Reading Rockets has posted a very interesting article on their site about how to effectively read-aloud to children (to enable them to learn the most).
What I found most interesting in the article was that they encouraged reading sophisticated stories with young children, and not ONLY predictable stories and concept books. This is something I have always done, but sometimes second guessed myself on, wondering if I was presenting stories the children wouldn't understand (see some of my thoughts in yesterday's post). Usually my doubts are allayed when I see these "sophisticated stories" become some of the children's favorites, but it was nice to read some research that backed that up!
I was encouraged last year to read Charlotte's Web to my first graders. I was a little nervous as it had some tough parts but we madeit through and they LOVED it! They cried at the end. They loved the dialogue, characters, the rich language, and most of all Charlotte and Wilbur. Lester Laminack says, that reading chapter books or more sophisticated stories help children with vocabulary and it helps them to be better self-monitors when they read. They understand language a lot more than we even comprehend!!!!
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