Instituto Internacional: Inglés Americano para Jóvenes

Reading Aloud with Dr. Linda Gerena

On Wednesday, November 21st, Dr. Linda Gerena of City University of New York gave a free talk for parents and teachers here at the Institute. She demonstrated strategies for reading aloud to children at home and at school.  We had a mixed group of parents and teachers, who participated actively, asking lots of good questions.

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Here is a copy of Dr. Gerena’s  handout: Read aloud notes LG  The two links on the last page are for videos which demonstrate read aloud strategies. As for the other references, our Library has a copy of The Power of Reading by Stephen Krashen, a highly recommended text about the benefits of reading in any language. And Jim Trelease’s web page includes excerpts from his wonderful Read-Aloud Handbook, as well as articles and book recommendations for parents and teachers.

For further reading, here is another article about how teachers and parents can help young children become more aware of text and its meaning, and another about benefits of reading aloud to children.

And finally, an article by an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher about how she reads aloud with her students of different ages, and also allows them to read freely from books of their choice, despite being English Language Learners. Dr. Gerena referred to this strategy as SSR: Sustained Silent Reading or DEAR: Drop Everything And Read.

Please remember that reading aloud in any language is beneficial for children. Parents who want to foster bilingualism and biliteracy will also help their children greatly by reading to them and encouraging them to read in Spanish. Reading in any language strenghtens reading skills in both languages.

A wonderful bilingual resource for parents and teachers is Colorín Colorado. Here are some suggestions for parents when reading aloud. All materials on this site are available in English and in Spanish.

Happy Reading!