Read-Alouds With Young Children

Children enter the elementary school classroom with varying amounts of exposure to books. Regardless of this personal experience, however, teachers can greatly extend a child's literacy development through interactive classroom read-alouds. Reading a story aloud presents endless opportunities for related activities, from classroom discussions to role plays, shared readings, group writings, arts & crafts & songs. Read-Alouds With Young Children explores read-alouds in both home & school settings & encourages the use of read-alouds as a starting point for further learning in several curricular areas. Read-alouds provide many types of literacy support for children: Children learn about literacy through an adult who provides a model of reading; they form an understanding of how print functions & how it is used; they develop a knowledge and understanding of letters & letter-sound relationships; they learn new words, new sentences & new discourse patterns; they learn about the structure of stories; & they develop a positive attitude toward books. As this book illustrates, the opportunities for developing a curriculum from read-alouds are almost limitless.Classroom teachers & teacher educators will find this book useful as a means of reconsidering the contribution of read-alouds to a literacy curriculum. Not only do the ideas presented here provide a basis for children to learn through literacy, they help retain children's enjoyment of the read-aloud & encourage them to become lifelong readers.Robin Campbell is professor emeritus of primary education at the University of Hertfordshire, Watford, United Kingdom.Robin Campbell is the author of 'Read-Alouds With Young Children' with ISBN 9780872072893 and ISBN 0872072894.