S6 E4 - Should We Bring Back the Read-Aloud?

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Hi there, it's Jocelyn here with this week's episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, recorded here in Tasmania, the beautiful lands of the Palawa people.

Today I want to talk about something that I think we may well have lost sight of in many classrooms, particularly in the upper primary. It's something that used to be a daily staple but has quietly disappeared from many timetables as we've become increasingly focused on explicit, systematic instruction. I'm talking about the simple act of reading aloud to our students.

Now, before you think I'm about to suggest we abandon everything we know about effective literacy instruction, let's be clear: I'm not. What I'm suggesting is that we've perhaps thrown the baby out with the bathwater on this one. In the rightful focus on systematic phonics, explicit vocabulary and evidence-based practices, we may have inadvertently eliminated one of the most powerful tools we have for building oral language - and by extension, reading fluency and comprehension.

So the question I want to explore today is: should we bring back the read-aloud as a regular feature of our classrooms? And if so, how do we do it well?

The Current Landscape

If I were to walk into many upper primary classrooms today, I'd be hard-pressed, I think, to find regular read-aloud time purposefully scheduled into the day. Teachers are always telling me the pressure they feel to cover curriculum content, to ensure students are getting their explicit instruction, their shared reading time, their writing practice. There's simply no time for "just reading" to students.

And I totally get this pressure. Truly, I do. We know that explicit instruction is critical, particularly for our struggling students. We know that systematic approaches to reading instruction yield better results than what we used to do. But here's what I think we're missing: reading aloud to students isn't just a nice reading time. It's actually a powerful form of oral language instruction that directly supports reading development.

And here's something else we've lost in our focus on intensive, teacher-directed lessons, and I'm going to say it, it's the balance. Both teachers and students need a little downtime that maintains our energy levels. Holding space for reading to our students ensures that we keep that crucial balance between intensive instruction and the moments that sustain us all through this demanding work of teaching and learning.

The Joy Factor

And let's talk about joy. There's something magical that happens when you choose a great text and read it to your students. You get to hear them laugh. You watch them lean forward in anticipation as they read. You see their faces when you stop reading on a cliffhanger and you get that wonderful groan of frustration mixed with excitement. These moments aren't just nice additions to your day; they're actually incredibly rewarding for us as teachers and vital for building students' love of story and literature.

For our struggling students, I personally think this is particularly crucial. Because while they're developing all of the foundational skills, and for some of them it takes them so long, read-alouds help foster their relationship with books and stories. They get to experience the joy and the meaning of literature while they're building those critical decoding skills. This connection can be the difference between a student who sees reading as a chore and one who sees it as a pathway to wonderful experiences. If we don't keep the joy in it, it's highly unlikely that students are going to read for pleasure on their own. And there does come a point when the independent reading we do is a much bigger builder of vocabulary than any explicit instruction. So we need to get them to the joyful bit, and read-alouds can be a part of that.

The Research Foundation

Now, I need to be honest with you about the research here. I haven't been able to see a direct line of studies that say "read-alouds improve oral reading fluency." What we do have is strong evidence that read-alouds improve oral language, or they can, and separate strong evidence that oral language is a key predictor of reading fluency and comprehension. So while I can't today make a direct causal claim, the connection is certainly a reasonable one to make. I look forward to someone doing that research and filling that little gap in.

What the research does tell us quite clearly is that interactive and dialogic read-alouds produce consistent, moderate-to-large immediate gains in children's vocabulary knowledge. Meta-analyses show that when we read to students and engage them in discussion about what we're reading, their vocabulary grows significantly. And we know from decades of reading research that vocabulary knowledge is one of the stronger predictors of reading comprehension.

But here's where it gets really interesting from a fluency perspective. Our brains are pattern-finding machines. So when students hear rich language through read-alouds, they're not just learning new words - they're learning how language flows, how sentences are structured, how ideas connect to each other. They're building what we can think of as the "language prediction engine." And remember that the language of books is different from the language of everyday speech, so this is not experience that they're likely to get just through speaking alone. The book provides a bridge, both if this is fiction or non-fiction. So let's talk more about this prediction business.

The Prediction Connection

When fluent readers read, their brains are constantly predicting what word comes next. This isn't a conscious process, it's happening automatically based on their knowledge of vocabulary, syntax, and how language works. The stronger a student's oral language foundation, the better their brain becomes at making these predictions.

Think about it this way: if you're reading the sentence "The enormous elephant..." your brain immediately starts predicting what might come next. Words like "trumpeted" or "lumbered" feel much more likely than "meowed" or "chirped" because of our knowledge. This predictive ability is what allows fluent readers to read more smoothly and efficiently.

Students who haven't had rich oral language experiences often read word-by-word because they can't predict what's coming next, and of course there's a decoding facter here as well, but we're talking about our language knowledge.

And if they are decoding word by word, they're working so hard to decode individual words that they can't access what their brain knows about the flow and rhythm of language that makes reading fluent and meaningful. 

What Makes Read-Alouds Effective

So how do we do this? How do we provide this read aloud experience in a way that's effective and not just a fun use of time?

If we accept that read-alouds can be a valuable part of our literacy instruction, how do we do them well? Well, the research gives us some clear guidance here, and the key word is interactive.

There's a significant difference between passive and interactive read-alouds. Simply reading a book from beginning to end while students listen passively does not yield the same benefits as intentionally engaging students with the text. Recent research shows that students who have heard interactive read-alouds with vocabulary elaborations, used significantly more target words in their story retellings compared to students who heard simple read-alouds without interaction. And that elaboration is about coming across a piece of tier two vocabulary and briefly explaining the word to the students.

Here are three key tips to make your read-alouds provide maximum bang for the buck in the learning as well as being enjoyable for all of us.

First, choose texts strategically.

Because we all know that the texts that we choose matters enormously. Research shows us that children listening to picture books are roughly three times more likely to encounter new vocabulary that isn't amongst the most frequent words in their everyday language. This is vocabulary we're unlikely to encounter in daily conversation but we will need for academic success.

So of course we're talking about books that are rich in Tier 2 vocabulary - those sophisticated words that appear across different contexts and will serve students well in their academic reading. But we want to find the Goldilocks spot here; we want to find the spot that's not too easy, not too hard, that will stretch the students slightly without overwhelming them, because if there's too much unknown vocabulary they're not going to get any meaning out of the text or any enjoyment.

Second, make it interactive, not passive.

This doesn't mean stopping every sentence to discuss it, that would kill the enjoyment of the read-aloud. But we can strategically pause to think aloud, to make predictions, to model the thinking processes that we want students to learn, or we could just explore interesting words that can amplify the benefits of the reading significantly.

So research shows that when teachers pause to elaborate on vocabulary, as we've discussed, providing definitions, examples, or connections, that students are more likely to use those words in their retelling. The magic isn't just in the reading; it's in the interaction around the text. So you could ask a simple question and have the students briefly answer. You could say "oh, I wonder what's going to happen next? Quickly tell your partner and then come back to me."

Third, build knowledge, not just vocabulary.

When we choose texts that build knowledge about topics students are studying in science or history, well, the text's doing double duty - they're building both language and conceptual knowledge that will support comprehension across the curriculum. So a good text that the students will enjoy is first port of call. Then think about the vocabulary, aiming for that tier two, and then if there's an option there that helps us build knowledge, then tickety-boo, away we go.

The Fluency Connection

Now let's talk a bit more about that fluency connection, becuase here's where the read-aloud connects most directly to fluency development. When students hear fluent, expressive reading day after day, they're internalising the rhythm and flow of language. They're hearing how punctuation should be used, how dialogue should be voiced, how emphasis can change meaning. And when they're able to connect from a comprehesion perspective, seeing this coming out in their own reading is an example and an indicator that they're actually understanding what they're reading. And I can't say it more clearly that the language of books is different from the langage of everyday speech, so we need to learn these things in the context of written texts.

Practical Considerations

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: "Jocelyn, this all sounds lovely, but where do I find the time?" And I get it, our days are packed. But what if the read-aloud time didn't have to be an add-on - what if it could be used within existing time structures for strategic integration.

So in a science lesson, you can read the text aloud as part of your reading process for that lesson. So unpack the tricky vocabulary or the new vocabulary, have the students have a go. Then you can read it aloud for the fluency part and then they have another go. Or you just read it aloud to them and then have them strategically deep read particular paragraphs.

You can choose picture books that connect with the history unit and read them within your history lesson.

We can select texts that showcase the type of writing we want students to produce. And we do this in the text based unit, but we can do it in other ways as well. We can also use read-aloud time as a quick brain break between intensive lessons. 

Taking students out to the oval for a 15 minute run is actually more likely to get them hyped up than to get them calm and ready for the next learning time. So reading half a page or a page of a class novel as a transition is a great way to signal to the brain that hey, we're about to switch tasks here. It also gives students that little bit of downtime that can help them gather their energy for the next part of the lesson.

And honestly? Sometimes it's ok to read aloud simply for the joy of it. Our students will pick up on our enjoyment of literature. Feelings are contagious and when we are finding pleasure in the reading experience, well, they're more likely to.

The Bigger Picture

There's something else the research tells us that I think is quite compelling. Students who have strong oral language foundations enter what is sometimes called a "virtuous cycle."

So because they can predict text better, they read more fluently.

Because they read more fluently, they comprehend better.

Because they comprehend better, they want to read more.

And because they read more, their oral language gets even stronger.

Students without the oral language foundations often get stuck in the opposite cycle: poor prediction leads to choppy reading, which leads to poor comprehension, which leads to reading avoidance, which leads to even weaker language development.

Read-alouds are one way we can break students out of this negative cycle and put them on the path to the positive one.

A Balanced Approach

But let me be very clear about what I'm not suggesting. I'm not saying we should replace explicit instruction with read-alouds. I'm not saying that students shouldn't have eyes on the text and engage in deep reading when that becomes appropriate. I'm not suggesting that read-alouds alone will solve reading difficulties. Students who are struggling with decoding need systematic, explicit instruction in phonics and word recognition.

What I am suggesting is that oral language development through read-alouds can work hand-in-hand with explicit instruction to create more powerful learning experiences. When students have rich oral language foundations, they're better positioned to benefit from the phonics instruction that we're providing, and the instruction in all of the other reading elements as well. When they can predict text based on their language knowledge, the words they're decoding just make more sense.

Moving Forward

So, should we bring back the read-aloud? Well, I think from this episode it's pretty clear that I believe the answer is yes - but we need to do it with intention and purpose. Choose texts strategically. Interact meaningfully. Connect to your curriculum goals. And yes, sometimes simply read for the pure joy of sharing a great story.

Remember that every time you read aloud with expression and engagement, every time you pause to discuss an interesting word or idea, not for too long, just for a moment, every time you make your thinking visible as you navigate a text, you're building your students' language prediction system. You're literally helping them become more fluent readers.

The beautiful thing about this research is that it shows us that all students - regardless of their background - can develop stronger oral language through rich read-aloud experiences. Your daily read-alouds aren't just a nice break from serious instruction; they're serious instruction themselves, building the foundation that will support all of your other literacy efforts.

In our next Research to the Classroom series, I'm gonna dive deeper into this issue and the specific techniques that can make read-alouds the most effective, but for now, I encourage you just to find space in your day for this practice. Your students' developing reading fluency - and their love of reading - will thank you for it.

Until next time, happy teaching. Bye.

Note: While direct research linking read-alouds to oral reading fluency is limited, the connection through oral language development is well-supported by existing literature. Future research examining this direct relationship would be valuable to the field.

References:

Giles, R. M., Morrison, K., Szatkowski, H. D., & Brannan, L. (2022). Read alouds for elementary students' vocabulary development.

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