Every day in thousands of classrooms, students are called upon to read out loud˳ Some teachers use round robin style, in which every students takes a turn reading a section˳ Other teachers use popcorn style, in which students call upon each other to read˳ For many teachers, these strategies are the primary means of working through a reading text with students˳
Teachers claim that having students read out loud is important fluency and decoding practice˳ Teachers argue that this strategy holds students accountable for reading along with the class, unlike silent reading˳ Reading out loud builds comprehension because listening comprehension is generally at a higher level than silent reading comprehension˳ It also helps the teacher formatively assess student pronunciation, attention to punctuation, and inflection˳ Student love to read out loud and much prefer hearing a story read out loud than having to read the story silently and independently˳ Having students read out loud is as American as apple pie˳
But, upon closer analysis, round robin and popcorn styles are not effective means of instruction˳ Instead, having students read out loud can actually be counterproductive˳
First of all, having one child read out loud at a time is not good fluency practice˳ Effective fluency practice is leveled according to the instructional level of the student˳ The Read Naturally® fluency program uses a Brief Oral Screener to assess the fluency level of each student˳ The class novel or textbook may or may not be at the instructional level for the majority of your students˳
Good fluency practice uses modeled selections˳ Students are not the best model readers in the class˳ Poor student readers reinforce poor reading skills such as inattention to punctuation, mispronunciation, and poor inflection˳ The more the teacher interrupts to correct student mistakes, the less fluency is practiced˳
Good fluency practice requires lots of read alouds, including repeated readings˳ In any given reading, an individual student may read once or twice for a grand total of, say, one minute˳ Hardly enough practice to improve fluency˳
Round robin and popcorn practice is poor decoding practice˳ Class novels and textbooks are not decodable texts˳ Real literature is filled with sight words˳ Additionally, students have different diagnostic decoding deficiencies˳ Correcting one student’s mispronunciation of the /ch/ in chorus may only address the needs of one or two students˳ And correction is not effective practice˳ Students need multiple examples, not isolated corrections, to improve decoding˳ Nor does correction improve syllabication skills˳
Having students read out loud decreases reading comprehension˳ Jumping from one student to the next interrupts the flow of the selection˳ Reading comprehension depends upon the connection of ideas˳ Imagine watching a twenty-two minute episode of The Office with thirty different five-second commercials interrupting the show˳ Comprehension would obviously decrease˳ In round robin, students frequently anticipate where they will begin and silently practice-thus losing comprehension˳
Not all students enjoy reading out loud˳ For some, this activity is the single most-feared classroom activity˳ Poor readers lose self-esteem when required to read out loud˳ Peers can be heartless and cruel˳ Too often, teachers use round robin or popcorn styles to “catch” students who are inattentive, which further disrupts fluency and comprehension and only serves to humiliate students˳
Instead of round robin and popcorn styles, why not use strategies that are appropriate to the teacher’s instructional objectives˳ For fluency development, use a differentiated fluency plan with diagnostically assessed leveled selections with teacher read alouds or CD modeled stories and repeated practice˳ Or at least use choral readings or echo readings to provide some modeling˳ For decoding practice, use phonics worksheets assigned according to the diagnostically assessed needs of students˳ For reading comprehension, use specific guided reading comprehension strategies with the best model reader, the teacher, as the coach˳ For formative reading assessment, protect the self-concept of the student and the accuracy of the assessment by reading one-on-one periodically˳
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