Running Head: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF READ ALOUDS 1

The Effectiveness of Read Alouds

Kalyn McLaughlin

Franciscan University

EDU 344
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Introduction

Many studies have tested the effectiveness of the Read Aloud strategy in teaching

reading and writing strategies within early elementary classrooms (Baker, Santoro,

Biancarrosa & Baker, 2015). The simple lecture to teach reading comprehension does not

compare to the effectiveness of the Read Aloud strategy. There is variety of ways to

implement the Read Aloud methods so to reach the different styles of readers. (Brabham,

Lynch-Brown, 2002) A proper implementation of the Read Aloud consists of a teacher

orally reading a piece of literature that is above the student’s independent reading levels.

While reading, the teacher stops frequently to explain his or her own questions and ideas

about the literature. This way the teacher can build upon the students’ prior knowledge,

expand students’ vocabulary, and model proper comprehension strategies (Fien, Santoro,

Baker, Park, Chard, Williams & Haria, 2011). This is effective in that students can

visually see and practice proper methods of reading and learn to enjoy it as well.

I became interested in this subject because I have seen it used many times

throughout my undergraduate career. I have also heard from students firsthand how they

enjoy and appreciate the teacher taking time to model specific strategies. One of my own

personal mantras as a future educator is to make my class student-centered by first

considering what each student needs. This method is useful to many students because of

its ability to reach a wide variety of learning styles and types.

Purpose

In conducting this individual case study, a few main questions were put forth.

First, which aspect of Read alouds was most effective in enhancing the student’s
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comprehension of text? What is the ideal group size in implementing the Read Aloud

strategy?

I decided to answer these questions by interviewing a student I am currently

tutoring in reading and writing. We are reading A Bridge to Terabithia while practicing

reading strategies. When I read, I will stop frequently to ask a question, to define a

confusing term, or make connections within the plot. By stopping and verbalizing my

thoughts, my tutee will learn how to process and organize text so to better comprehend its

meaning. When he reads, he will hopefully be able to formulate questions he has and use

different resources to answer them. Then one day I will read to him without the analysis

and assistance, and afterwards ask him which method he prefers. I will also ask him

comprehension questions from both sections of text to see which method helped him to

best recall information (See Appendix A).

I hypothesize that the student will prefer to work one-on-one with me in a smaller

group rather than working as an entire class. He seems to like the individualized

conversation and instruction. Similarly, I think he will enjoy seeing me perform

comprehension strategies before he has to. I think he will prefer to stop and discuss the

text and clarify any questions he might have.

Review of Literature

Baker et al., (2015) tested the effect of the quality of Read Aloud strategy

instruction on student vocabulary and comprehension. The researchers studied the

quality of instruction rather than the effectiveness of the instruction because the Read

Aloud strategy has already been proven effective. These findings go deeper than merely

assessing the effectiveness and suggest that the teacher plays a great role in the
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comprehension of the material. To do this, they selected 39 random classes, 20 of which

utilized the read aloud teaching strategy. The teacher performs the read aloud as they

know and understand it. The other 19 classrooms are the control group, which participate

in common classroom procedures. All of the classes are observed and graded based on a

set scale that sets standards for comprehension and vocabulary retention within the text.

The observers monitor both the teacher’s methods and the student’s reactions to check

the effectiveness of both the student retention and teachers instruction. Their

conclusions state that the way in which a teacher performs a read aloud can actually

increase student’s vocabulary and comprehension of the material studied.

I thought the authors gave great insight into the Read Aloud method of

instruction. Most studies only test the effectiveness of the teaching method, while this

study went deeper into different ways to improve an already effective method.

Therefore, we know that teachers should always work to find and utilize the most

effective means of instructing. Unfortunately though, this article was very subjective.

The observers, while following the set rubric, could disagree on the levels of

comprehension or participation. To combat this, they used a specific model or code to

unify their results. I chose to use this article because it shows how subjective teaching

can be. The teacher’s attitude and background plays a great role in the effectiveness of

his or her instruction. To expand this experiment, I would compare the results among

different age groups. Hopefully this way one could see at which age this strategy was

most effective to implement.

To determine whether or not group size effects student success in implementing

the Read Alouds strategy, Fien et al., (2011) conducted an experiment on 102 first grade
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readers with low language and low vocabulary skills. The experimenters used the

TOLD-P-3 language proficiency test before intervention to identify students who were

below the 50th percentile. The teachers then met with those students in a smaller setting

to reinforce the Read Aloud method that was taught to all students. After interventions,

the experimenters tested all students’ oral language proficiency, vocabulary knowledge,

narrative retell, and expository retell (Fien et al., 2011) and compared the students who

received the extra small group intervention and those who did not. The experimenters

concluded that the intervention was successful for vocabulary knowledge and expository

retell, but had no effect on the narrative retell.

The multitude of tests and research behind this study is wonderful. The

researchers were very specific in what they expected from the student and how they were

going to gather their data. All procedures of experimentation followed a specific rubric

of items they were looking for. Also, the large group of students who participated in the

study created a variety of subjects to test their hypothesis. However, the researchers only

supplemented the students that needed extra help. This could skew the results in that the

students identified might have learning disabilities and challenges that hinder their

learning. To improve the study, researchers should aid all students to see if the

intervention also helps those who don’t struggle in reading and writing. If it does, this

method should become a common practice when performing the Read Aloud strategy.

These findings support the idea that individualized intervention in the form of small

group instruction can help improve students comprehension of read alouds.

Brabham and Lynch-Brown (2002) manipulated three forms of read alouds:

interactional, performance, and just reading. The study looked at 12 first grade
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classrooms and 12 third grade classrooms across the southeastern United States. The

classrooms were then split up into the three different methods of using the Read Aloud

strategy. All teachers participating in the study were given a specific script to read to the

students before partaking in the strategy. Before each session, the teachers would give a

vocabulary pretest to assess student knowledge before reading. They would each

perform their method of teaching, then give a post-test to check for understanding after

the instruction. Their experiment showed that the greatest improvement in vocabulary

was reached with the interactive model of the Read Aloud strategy. This speaks to the

importance of making instruction interactive and engaging to students.

I found this article to be very interesting because it went even deeper into the

Read Aloud strategy. Instead of testing the effectiveness of the strategy in general, they

narrowed in on the different methods of implementing the Read Aloud strategy. This is

important to teachers because it shows how meticulous you have to be when planning

lessons. The article did not, however, go into depth on the different models of read

alouds. I was confused as to the difference between the three models while reading the

article. While there is discrepancy between the three titles, there was no definition of

practice given to objectively differentiate the three models. I found this article effective

because the experiment emphasizes that instruction, especially the Read Aloud strategy,

must be interactive. That is why Read Alouds are an effective means of instruction. To

further the research, I would conduct a survey to ask the students which one they prefer

in their own classroom. This research might indicate some relationship between the most

effective means of instruction and the student opinion.

Methodology
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The participant in my case study is a sophomore in high school that struggles in

reading. I chose him for my study because I thought he would benefit from practicing

comprehension strategies. When reading aloud, he was often nervous and anxious about

knowing the vocabulary and reading fluently. I wanted to give him the skills to

confidently read text knowing that he has the resources to learn anything.

To do this, I first asked him to read so that I would have baseline data and a good

understanding of where I should start. When he read the first time, he stuttered

frequently and stumbled upon a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary. He also struggled with basic

comprehension of the text we were reading. I wanted to focus on strategies to help

strengthen his reading to help make it more enjoyable. The first strategy was practice. I

wanted him to get used to reading aloud and feel comfortable to ask questions when he

was unsure. Secondly I modeled ways in which he can better comprehend the text. To

do this, I included different graphic organizers and charts for him to write basic

information as we read. To enhance vocabulary, we stopped when confused about a

vocabulary term to define and clarify the unknown word. We also kept a sheet where we

recorded the characters and basic plot features. This way he was able to visually see the

plot and recall where we had left off.

Findings

Through my case study, I found that the student participating in my study prefers

individualized instruction through the Read Aloud strategy. He was able to benefit from

first watching me perform specific comprehension strategies and then performing them

himself. Then when reading to me, he was able to accurately implement the reading

strategies that helped him. I made sure to discuss strategies that I knew he struggled with
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so that he would gain the most from instruction. When asking him a few comprehension

questions, he was able to more accurately answer the questions that came from the

section of text where we used the Read Aloud strategy. Although his answers where

concise, he was able to answer quicker and with greater accuracy than before. The

questions from the reading without the Read Aloud strategy were more difficult for him.

I could tell he was struggling to recall information by the way he paused to think after

every question. The questionnaire I presented to him and his responses are included in

Appendix A. I was able to confirm my hypothesis that he did indeed prefer the Read

Aloud Strategy to simple lecture style instruction.

Recommendations

To further the study, I would first enhance the questions the instructor would give.

These questions could have been more thought provoking. I tried to keep it simple for

my student, but I felt that more difficult questions could help to further the findings of the

study. I would include higher-level questions that require higher-level thought; questions

that ask why or how something occurred rather than simply asking to identify events in

the story. This way the instructor can gain more incite into what the student was thinking

rather than what they were simply able to identify.

Secondly, it is important to test different group sizes. I would implement this

strategy in both smaller groups and whole class environments to see which was most

effective in enhancing the reading of the learner. Because I was only working with one

student, I was only able to find what was most effective for him specifically. This study

could test the most effective means of teaching reading and writing skills throughout all

schools everywhere.
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Resources

Baker, D. L., Santoro, L., Biancarrosa, G., & Baker, S. K,. (2015). Effect of quality of

instruction on student vocabulary and comprehension during read alouds. Society

for Research on Educational Effectiveness. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED562167.

Brabham, E.G. & Lynch-Brown, C. (2002). Effects of teachers’ reading-aloud styles on

vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary

grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(3), 465-473

Fien , H., Santoro, L., Baker, S. K., Park, Y., Chard, D. J., Williams, S., & Haria, P.

(2011). Enhancing teacher read alouds with small-group vocabulary instruction

for students with low vocabulary in first-grade classrooms. School Psychology

Review, 40(2), 307-318.

Glenberg, A. M., Brown, M., & Levin, J. R. (2007). Enhancing comprehension in small

reading groups using a manipulation strategy. Contemporary Educational

Psychology, 32, 389-399.

Silverman , R., DiBara Crandell, J., & Carlis, L. (n.d.). Read aloud and beyond: The

effects of read aloud extension activities on vocabulary in head start classrooms.

Early Education and Development , 24, 98-122.

Witte, P. G. (2016). Teaching first graders to comprehend complex texts through read-

alouds. Reading Teacher, 70(1), 29-38.

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Appendix A

Read Aloud questionnaire

Did you prefer me to stop every now and then and explain or simply read it to you? Stop
every now and then

Why? It helped me understand what was going on

What strategy we used helped you the most? Keeping the paper with the characters
and hard words on it.

Comprehension questions during read aloud chapters:

Who is the main character? Jess

What grade is he in? 4th

What big change occurs in the beginning of the book? A new girl moves to the
neighborhood

What is that girl’s name? Leslie

Does he like Leslie? Yes

What is his family like? He has four sisters and his parents work a lot

Who is Miss Bessie? Their cow

What do the boys like to do? Run

Do you remember the name of the boy who is the fastest? No

Does Jess have any other hobbies? He likes to draw

Who is Jess’s favorite teacher? I can’t remember

Comprehension questions during reading without read aloud strategies:

What did they boys do at recess? Run

How did they organize the races? They set it up into two heats
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What did Leslie do? She came down to run with the boys even though she wasn’t
supposed to

Did Jess want her to run? No

How did they other boys react to her running? They didn’t like the idea