As I stated when I started this blog, I will write about my thoughts and ideas about literacy. You won’t see me giving lists of citations of research although what I write is based on research and, of course, my personal experiences. I want to be practical in my writing – thoughts that give the readers something to think about and possibly help to strengthen their teaching. Hence, the topic for this blog – Reading Aloud to Middle Schoolers.
I loved teaching middle school. Those students were probably my favorite to teach. The students were old enough to be semi-independent and yet young enough to still do those “childish” things like cut and paste (literally – not like on a computer), color, and my favorite activity – reading aloud. Don’t get me wrong, some of my middle schoolers felt they were “too cool” to do those things in the list, but I knew deep down they were enjoying each activity.
As an elementary teacher, I always took time every day to read out loud to my students – usually after recess. It was a time for them to relax from all the excitement they had on the playground. I also can remember the smell of the 20 or so sweaty bodies! Some things you just don’t forget no matter how much time has passed! However, when I moved up to middle school, I thought, at first, that the students would be too OLD for having me read aloud to them. Boy, was I wrong!
One day I decided to experiment with my class, and for the first 5 minutes of the hour, I read to them with the lights off. I can’t remember the title of the book now (it has been 30 years ago!), but I remember that it was a “Who Done It” book. I did not tell them anything about the book including the title, and I did not tell them what I was going to do. I just started reading. My students were not sure what to make of it. Why did she turn off the lights when we entered the room? Why is she reading this book to us? She must be mad!
At the end of the 5 minutes, I stopped, and just like that I closed the book, turned on the lights, and began class as I normally would. My students looked at each other wondering what just happened. It was quite humorous.
The next day, I did not read for that 5 minutes. But the following day I did – 5 minutes, lights off, abruptly stopped, started class. On the fourth day, it was clear that the students were not sure what I was going to do at the beginning of class. I read to them as I had the day before. Day 5 was interesting though. I just started class (no reading) and one of the students blurted out:
“Aren’t you gonna turn the lights off?”
“No.”
“But I have to know what happens?”
“What happens?”
“You know . . . to the guy in the river looking for that other guy.”
“Oh, he drowns.” (I lied)
(Gasps across the room) “No, that cannot happen because he is the main person in the story, and he has to live to find that other guy.”
“Really? What makes you think that the other guy is so important to find?”
And the conversation continued for a few minutes. The students were intrigued, and they cheered when I went over and turned off the lights.
So what did I learn from my little experiment? Middle schoolers are NOT too old to have a teacher read to them. My reading was short. My reading grabbed their interest. My reading taught them literacy skills without their knowledge. For the rest of the year I read to my students 2-3 times a week. The students looked forward to having the lights turned off. I watched as their literacy skills strengthened. This was a time of pure enjoyment.