For the Love of Reading

Being an elementary school teacher, I have always believed that reading is extremely important to any child’s education.  Giving students the opportunity to listen to stories and to read books should be a part of any given school day.  Though I believe that books and reading time are an integral part of school, it still amazes me how much students love listening to stories and reading to themselves or with a buddy.  For the past couple of days, I have been noticing how much my first grade students tune into read alouds as well as partner/individual reading.  They are so engaged during reading times, that even when the stories are in a language that is not native to their own, they do not even seem to notice.  I have also recognized that each different type of classroom reading brings about different benefits for my students.  Here are my observations:

Type of Reading	Benefits
Read Alouds	Students are gaining English vocabulary.  Many times, I hear students quietly repeating English words or phrases from the book to themselves. Later, I hear them practice saying these same words or phrases in day-to-day conversation with others.  In addition, because read aloud books are accompanied by many illustrations, students are able to follow the stories more easily even when the words are not in their native language.
Buddy Reading/Individual Reading	I see students work together to practice reading the pictures of books (because they can’t always read the English words).  While doing this they usually speak in Spanglish—a mix of Spanish and English.  That is, they say the English words that they know in order to read the pictures and then they fill in the missing parts with Spanish.  Reading the pictures really gives students an opportunity to practice speaking English.  During buddy reading I have also seen pairs of students look for sight words in the text of stories. Therefore, they practice recognizing and reading words in English.  It is also especially fun to watch them reread stories that have already been read in class as read alouds!
Oral Storytelling	Until this past Friday, I had never realized how much my students love oral storytelling.  At the end of the day on Friday another teacher came into our classroom and told a story orally to the students.  The story was in Spanish and was a variation of the tale of The Three Little Pigs.  As the first graders are a very active bunch, I did not think that they would sit through a story that was told orally.  However, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  The students absolutely LOVED listening to the story and were extremely engaged.  I could tell that their little minds were imagining pictures to accompany the story, as they would all react appropriately to the scary, happy, funny, and tense parts of the story.  I believe that oral story telling is important for students to engage in because it allows them to be creative and use their imaginations.  Before watching another teacher tell a story orally, I never would have thought to do it with younger students.  Now, however, I realize how beneficial and fun it is for students, and I plan to regularly incorporate it into my teaching in the future.

Some Books That My Students Have Really Liked

It has been so exciting for me to see my students love reading so much!  It has been even more fun for me to watch them grow in their English vocabulary through reading books.  I want to continue to help support and foster their love of reading in the days to come!