ABSTRACT
Children of any age who routinely hear books read aloud score higher on national and state literacy tests. These students are not just more proficient readers who delight in stories; they are often excellent writers with wide vocabularies at their disposal. Literacy informs and inspires their daily living. Teachers are often surprised at how long an engaging book will hold students’ attention. The classroom teacher works with the whole class to turn that summary into a Readers Theatre, with groups of three to four students each repeatedly reading and practicing a couple of lines until all could read them fluently. Children who become great readers read voraciously. Guided reading is out of control in many educational settings; instead of being an effective and temporary means to developing independent readers, it has often become the end goal for teaching reading.
