Why you Should Read Aloud to your Students at Any Age
Educators have a direct impact on how students approach reading. Here are 5 ways to keep them on their toes and want to keep reading on their own.
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05/29/2025
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“Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.” W.B. Yeates
I want to ignite my students’ love of reading. Moreover, I want to set them up for success, and thus my goal every year is to create a classroom of readers. But first, they need buy-in. So, I saturate them daily with the why.
Here are two biggies:
My students can’t dispute these statistics, so I argue that they should start reading more and more books. I can influence them through daily reading aloud. I’ve witnessed the power of reading aloud to my own child and it is no different in my classroom. The serendipity of reading aloud is in the accomplishment of satisfying the Common Core standards such as, “Children’s listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension until the middle school years” (CCSS, Appendix A, p. 27). For older students, when reading aloud is coupled with conversations, we satisfy the standard stating, “Children benefit from structured conversations with an adult in response to written texts” (CCSS, Appendix A, p. 27).
Regardless of the age of the students, reading out loud to them will have an immense impact on not only their own ability to read well but also on their love of reading. Jim Trelease agrees when he says, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”
The power of reading aloud has countless benefits. It not only helps students fall in love with the process of reading, but it also opens up discussions and builds community. This little practice of daily read-alouds has ignited my classroom into literacy-loving environment.
To learn more about Grand Canyon University’s College of Education and how it can help you impact the lives of students, visit our website or click the Request More Information button on this page.
References:
http://policeabc.ca/why-target-crime-with-literacy.html
More about Dr. Knight:
Dr. Stephanie Knight is an experienced 7th and 8th grade English language arts educator. She taught in Title One schools for eight years—helping them grow from underperforming to excelling—and then in an independent school for four years. Knight is now is part of Grand Canyon University’s adjunct faculty where she teaches graduate level education and reading courses.
