Read-Aloud

Read-Aloud



Read-Aloud

Method

Design

Our teach- aloud study formed part of a comprehensive study about fostering reading comprehension strategies by stimulation of young pupil's reading motivation (Aarnoutse & Schellings, 2003). At a first measurement, third-graders were administered a number of different tests. The results from some of these tests were used to select students for inclusion in the teach- aloud study. The selected students participated in two teach- aloud sessions with each session involving a different text in order to minimize specific text effects. (Lowery,2008) A familiar routine in many elementary school classrooms is the teacher-led read-aloud. The teacher stands or sits in front of the students and reads out loud a piece of children's literature. This is particularly true in whole language classrooms where sharing a wide variety of books assumes a center place in literacy instruction. Research on teacher-led read alouds, as well as read-alouds in the home, points out the wide variability in the ways adults share books with children. Some studies have focused on the variation in teacher discourse during read alouds and the respective impact on children's responses and/or comprehension.

Subjects

In all, 24 students were selected from a sample of 296 third-graders. The students attended to six different schools (six different classes). From each class, two good and two poor comprehenders were selected. We worked with a group of good and poor comprehenders (12 students each) in order to obtain the most diverse protocols possible.

Yet we find little research regarding children's and teachers' discourse during reada louds that are less teacher-controlled. The first grade teacher in this study moved away from the traditional and common IRE pattern (teacher initiates, student responds, teacher evaluates) found in the majority of classrooms and began to allow her students' spontaneous comments, questions and suggestions to play a major role in directing the read aloud. By allowing students to initiate throughout the read-aloud, children actually shared in directing the work of the classroom. (Lowery,2008) This sharing of authority (Tierney & Rogers, 1989) between teacher and students is the framework for the focus of this paper. Teacher authority can be analyzed as having two fairly distinct but interwoven dimensions: process authority and content authority.(Allen,2000)

As Peters (1966) noted: a teacher is in authority to accomplish the task of teaching and is an authority regarding some aspects of our culture. Essentially the former side of authority is a process dimension: controlling the flow of traffic and of talk in the classroom; whereas the latter is more of a content dimension: what counts as knowledge and who is validated as a "knower." (Allen,2000)This, then, is the dual nature of teacher authority: a teacher is an authority and knowledgeable, and is also in authority regarding classroom procedures. Therefore in examining how students shared some of this authority with the teacher, children's classroom discourse is analyzed along process and content dimensions.

Initiations

There was much talk during the read-alouds that was not initiated by the teacher; that is, children posed questions, gave directions, made suggestions, and traded ...