Our elementary CI expert, the one and only Alisa Shapiro-Rosenberg, asks the group:
Hope the thumb is healing.
Can I please get some group think here – what are the reasons to discourage the common practice of asking/requiring beginners in the WL to read aloud (individually)? I know someone who is looking into adding Vocaloo or one of those Apps to get his students to send in reading samples of a passage of the TL. I told him that this has nothing to do with comprehension, as most American’s who’ve ever had a Bar Mitzvah can attest. We can learn the sounds of the letters and how to pronounce the words and even demonstrate oral fluency in song no less! – saying the sounds correctly, emphasis on the right syllables – without ever knowing what the heck we are saying…
But my friend still thinks it’s important to see who is stumbling in the decoding. I told him that if they don’t have the sounds, meaning and look of the word in their head, then they need more input – you can see that in class – don’t waste time on this as a separate assessment – as it’s devoid of meaning…
But I’d love a more patient and point by point explanation of why it ain’t great. I didn’t find any research specifically on WL student read aloud…
Thx in advance!
Alisa