Many years
ago, I read an article that recommended reading aloud to children every day of
their lives – from the very beginning (maybe even in-utero) until the day they
leave for college or their own apartments.
Sadly, I don’t
think enough parents read aloud to even their young children these days, let
alone to kids who’ve learned to read on their own. In fact, I’ve even heard
occasional comments from parents thrilled that their children have learned to
read – no matter how cursorily – because it means they’ll “finally” get back
all the time they’d been “losing” each day reading to them.
After seeing
that article, though, I started reading aloud at least a few days a week to my
middle school students. And when I transferred to the high school, I continued
the read-aloud practice with my students there. I wondered if they’d feel I was
treating them like “babies” – I had mixed-grade classes, including plenty of
18-year old seniors – but they enjoyed it, often asking me to read more
than one chapter a day. And it wasn’t because it got them out of work; despite
our 10- to 15-minutes of read-aloud time a few days a week, I didn’t decrease
my classroom expectations at all.
When I left
classroom teaching to stay home with my newborn daughter, I determined that
daily read-alouds would be a priority throughout my children’s lives. And, with
the help of my book-loving husband, I’ve maintained the practice even as my
girls approach adolescence.
In fact, it’s
been through seeing my kids’ development in ways not possible with my students
that I’ve grasped the importance of the habit. You see, as much as we’ve
attempted to develop a rich learning environment for our children – they
took their first plane ride when they were mere toddlers – we’re not able to
physically visit every country of the world. Not even close. And, of course, we
couldn’t time-travel even if we were independently wealthy. But books truly do
open up the world – across space and time.
I’ve seen time
and again how my children have latched onto aspects of various books we’ve read
and have then synthesized those ideas into something new during a doll or
play-acting game of their own creation. Just the other day, they created a
storyline with their Barbies that would “solve racism.” Inevitably, the seeds
of their ideas have come from books – those they read on their own but also
plenty we’ve read to them.
If you’ve not
been in the habit of reading to your older children or students, introducing
the practice will necessitate some scheduling adjustments. But, of course,
anything worth doing requires effort. In terms of where to start, just choose
something a little above your children’s independent reading level – the book
lists created by Jim Trelease and Gladys Hunt are great resources – and
begin. If you want to build the genius quality of creativity into your kids,
reading aloud to them is a perfect launching pad.
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