Reading Aloud-- A Great Way to Improve Language!

 

Jim Trelease has written a great book called The Read-Aloud Handbook.  He published the seventh edition in 2013, and an eighth edition titled Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook was published in 2019.  In the seventh edition, Jim Trelease tells the story of a boy from Russell, Kentucky, a town with a population of 3645, who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT.  People wanted to know what prep course he had taken.  The prep course consisted of the parents reading to their children for 30 minutes a night, event after their sons had learned to read.  This reading aloud experience translated into a love of books, and the home was full of books.  

Jim Trelease also talks about an admissions director from Amherst College who says he's never met a student with a high verbal SAT score who wasn't a passionate reader, and nearly all of those students recall being read to.  

Jim Trelease points to these numbers:  Children spend 900 hours a year in school and 7800 hours a year outside of school.  Hey says that since extending the school day would be prohibitively costly, it makes the most sense to tap into the 7800 hours at home for more reading experiences.