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Why is reading aloud such an important part of an emergent literacy

program? What are some steps that might be taken to derive maximum benefit from a read aloud program?.

This question asks me why reading aloud is so important to an emergent literacy program, and I am quite excited to answer this question because reading aloud does mean so much to teachers! I am going to answer this question by first giving a little background about the experiences I have had with a reading aloud period in the classroom, and then it would be necessary to define what exactly an emergent literacy program is. There are many different reasons why reading aloud is important so when I decide which ones I wish to use I can put them into paragraph form with both descriptions and examples when possible. The next question asks what kind of steps I can take to reap maximum benefits from my read-aloud program, which will need to be answered in an almost like directions for myself format since it asks for steps. I have both observed read-aloud periods in schools and I have a large chapter called Fostering Emergent/Early Literacy in my Pearson Custom Education textbook that follows this question. Reading aloud is often considered fun for people of all ages and background! I am a nineteen year old girl who still likes a good story being read aloud, especially the most recent story about a fun-loving lion in Dr. Millers reading foundations class! As Dr. Miller was reading this story aloud to this college class and seeing all the laughter I couldnt help but think about how much a child would have enjoyed this silly little escape from reality! I believe that this is one of the major psychological advantages in reading aloud that I cannot fail to emphasize on! Children need an opportunity to sit back and let the stress melt away while listening to a good story. Having these moments of enjoyment with books can open up a world of reading for children, it can be just the motivation needed to make them feel like reading is a fun activity that can take one to another world. Children in the emergent literacy program do need to learn to discover the pleasure books can bring and begin to open up their lives to them on their ongoing reading journey! Reading aloud to children allows them to get an early feel of the printed words, letters, and the language used within the books! Children could not get this early preunderstanding of literacy from teachers simply trying to make them receive information solely

from illustrations or independent reading; I think that reading aloud to our students provides many rich experiences with language. After all the children may not have necessarily had the surroundings that harbored this type of language use, so how could we ever expect them to be able to mirror the language of literacy without it first being modeled for them? The more comfortable the children are with the idea of beginning to read and interpreting the written word for themselves the better off they will be because reading can entice fear into those who are entering into what they feel is unknown territory. Also, being read to invites many new vocabulary words into childrens mental word banks especially because their brains often act as little sponges as they are in the emergent literacy program. I think a good example of this would be a teacher who just read to her students a childrens science magazine which contained more difficult vocabulary (still age appropriate) and takes the time to break the vocabulary down with her students before rereading the article. The students would ideally be able to take important vocabulary with them into their science class and possibly even in daily conversation! Students being able to understand more and more words will only help them on their literary journey because they will be better able to comprehend what they read! In order for me to be able to maximize the benefits that my children will reap from these read aloud periods I will first need to stop and make clarifications about the reading when necessary. The purpose of the clarifications and explanations are so you can be sure the student gets all that they can from the text while being able to enjoy it without confusion. These are beginning readers we are talking about and there are sure to be issues that they will not speak up on, so you just have to assume and stop every now and then to better explain. I think another way to maximize the benefits by starting some basic reading comprehension skills is to ask lots of questions before, during, and after the reading! Questions will have the children starting to think back into the story, not to mention sometimes they may even shock you and see past the text into the real message! I will ask the typical who, what, where, when, and why that has been used for years and covers many different bases of the story one needs to know to comprehend. Reading circles are commonly used in the emergent literacy program because there is just so much positive energy and understanding that comes from children talking and sharing parts of books! It gets very exciting when you see them picking a favorite part or character because as a teacher you get to observe firsthand what they really comprehended about the

story and what they took from it. This is an important step in any read-aloud program because comprehension should be a social activity and children learn so much from hearing information their peers. The reading circle can be directed in certain directions by the teacher so that you could ask them to take turns retelling the story in their own words for example. Reading aloud is one of the most important aspects of the emergent literacy program, teachers and parents everywhere need to be informed of all the positive influences it has on children. This simple routine will encourage the student that reading is fun, creates familiarity with written words and letters, allows the student to experience rich language, and introduces many important vocabulary words! Though there are all of these benefits we as educators can still take the time to maximize these and work on many other skills at the same time. It is good practice to make clarifications, question, and encourage reading circles! We all need to read aloud to our children frequently so that they can have the successful literary journey that we wish them to!