I was intrigued by the discussion of oral reading. I read beautifully in German (or so my mother says) but I don't understand what I'm reading. I know the rules of pronunciation and use my skills from English to read ahead enough to maintain "fluency." Heck, I even recognize enough words quickly enough to not be entirely without inflection. But I have no comprehension, I do not read German for fun. (My spanish is in a similar situation.)
Now I have had students read aloud many times, and it can be incredibly painful. I'm not even thinking of the ESL students...a very large number of NSs cannot read aloud with fluency, I'm very sad for their future children. Throwing out all issues of comprehension and nerves...I can see using oral reading to give me an idea as to how a student is reading. How quickly can I expect them to read something I've assigned. It isn't perfect, but a general guideline. I believe I need to use this more in my classroom, because the more you do it, the less the nerves interfere...I just need to learn to let go of my need to read aloud to them.
2 comments:
That is the tough part - letting go of wanting to read aloud.
I remember teachers reading aloud to our class all the way to the
5th grade.
It made us pay attention in those last minutes before the end of class - and it made us want to finish our work quickly - so there would be time for the teacher to read to us.
I used to read books in Spanish to a little boy when I worked for Head Start. I had no clue what I was saying, but he enjoyed it.
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