Every September, National Literacy Month is held to highlight the importance of being able to read and write. And it’s not just for children, but for all ages; however, it is undeniable that laying the building blocks for early literacy skills is essential to a child’s wellbeing, and to their academic and professional success.
To celebrate National Literacy Month, please enjoy this personal essay from Kayla Aldrich, Read to Them’s Marketing Copy and Grant Writing Specialist.
My first memory of being read to did not occur at home. Instead, the read took place on the story time carpet in my second grade classroom. Most vividly of all, I can still hear my teacher as she read from The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks by Nancy McArthur. It was a complete performance; sweeping gestures and theatrical pauses paired with voices that ebbed and flowed to maintain the book’s dramatics, shifting in cadence and octave to perfectly capture each character’s personality.
Though it was my first read aloud memory, it is far from my last. I found myself in classrooms that shared The Cricket in Time Square together and another that read (and wept) our way through The Outsiders, with more advanced selections like The Great Gatsby, 1984, and Frankenstein coming along to round out my English curriculum.
The through-line, no matter the grade level or the story? The experience of reading a book with an entire classroom and walking away with a shared language.
This is a timeless act, one that’s persisted from the oral storytelling traditions of old, and there are few things more beautiful than sharing a story together. It’s a communal experience, cracking open the pages to face the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together. The humor, the tragedy, and every emotion in-between. Even years removed, I can recall the look on an old friend’s face as a beloved character passed away in The Outsiders or the chorus of laughter from passing Shakespearian jokes back and forth across the lunch table. Even the shared confusion amid close readings, because surely blue curtains were just blue curtains, right?
(Wrong!)
My parents weren’t big readers. Truth be told, though I am approaching thirty years old, I can count on one hand how many books I’ve seen them read… and have many fingers still folded down. I was never lacking age-appropriate books, but I was lacking someone to read them to me. It’s why these shared moments in the classroom remain priceless. More so, with each passing year.
Unfortunately, many rising elementary school children are experiencing something similar. An estimated 39% of American 9-year-olds in 2022 reported that they read for fun almost every day, down from 53% in 2012, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In that same survey, just 14% of 13-year-olds surveyed reported reading for fun almost daily, down from 27% in 2012.
This means that, for many children, their first read aloud experience and their first shared reading will occur in the classroom. What you may think of as simple curriculum, however, has every opportunity to turn into a lifelong memory for the students in your care.
So I hope that the next time you share a book with your class, your voice rings out that much sillier. May you find something new to appreciate about the story – and may you take a moment to look around at the faces sitting criss-cross applesauce on your own story time rug, knowing one of them may look back on this moment with indescribable fondness, too.
Do you have any read aloud memories that have stuck with you? Share them with us in the comments – and happy reading!
