Every night, my husband and I spend thirty minutes reading each other poetry or great works of literature–just kidding! Between general parenting, homeschooling, housekeeping, working, and having to tell each other highlights from the day’s news stories that the other one already read (because the pleasure is not in the knowing, but the telling), we are currently watching episodes of The Leftovers in 15-minute increments each night because that’s all the energy we can muster before collapsing into bed. However, I think the idea of reading each other poetry or great works of literature each night is simply lovely.
And it demonstrates that you’re never too old for a read-aloud. After all, millions of adults are listening to audiobooks, and the extremely popular podcast LeVar Burton Reads illustrates that it’s not just because audiobooks are more portable than paperbacks. It’s because being read to is a comforting pleasure. As Nerdist writes about getting transported back to the Reading Rainbow days when they hear Burton’s voice, “It’s like a cool breeze.”
It turns out that reading aloud isn’t just beneficial because it makes you feel all warm and cozy inside. It’s also developmentally and cognitively beneficial. You can’t age out of read-alouds, and continuing them as part of your homeschooling or family tradition long after your child has become an independent reader is an excellent idea.
Here’s why!
- It promotes reading fluency. Hearing words read aloud is different than reading them silently to yourself, and hearing complex sentences read aloud teaches internalized grammar structures. When we hear how someone pauses during asides or slightly changes voices when reading a quote, we learn how to read those sentences with meaningful intonation. When readers then read independently, those lessons help them decode punctuation and grammar rules organically.This is important because we don’t learn grammar through drills and direct instruction. Just like no one has ever learned to swim by sitting by the pool listening to an instructor explain different swim techniques, no one learns grammar by listening to someone explain the rules. We learn the vocabulary and why of grammar through direct instruction, but it is only through doing it that we learn the how.
- Aural comprehension outpaces reading comprehension. Young readers can often understand themes and ideas far more complex than what they are actually capable of decoding by reading. This is true not just of young children, but it is also true for college students. I often had to coach struggling readers in my college classes to read it aloud in order to make sense of it. Poetry, in particular, illustrates the importance of hearing in order to fully understand complex ideas.What this means in practice is that read-alouds allow kids to hear much more interesting, exciting, and engaging material than they’d be able to access on their own. This not only exposes them to great stories that are worthwhile in their own right, but it also teaches them the pleasure of books in a way that their own reading ability might not.
- It ensures thorough reading. Do you know what many people do when they get to a part of a book that’s boring? They skim it or, often, just skip it. This can be especially true of longer, more complex stories that do not follow the formulaic approach to keeping the conflict front and center for most of the story. I’m reading Harry Potter aloud to my daughter right now, and there are several chapters where we’ll end and she’ll sigh, “I wish something exciting was happening.” Of course, exciting things are happening. The author is setting up complex backstory for characters, providing clues as to what’s going to happen by foreshadowing, and providing a rich setting to make the story come to life. But if my daughter were reading it independently, I am certain she would skim or skip those chapters and therefore miss a lot of the complexity of the story.Reading aloud ensures that the whole story will be heard, and it helps to teach endurance and about the delayed gratification of getting to the end of the book and seeing it all come together. Reading aloud also allows us to pause and talk about connections, confusing moments, and predictions. It helps make reading a more active process.
Sometimes, especially as kids get older and their academic needs and social lives demand more and more time for us, it can be tempting to decide that they’ve aged out of read-alouds, but the truth is that we can all benefit from hearing great language read to us, and there’s no age cap on the benefits or the pleasure of coming together around a great book.