SUNNYSIDE SCOOP JANUARY, 2019
Principal Points January 2019 The Power of a Read-Aloud “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.” ― Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook If your children are anything like mine you have probably heard the phrase, “Read it to me again.” countless times within your household. When my girls were younger they had stories and picture books I would read to them again, and again, and again. I read the story Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans so many times I actually started to read it with my eyes closed. This didn’t last long as my daughter insisted I needed to look at the pages when I read. As my girls got older and became stronger independent readers I found myself reading to them less and less, excited to see them grow in their own reading ability. That was until two summers ago when my youngest, at the age of nine, asked me to begin reading the Harry Potter series to her aloud. I was surprised by this request. When my oldest daughter began reading the Harry Potter series, she wanted to read them alone and I had assumed, incorrectly, that my youngest would want to do likewise. Over the course of the next five months, including pretty much every extended car ride, I read the entire seven book series to not only my nine year old, but also my 13 year old too, all 3,407 pages of them! Both of them LOVED it. I had forgotten what a joy it was to read aloud to my kids, but more importantly reading aloud to them reminded me of why it’s so important that we continue to do so, even as they grow. When we read aloud to our own children, even as they grow, we model a number of very important things. The following list comes from Marie Rippel. 1. We help establish a lifetime interest in reading. 2. We extend their attention spans. 3. We aide in our children’s language development. 4. We help strengthen the power of our child’s imagination. 5. We help build our child’s comprehension. 6. We establish great bonding time with our kids. If you are not in the practice of reading aloud to your kids, I encourage you to find the time to add it to your family routines. If you aren’t sure what to read always feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher for book ideas, or reach out to our Library Media Specialist, Jenna Pomraning, who’s depth and knowledge of books is amazing! Partnering with you, Dr. Nathan Flansburg