Reading Aloud To Adult Learners? via LINCS

Reading Aloud To Adult Learners?

LINCS: 6.13.2019 by Susan Finn Miller

Hello colleagues, Do you see value in reading aloud to your adult basic education class, or is there just no time for that? If you do read aloud, what do you choose to read? If you don't read aloud, but you would like to, what texts would you choose to read aloud? 

What do you see as the pros and cons of reading aloud to adult learners?

Those who are interested, can check out Kasey Short's blog post on the benefits of reading aloud to older learners for 5 minutes in each class.

This blog post is about reading aloud to middle school students. How is it different for adults?  COMMENTS

Reading Aloud to Middle School Students

Hearing books read aloud benefits older students, enhancing language arts instruction and building a community of readers.

Edutopia: 5.14.2019 by Kasey Short

By the time many students reach middle school, they no longer have books read aloud to them at home or at school. But research shows benefits of hearing books read aloud, including improved comprehension, reduced stress, and expanded exposure to different types of materials.

For five minutes of each class period, I read aloud to my middle school students. I’m often asked how I “give up time” each day to read, but the five minutes are a gift to my students. Spending this time each day enriches the classroom community, allows me to share a love of reading, enhances my language arts instruction, and exposes students to new authors, genres, and themes.

ENRICHING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

During daily independent reading, students choose a book that is both interesting to them as individuals and appropriately challenging for their ability. Reading aloud provides an opportunity for students to experience a shared text together.

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Modeling reading strategies also conveys my expectations for how students should approach their independent reading. I use several strategies I use here.

Thinking aloud:

Demonstrate how to think critically and often about reading and making connections.

Monitoring understanding:

Check for comprehension and reread when needed.

Visualizing text:

Encourage students to think about what pictures form in their mind while reading.

Application:

Ask students to consider how to connect the book to their own life, other books, current events, or cross-curricular content.

Questioning:

Formulate questions about what students can learn from the text to apply to their lives.

National Institute for Literacy [NIFL] Closes

National Institute for Literacy [NIFL] closed on September 30.
On October 1, the Literacy Information and Communication System [LINCS] moves to the Office of Vocation and Adult Education [OVAE].

A new website, LINCS, will continue to provide popular NIFL resources: publications, news items, discussion lists, archives of webcasts, and the America’s Literacy Directory.

LINCS will provide access to literacy research and resources with Regional Resource Centers, Resource Collections, Discussion Lists, and newsletter.

Created in 1991, NIFL strove to provide leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the Institute for the numerous services provided and contributions to the field in its nearly twenty years of existence.

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Summary — May 7, 2009

National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) $6.5 Budget

Despite nearly 2 decades of operations, NIFL has demonstrated little success in its mission of providing national leadership on literacy issues, coordinating Federal literacy programs and policies, and serving as a national resource for adult education and literacy programs. Federal literacy activities remain diffuse and duplicative, and the Administration believes that the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) is better positioned to provide effective national literacy leadership and coordination. Folding NIFL's functions into OVAE also would allow all of its resources to be used for national activities rather than for staffing and overhead, which currently absorb almost half of NIFL's appropriation.