Transitioning from learning to read, to reading to learn in elementary school
Although students do transition from learning to read to reading to learn in elementary school, it is not until the end of middle school that students’ reading comprehension is as strong as their listening comprehension. Even as students become strong readers and writers, there is a benefit to hearing and discussing complex texts that the teacher reads aloud. Complex literacy and informational texts provide students the varied exposure necessary to build their vocabulary.
Read-Alouds of carefully sequenced texts provide a powerful tool to build young students' vocabulary by ensuring multiple experiences with new words and the ideas they represent. These Read-Alouds are more sophisticated than what younger students can read on their own, so the teacher facilitates classroom discussions that encourage students to use the words they are learning. By hearing complex texts on a coherent and systematically ordered set of topics, students begin connecting words to each other and to words they already know, forming a web of words that they will continue to construct throughout their lives. These words, and their connections, become students' mental encyclopedia, allowing them to access continually, and ever more easily, the knowledge they need to understand what they read.