Overview of Read Alouds
Classrooms are a place where children learn through social interaction, they explore issues of personal and social identity and develop opportunities to unravel their bias. For this to happen, a classroom needs to be a safe space where students are respected and valued and their experiences are honored. One way to do this is through the use of read alouds A read aloud is an instructional practice where teachers read texts aloud to children. The reader incorporates variations in pitch, tone, pace, volume, pauses, eye contact, questions, and comments to produce a fluent and enjoyable delivery. Reading texts aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for successful reading (McCormick, 1977). Read alouds are well proven to be the most highly recommended activity for increasing language and literacy (Beck & McKeown, 2001). The purpose of this article is to promote and encourage choosing texts which promote critical thinking about who your students are, their world, and the world around us. Read alouds for the purposes of this article are picture storybooks. Picture storybooks have long discussed serious social justice issues contextualized within tangible, accessible stories: they speak to a range of ages, they are relatively easily accessible, and they get straight to the point, offering quick entry into a specific topic (Neumann, 2009). The read-aloud is an opportunity for teachers to use picture books in intentional ways. Read alouds should reflect classroom demographics and provide the time for discussions or reflective writing assignments can provide teachers with powerful information about their students’ dreams and worries as well as a conduit for teaching children empathy and tolerance. Read alouds become a channel of understanding among students. and can lead to rich conversations about issues of identity and to deeper dialogue about students’ own backgrounds and the experiences of others, providing the teacher a roadmap on what kind of read alouds to select.
Windows and Mirrors
When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part (Bishop, 1990). Using high-quality read alouds is one practice to teach tolerance, empathy, and an understanding of culture. We ask students to consider how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, religion, geography, language, age, family structure, and so forth work to make them who they are. The intersectionality of cultures helps to shape our identities, and can be done through windows and mirrors. Windows are something we can see the world through, and mirrors are something we can see ourselves. Sometimes books can be windows where we see a world new to us, normally distant and intangible. Sometimes books can be sliding doors where we can enter the world in our imagination and sometimes books are mirrors, we see ourselves in the book. Even in young classrooms, this creates a classroom environment that is inclusive and fosters equality.
Choosing read alouds must be intentional in order to honor culture, demystify the single story, disrupt cultural narratives and dismantle racism. Table 1 highlights what Bishop (1990b) suggests that when choosing books for windows, teachers consider the following: