Using Read-Alouds to Build a Bridge to Better Reading and Comprehension

Studies show that children who have rich and varied experiences with vocabulary instruction have stronger reading comprehension. (Hart & Risley, 1995) found that some children entered school with thousands of hours of language experiences, while other children, were not exposed to this volume of words. Thus, by the end of second grade, there was a 4,000-word gap between the two groups of children, and that comprehension was adversely affected in the group of students with limited language experiences.

Reading comprehension is an intricate process in which the reader, accurately and with automaticity, identifies words in the text.   
The reader then connects these words to prior knowledge, forming new ideas and retaining this information in a manner that results in understanding what is being read.

 Understanding key vocabulary is an anchor that helps the reader understand the passage.  Vocabulary knowledge helps the reader think more logically and precisely about what is being read. Knowing vocabulary helps the reader link ideas presented in the text to existing knowledge.

In this course, we will use the book "Ramona, the Pest," by Beverly Cleary, as a read-aloud in order to link vocabulary, comprehension strategies, and grammar usage.  Using the I Do/We Do/You Do approach, we will study the following strategies and skills. 

Pre-teaching vocabulary-introducing new words in the story.
Explicit and intentional vocabulary instruction-explaining the meaning of the word in plain language.
Grammar- learning about nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Reading for purpose-what goals will be accomplished?