Becoming a Lifetime Reader

The girls and I were sitting in the living room for our regular “story time”. I opened the book and began reading aloud and in a few moments all of us were transported to a small South American island in the 1500’s, having adventures with four boys from Sir Francis Drake’s latest expedition. An hour later, we came reluctantly back to reality in order to go on with the rest of our day.

That evening, I had two of my daughters begging me to read to them -- this time from Rainbow Valley, book 6 in the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. So, while they snuggled into their beds, I read the latest adventure among Anne’s children living in Glen St. Mary on Prince Edward Island.

More than an hour later, I looked up from the end of the 3rd chapter I’d read that night to see eyes closing and chests moving up and down slowly under the bed covers. Closing the book, I tiptoed out of the room and carefully put the book on my desk where it would be within easy reach for the next night.

"The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is: reading aloud to children. It is a practice that should continue throughout the grades."

The above is a quote from a 1985 report called “Becoming a Nation of Readers” issued by the Commission on Reading (organized by the National Academy of Education and the National Institute of Education and funded under the U.S. Department of Education.) In his book The Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease calls this “the most important and ‘common-sense’ education document of the past 25 years”.

There are four basic elements in learning any language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each element builds upon the knowledge of the last until we can express ourselves eloquently in our writing and thereby demonstrate our mastery. Whenever one or more of the basic elements to learning language are lacking -- listening or speaking -- the reading and writing suffers.

Is it so surprising that reading aloud to children would make such a fundamental difference in their reading and writing? It is only in first hearing vocabulary that we are able to retain it and use it again in our speech, which it then becomes easier to read, and natural to write. Sentence structure, descriptions, word pictures, ideas and arguments become easier to imitate when first heard aloud and then repeated in our conversation.

So what’s so special about reading aloud that cannot be accomplished in conversation or TV watching? It is only in well-written books that higher level language is used. We don’t usually converse using formal vocabulary or higher level language. Most of our conversation is casual and informal. When we watch Television, there is no need to describe scenes or events because we see them happening; and, unless we spend hours watching the Animal Planet or the History Channel, we will never hear any higher level dialogue…and even then, not very much.

Reading aloud has another great benefit that no other past time has: it stimulates our imagination. It requires our participation in bringing the story to life through our thoughts. Because of this, we learn to enjoy stories, language and eventually reading for ourselves. Our imagination becomes the bridge to comprehension so that when we read for ourselves we can understand.

Even though reading aloud seems natural for the elementary age child, we may miss the importance of reading aloud to our teens. Shakespeare suffers without hearing it and the Illiad becomes boring without the poetry rolling off of our lips. Comprehension of college history or English grammar becomes more difficult without having first heard good stories and literature.

Okay, so reading aloud to your teens is not something that you want to do or that they will allow. Audio books are a great alternative. My teen boys decided that they didn’t want to hear about Anne of Green Gables along with the girls, so they borrowed some Dean Koontz novels on audio from the library . Koontz is a master of description and I could see the improvement in their writing almost immediately. Even I benefit from audio books read by professional novelists.

Here’s a great idea: turn off the TV, put an audio book in the player and listen together as a family. You might be surprised at how much fun you will have. Or, snuggle on the sofa with Hank the Cowdog and laugh together as the “ranch security” dogs get into loads of trouble. Find out, like we have, that reading aloud can bring a family closer together in a way that nothing else can.