Hello, group! I was wondering if in any of your classes, does the teacher do any read alouds? I'm with a 5th grade class, and my teacher reads a picture book to the kids every day, 10 minutes before lunch. Sometimes it's a little awkward because the picture book is at such a low reading level and seems very kindergarten for what 5th graders should be reading. In no way do I have a problem with my teacher using picture books for read alouds. I think they're actually quite beneficial. But sometimes I wonder about the book choice. What's too low? Is there even a limit? I mean... she's not reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to them. But sometimes it doesn't seem too far off. The students seem to enjoy the story no matter what it is, so long as it has appealing pictures... So I guess it doesn't really matter. It's not like they're going to be tested on the book, right? It's just for fun.
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I think it depends on the teacher's intention. I'm hoping that that book at least relates to something that they are learning. I think that its good for teachers to do read-alouds. I'm in a fourth grade class and my C/T reads Fable Haven, which is a thick fantasy chapter book with no pictures, but all of the students love the story. My C/T reads when students get back in from lunch to calm them down before starting class work. I think it all depends on the class and what the teacher expects. I think that if the students really enjoy the pictures and the teacher can relate the book with something they are doing in class its not a bad thing. What were some of the titles that your C/T was using?
Hi, I am with a first grade class and my CT reads a chapter book every day after lunch. She reads it for 10-15 minutes. But I cannot see the value of that for her students. She is just reading the book but they don't do any activity based on the reading. Sometimes it seams that she is just wasting their time. Instead she might do something more valuable. Even if your teacher does it for fun it might be too easy for them. They need to listen to a book with harder vocabulary and sounds in order for them to progress their academic skills.
The books rarely (I want to say never) relate to anything in class. My CT reads a picture book everyday, 10 minutes before lunch. She picks the books out of the classroom library, which has a lot of picture books. Sometimes, she'll check out some from the school library, which the students can take an Accelerated Reader test on. But most of the time, it's from the classroom library. I would think that the kids would be pretty restless being read to right before lunch too, but they're usually pretty good.
Some titles...
Most recently, she read a story called Dinorella (a take on cinderella). There was this one book that just taught how to say, "hello." in different languages throughout the world. I know she likes to read a lot of Patricia Polacco books...
I think she does the read alouds as more of a means of exposing the kids to more reading. Maybe positive feelings/attitudes towards reading. Maybe I should ask my CT? Ha.
I’m in 5th grade as well, and my teacher does read-alouds for 20 minutes after lunch, but he always reads chapter books. They actually just finished up Fable Haven! I have never seen him read a picture book and honestly I don’t think he even has any in his library, which I think is kind of sad. I definitely think that there are times that any age group can read, learn from and appreciate a good picture book, but I don’t think that it’s the greatest thing to read from all the time, especially in upper grades! I think for the younger kids it’s also ok to read from chapter books such as Junie B Jones or something similar as long as you are having them doing something in their reading journal during or after reading. As long as you are energetic and excited about reading any type of book (picture or chapter) the students will get excited as well, I think it’s just as important to read to them as it is to make it worth their while!
Matthew,
I'm wondering if the readers in this class are a bit lower. Perhaps she is only exposing them to the literature that they are able to read. Otherwise, I'd have to say that she probably needs to be reading something with a little more substance. Fifth graders should probably be read chapter books with no pictures during a read aloud, as that is more appropriate to their grade level and reading ability. She can do read alouds to model fluent reading, but I would think that the material should be more suited to a fifth grade reading ablility. What's more, she should be scaffolding the children during a read aloud to get them interested in books that may even be a bit beyond their reading abilities. In your practicum classroom, I would say that the CT needs to reevaluate her reading selections, unless the students are lower readers.
First off, I'd just like to thank you all for your responses to my question. In regards to the response about the kids' reading levels, I'm pretty sure there are only about 3 or 4 students who are below grade level. They're either ESL or part of the Lexia program. It could be possible my CT is trying to cover the scope of the whole classroom. However, my students do read chapter books as part of their reading block. They just finished, Beetles, Lightly Toasted and now they're about to start, Number the Stars. Both of which are chapter books. From what I've seen, they've all been able to do and have done the required assignments. So I don't know if there is really a reading disconnect? I'm starting to think my CT reads the picture books simply for the aesthetics of it all.
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