Teacher read aloud: exploring an educational tradition through a social practice framework
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Date
2014-01-14
Authors
Boyd, Karen
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Abstract
Teacher read aloud is perceived as a long-standing, common classroom practice. The purpose of this study was to examine this educational tradition in a framework of literacy as social practice that supports the ideas of apprenticeship, discourse communities, and specific contextual-discipline literacies. Using mixed-methods, data was gathered on three major components of teacher read aloud practice: (1) time spent on read aloud, (2) purpose and text choice of read aloud, (3) and practices that focused on developing literary understanding through read aloud. Through these components, the knowledge and beliefs of teachers regarding teacher read aloud, literacy and literary development, and children’s literature were examined. Data was gathered through an online survey, logbooks, and interviews. Statistical and deductive analysis of the data’s quantitative components was conducted; and interview and open-survey responses were qualitatively analyzed.
Analysis of the data on purpose and text choice suggests children’s literature is being read aloud in classrooms in ways that may conflate the literacy and literary development of students, and these ways may model particular types of values and behaviours when reading. Multiple purposes were identified for read alouds, with informative purposes being the most common. While the purpose of the read alouds was to inform, fiction texts were dominant with minimal non-fiction, or discipline-specific texts being used in the content areas. The use of fiction for informative purposes resulted in limited evidence that teacher read aloud was used to develop literary understandings. Teachers reported having limited resources for professional development and limited infrastructure to support effective read aloud.
Findings of this study can be used to inform us that teacher read aloud may be a common practice in terms of taking place in most classrooms; however, the time invested, both in frequency and duration, is limited, giving children minimal opportunities to apprentice into a reading community. Findings from this study also provide evidence that traditional practices can continue to be effective, but these practices should be renewed to support better the current and evolving understandings of literacy and literary exposure. Professional development and opportunities to reflect on practice could ameliorate this renewal for in-service and pre-service teachers.
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Keywords
read aloud, children's literature, reading, literacy, professional development