Read Aloud, Read Along
Many years ago we were helping to market and develop strategies for an exciting, full motion video, interactive reading product similar to but different from Craniun CoRE, we had the occasion to meet with a gentleman named Jim Trelease. He is a well known author and speaker about reading in general. His most well known book, “The Read Aloud Handbook” had a tremendous impact as Andy’s son, Drew, was in the womb. Andy read to Drew each day before he was born and after. To this day, Drew, is very good with language skills, due in no small part to Jim Trelease’s influence on him.
It was logical to seek out Jim Trelease when we were wrestling with a few ideas about this new product. Andy will never forget the day in 1997 when he was in his living room discussing reading and Jim forever changed the direction they were heading.
The premise that had been made with this new product was that a student would read a book cover to cover in order to play an exciting TV style game show with higher-level thinking questions. Jim Trelease liked the concept a lot, however, he had some a good thoughts to add.
He reasoned it was too unrealistic to expect a child to read a whole book to play the game, especially a child who was not a good reader and consequently did not like to read. He thought it would be much better to play a game after reading a section of the book, like a chapter at a time. His recommendation was to read aloud a chapter of a book to a class, have them read along or just listen and then play the game.
This technique had other another benefit. Since we know that a child can listen to text being read and comprehend about two years beyond their reading level, this reading along method evened the playing field a bit for the individuals within the classes. Reading along also helps when the time comes to go to the text to find your answer or defend it afterward.
As you are by now aware, this Cranium CoRE method is an open book format. The goal is to drive the students into the text to find their answers and prove them. Since many of the questions are high up on Bloom’s Taxonomy, this technique of reading along is very helpful to those who need some assistance with this process. Like anything else in life, this skill improves with practice. The more you do it, the better you get. Cranium CoRE provides a fun filled track on which to practice.