Impact of Interactive Read-Alouds
on Sixth Grade Comprehension and Interest
Research Question
Why Teachers Read Aloud to their Students
According to Albright and Ariail, the top five reasons teachers stated they read aloud to their students include:
- Modeling: Model good reading practices
- Accessibility: Makes text more accessible to readers who cannot read
- Understanding: Ensure or increase understanding/comprehension of the text
- Content: Reinforce content knowledge
- Management: Manage behavior
- Enjoyment: Student’s enjoyment
- Vocabulary: Improve vocabulary
Components Expert Teachers Implement in Read Alouds
While there is no one method for read-alouds, Fisher, Flood, Lapp, and Frey (2004) found specific strategies to increase the impact and effectiveness for both teachers and students. The common components of successful interactive read-alouds identified include:
- text selections
- preview and practice by teacher
- set a purpose for reading
- modeling fluency
- read with animation
- thoughtful discussion
- independent reading and writing
Reasons for Read Alouds
Research has shown that reading aloud to students can enhance literacy as well as other communications skills. Some advantages of interactive read alouds include:
- motivate students to read
- build student background knowledge on a particular topic
- expose challenging texts to students
- teacher models reading, discussion, and thinking about the text in order to explore meaning of the content
- students can begin to struggle more with reading during secondary years
- provide comprehension strategies during instruction help
- students build effective reading habits
(Griffity & Hurst, 2015)
Selecting a Topic
The Abstract
The Fundamentals
Impact: Reading Comprehension and Interest
Setting: Two sixth grade classrooms in a Title 1 K-8 school in Pitt County of North Carolina
Quest: To see if the implementing specific read aloud strategies would increase comprehension and reading attitudes of sixth grade students over traditional read aloud
Time: Pre and post data collections and the intervention occurred over a 6 week time frame (January 11th through March 4th, 2016).
Method: The researcher (intervention class) provided a structured interactive read aloud environment by implementing three common components for effective read aloud: clear purpose established before reading, use of animation and expression, and pausing to discuss text (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004).
- Pretest- Reading Comprehension Passage from Read Works and Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey (McKenna and Kear, 1990).
- Posttest- Reading Comprehension Passage from Read Works and Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey (McKenna and Kear, 1990)
- Researcher Log- used to record observations and reflections of intervention
The Intervention
The intervention occurred daily for twenty minutes. Before beginning the read-aloud, the teacher established a clear purpose for reading the text (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004; Richardson, 2010). Then, this purpose was shared with the students in order to establish focus on comprehension skills. During the read aloud, the teacher read with animation and enthusiasm. This component is supported through research observations noting the effect of teachers reading aloud with enthusiasm (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, Frey, 2004; Albright & Ariail, 2005). The final expert component delivered through this study was strategic book discussions that occured before, during, and after the read-aloud. The teacher previewed the reading material prior to the read-aloud and had sticky notes prepared on the pages of the book/text with questions on them (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004).
A balance of questions were prepared by the teacher in order to support students making connections to the text. Discussions held during the read-aloud allowed students the opportunity to share reactions, thoughts, predictions, concerns, and etc. associated to the text read. As the teacher paused to allow conversation about the text the students deepened comprehension through making connections and staying engaged (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004).
The Results
Growth between comprehension on the pre and post tests was not substantially different between the intervention and comparison groups. However, both groups did show improvement on the assessment. On the other hand, the reading interest survey showed a substantial difference in growth between the two groups.
The intervention group showed a great deal of interest in reading both recreationally and academically after the intervention. Also, based on the observations made in the researcher log, the researcher's explicit support to model reading aloud and discussion enabled students to learn to make connections when reading.
The Implications
The validity of the reading comprehension pre/post test is a concern in this research. By this I mean, the text assessed overall comprehension and not a specific strategy. Another limitation is that students that did not make a change could not show gains. Therefore, if students scored the same, or even a perfect score, on the pre and post test then no measure of growth can be accounted. Some students scored 100% on pre and post; so this was not an effective tool to measure comprehension gains b/c they were maxed out.
The Conclusions
The reading comprehension results were not statistically significant based on the pre and post test. However, the following results support the impact of the intervention:
- growth in reading attitudes
- obtained a higher reading comprehension score based on the pre/post test assessment
- engagment in thoughtful discussions before, during, and after reading aloud
- teacher utilize effective components in order to successfully integrate read-alouds
Future Plans for this Study
Student-Led Interactive Read Alouds
- create an environment in which students implement an interactive read aloud to others
- students could start by preparing a read aloud for a small group, reading buddy, or another audience
- student modeling and implementing the interactive read aloud strategies: establish purpose for reading, read with animation, use prepared questions to guide discussion and thinking while reading.
Resources for Interactive Read Alouds
http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/art_RT-58-1-Fisher/elementLinks/art_RT-58-1-Fisher.pdf
Article on Read Alouds
http://fisherandfrey.com/uploads/posts/Shared_reading_JAAL.pdf
Suggested Read Aloud Titleshttp://readingandwritingproject.com/public/resources/booklists/archived/reading/interactive_read_aloud.pdf
Engaged Interactive Read Alouds
https://readingrecovery.org/images/pdfs/Conferences/NC11/Handouts/Miller_Cathy.pdf
Read Aloud Discussion Questions
http://www.lz95.org/assets/1/6/Reading_Aloud_Discussion_Questions.pdf
References
Albright, L. K., & Ariail, M. (2005). Tapping the potential of teacher read-alouds in middle schools. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(7), 582-591. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/216916387?accountid=10639
Fisher, D., Flood, J., Lapp, D., & Frey, N. (2004). Interactive read-slouds: Is there a common set of implementation practices? The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 8-17. doi:doi:10.1598/RT.58.1.1
Hurst, S., & Griffity, P. (2015). Examinging the effect of teacher read-aloud on adolescent attitudes and learning. Middle Grades Research Journal, 10(1), 31-47. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1691158349?accountid=10639