Reading Aloud

I seem to have come across a lot of articles lately on the importance of reading stories aloud. It has caused me to stop and try to figure out how I could fit this into our daily schedule more often. I have been a little disappointed in the book we picked for book club this month. It is too easy. Many of the kids finished it in one day. And I haven't really found the story compelling.....until I started to read it aloud. It has suddenly really come to life. There are lots of groans when the bell goes and we have to put it down for another day. We have been doing a lot of writing lately in preparation for the provincial achievement tests coming up. Yesterday, for the last period, since everyone had worked so hard all day, I let them vote in what we should do for last period: continue working on the fantastic stories they'd started, do some handwriting (cursive is very popular in our room!), or read our book.

They chose to read another chapter.

Who can argue with that?!