The following post reviews Michael Linsin’s Blog, Smart Classroom Management, which can be found here:
https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2018/03/24/read-aloud-behavior/
The most recent entry by Linsin is entitled “How Read-Aloud Can Improve Behavior And Instill A Lifelong Love Of Reading.” It focuses on the joy of reading out loud. There is a purity to be found in reciting book passages that defies instruction. So many times, compelling and soul-moving lines are degraded by the mundane and irreverent tasks of analyzing author’s intent and noting textual evidence for upcoming questions. Linsin provides four tips for maintaining some degree of pure reading in the classroom, for the sake of nurturing a simple love of reading, from which greater academic appreciation surely flows:
1. Don’t Stop – Linsin instructs us to not break up the enchantment of the reading with discussion breaks or vocabulary clarification, etc..
2. Don’t Teach – Our author doesn’t want us using our finest pieces of art for teaching concepts. Use lesser texts for that cause (I don’t know that I can get behind him on that specific point.) At the very least, Linsin doesn’t want the text dissected until after it has been read straight through.
3. Don’t Make Them Sit – Listener comfort helps fuel the imagination.
4. Don’t Make Them Share – Required pair-shares can become a dreary going through the motions that can interrupt a natural reverie.
5. Don’t Skip – Linsin wants teacher to get into character and read the work in its entirety (the write wrote it the way they intended it.) This point I am perhaps the most uncertain of, because I am constantly chopping up stories and novels.
I appreciate what Linsin has to say about maintaining the purity of reading. I would love for reading skills to naturally and most effectively emerge from a simple reading-for-the-sake-of-reading. However, I am skeptical of stripping a deep reading of any analysis. It seems to me that what is most important is maintaining a balance… sometimes one should break done the minutia of the text, other times it should be simply delivered as written.
Until Next Time,
J. Frederick
jakeisdeeplyamused 