10 Benefits of the Interactive Read Aloud

Ah, the interactive read aloud.  It’s often one of the things we all remember most about our own elementary school days.  And they overflow with teaching possibilities.  In her book Read Alouds for All Learners (2024), Molly Ness shares many compelling reasons for making time for this important instructional practice.  For example, she cites research that read alouds “improve longitudinal academic achievement,” “promote foundational literacy skills,” and “develop students’ identities as readers.”   Yet, it tends to be one of the most minimized parts of the teaching day. Even worse, the read aloud is often skipped altogether.  But that’s a massive mistake.  Here are 10 benefits of the interactive read aloud–crucial things that get neglected if we brush it aside.

1) Background Knowledge

This is more than just a buzzword.  Background knowledge is the foundation for new learning to take hold.  In their book Shifting the Balance 3-5 (2024), Burkins, and Egan Cunningham, and Yaris point out the decades of research which has shown that “the ability to read and comprehend a text is highly correlated with what we know about the topic already. ” Basically, as Dr. Suess told us, “the more you read, the more you know.”

If you also intentionally connect your read alouds with your content studies, you will set your students up for big success in understanding those concepts.  And if you also put together a small text set of the same topic, the power is multiplied that much more.

2) Vocabulary

Tightly connected to background knowledge is vocabulary.  Read alouds chock full of interesting words, for sure.  Burkins, Egan Cunningham, and Yaris share research that points out that 30.9 per 1,000 words are considered “rare words” in the average picture book, while a college grad’s conversation with friends includes only 17.3 per thousand words are “rare.” Adult books average 52.7 per thousand.  So clearly, read alouds offer an exceptional opportunity for rich vocabulary instruction.

3) Identity and World Knowledge

Bishop’s classic paper, Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors (1990) reminds us that books have the potential to “help us understand each other better by helping us change our attitudes towards difference.” We see ourselves reflected in books and we gain insight into other people’s worlds through books.  We learn so much about our world and other cultures through stories.  In this way, we can come to understand others’ perspectives, so we develop understanding and empathy.  This is needed today more than ever, wouldn’t you say?

Social emotional topics are rampant in read alouds.  I swear there is no better way to teach about what it means to be a good person than through books.  The conversations teachers build into the reading, combined with the story itself, build a sense of empathy like nothing else.  Besides the opportunity to learn about other people and other cultures, we learn a whole lot about being human.  A book like Big (Harrison, 2023) or The Invisible Boy (Ludwig and Barton, 2013) or The Junkyard Wonders (Polacco, 2010) will teach incredibly powerful lessons around empathy.  

When we read a variety of books, we open kids’ eyes to a variety of styles and genres, too.  Kids may never realize that nonfiction can be hilarious, like in So You Want to Be an Owl (Porter and Frost, 2021).  Or that seemingly boring topics like the Statue of Liberty are  absolutely fascinating, as in Her Right Foot (Eggers and Harris, 2017).  Or that poetry can teach you a whole lot about different perspectives, as in Mirror, Mirror:  A Book of Reverso Poems (Singer, 2010).

4) Comprehension

Interactive read alouds are the perfect vehicle for promoting high levels of thinking.  In This is Balanced Literacy (2020), Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan share that interactive read alouds are “notable for the teacher’s use of questioning to engage students in learning.” All levels of questions can be planted throughout a read aloud.  

We don’t just ask questions in an interactive read aloud,  We also determine where we can uncover their own thinking as readers, too, and point that out.  This could genuinely be where you really did have to think as a reader, and it could also be where you can teach something you know your students need or are ready for.  You might, for example, in a book like Fly Away Home, say something like “I’m noticing the author keeps mentioning this bird that’s stuck inside the building, which seems like it has nothing to do with the characters and their story.  But authors don’t do anything by accident, so I need to think about what this bird that’s stuck inside the airport has to do with the story…” and then go on to explain symbolism.  

When we read aloud from a variety of genres, especially when we connect our read alouds to the content we’re also teaching, comprehension skyrockets.  In Teaching Reading Across the Day (2024), Jennifer Serravallo cites research that “found that first graders who listened to expository and informational texts scored significantly higher on comprehension tests.” I promise, this finding is not limited to first grade.  

5) Conversation

If we want kids to use their growing vocabularies, and we want them to write more strongly, then they have to have practice in conversation. Believe it or not, there’s even research to support the need for more classroom conversation.  Sedova et. al (2019) found that student achievement increased in classrooms where academic conversations happened more, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Because of the teacher’s intentional planning, read alouds offer opportunities for students to converse.  These can be done in partnerships, triads (super supportive for multi language learners), small groups, or the whole class, as in Socratic Seminars.

6) Access

The read aloud allows everyone to access the text since the teacher is the reader.  Through the carefully planned questioning and conversation throughout the book, kids are highly supported with comprehending it.  Questions are differentiated too, in that we might ask some more literal-level questions and some high-level questions.  The conversation is especially important here, because as students uncover their thinking, others will grow theirs…and it keeps growing as they talk.

7) Fluency

The teacher does all the reading in an interactive read aloud, making it a fantastic way to model fluent reading.  But we can’t stop there, of course.  We have to point it out, so that we teach kids how to sound fluent.  You might read something a little bit “wrong,” so that it doesn’t sound quite right, then point out what you will fix and why it needs fixing.  Or you might come across a highly complex sentence that you can show kids how to tackle, or explain how to read dialogue tags in a more fluent way. 

There are many, many examples of opportunities for teaching fluency in any read aloud.  Just remember that any teaching of this needs to be quick so the flow of the book isn’t interrupted.  Often a better idea is to come back to a certain part in a later lesson, project it onto a screen, and explicitly teach it that way, like a shared reading lesson.

8) Sentence Structure

Teaching fluency goes hand in hand with teaching syntax.  Complex sentences can often stymie student readers, so when we lift those sentences from the book and explicitly unpack it for students to show them how to read them, we simultaneously show them how that sentence is structured and why.  Using real book examples of complex sentences in this way is far more meaningful for students than any isolated, TPT-esque practice will ever be–especially when we ask kids to try it out in their own writing.  

I just want to remind here that the read alouds you use don’t always have to be a picture book or novel, either–and it certainly doesn’t need to always be fiction. There should be a mix.  If we’re being intentional about bridging ELA and content studies, especially, then you might read aloud an article from a science or social studies concept you’re studying.  Sentence structure in these kinds of texts can be complex, so showing your students how to read these kinds of sentences can go a long way.

9) Writing

Read alouds are one of the greatest sources for teaching writing (besides your own modeled writing, that is). Using your read alouds as mentor texts for writing is incredibly powerful.  After all, as Matt Glover so simply puts it in his book Craft and Process Studies (2020), “One way to learn how to do anything is to study how skilled people do whatever you are trying to learn.”

Graham et. al, in their What Works Clearinghouse publication Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers (2012), echo Glover, saying that the read aloud allows teachers to home in on  “the author’s word choice, overall structure, or other style elements, based on the instructional goals of the lesson.”  When we then explicitly explain how that element works and then ask kids to try that thing out in their own writing,  “students will then be prepared to emulate characteristics of exemplary texts at the word, sentence, and/or text level.”  Seeing how something works in a real text that they’ve also experienced together as a class brings these craft elements to life like nothing else.

10) Community

Maria Walther says it best in her book The Ramped Up Read Aloud (2019) when she says “a cohesive classroom is one off the natural by-products of the read aloud experience…when a group of people laugh, cry, and wonder together their relationships grow stronger.”  This is exactly why, as adults, the read aloud remains such a memorable classroom experience from our own childhoods.  It’s never that time we learned about the hypotenuse of a triangle or when we completed 20 “fix the grammar” sentences.  The read aloud is truly an experience.  

The benefits of the interactive read aloud cannot be overstated.

I have always said that literally everything you want to teach about reading and writing can be taught through the interactive read aloud.  But they are so much more than that.  From building a reading identity to strengthening a classroom community to yes, teaching sentence structure and vocabulary and everything in between, the interactive read aloud is arguably the most powerful teaching tool we have.  And  they are right at our fingertips, already in our classroom, school, or public libraries.  Powerful teaching doesn’t cost a dime.  

We cannot neglect it or shove it aside, only to hastily fit it in “when we can.”  We have to very intentionally make time for these books, choose them wisely, and celebrate them.  If we don’t, we rob our kids of so much learning!

Want a list of incredible books for interactive read aloud?  I’ve pulled together a list 20 amazing books that aren’t so commonly used and provide a ton of ideas for things you can teach with them.  Grab it here!

And for 1:1 support with your unique literacy goals,  reach out for a coaching call!  I’d absolutely love to help you make this year your best year yet!

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls! The first 30 minute call is always free!

Or, consider joining my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment (really!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!