfortable, motivated, and willing to confront challenges. And while reading out loud won’t magically transform your classroom on its own, it is one helpful tool for your toolbox.
When I think about the best read-alouds from my time in the classroom, I remember the rawest, most honest, and most productive conversations of my teaching career. And I want more moments like that for all students.
Before joining Carnegie Learning’s marketing team in 2021, Emily Anderson spent 16 years teaching middle school, high school, and college English in classrooms throughout Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, and Minnesota. During these years, Emily developed a passion for designing exciting, relatable curricula and developing transformative teaching strategies. She holds master's degrees in English and Women’s Studies and a doctorate in American literature and lives for those classroom moments when students learn something that will forever change them. She loves helping amazing teachers achieve more of these moments in their classrooms.
Explore more related to this authorWhen I think about the best read-alouds from my time in the classroom, I remember the rawest, most honest, and most productive conversations of my teaching career. And I want more moments like that for all students.
Emily Anderson, PhD
