A Case for Reading-Aloud in the High School

Web 2.0 seems to be everywhere, yet I am still searching for the best tools to enable me to make literature come alive in a high school English classroom. There is a multitude available, yet sometimes it is important to go back to how we were taught and use the tried and true methods of the past. Here is one case in point:




Recently while reading The Odyssey with my grade 9 students, I went back to the antiquated way of teaching literature. I read Book 5 aloud from start to finish. Although it is not particularly long, it took a little more than one 90 minute class period to get through less than 20 pages of text. At each reference to the Trojan War, we stopped, discussed the references and history being discussed, annotated the text and went on. Afterwards we searched for things such as the hero's journey, fate vs. destiny, respect for the gods, examples of hubris, and Homeric similes. And we dug and we dug and we questioned and searched for meaning. With pen in hand, I modeled how to annotate the text to enable them to take ownership of their learning. Not one piece of technology was used in my class for those two days. There were no bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, I believe my students know how to edit a passage really well and they can now transfer this skill to any novel they read for school when needed.

Since then I have used my SmartBoard to annotate a passage in front of my class, we have listened to passages on CDs and viewed scenes of various DVDs.  But sometimes it is just as important to remember the old way of doing things, as much as the new.  I am reminded of a fabulous book I read in undergraduate school by Jim Trelease titled The Read-Aloud Handbook. The power of the spoken word will never be outdated.  And honestly, reading aloud, no matter what the age of the intended audience, will never be replaced by a computer.