La Lectura-Case for Reading Aloud

"...the sounds of words are an important part of learning to read, but they're only a partEqually important are motivation and background knowledge (often enlarged by reading more) If you ask doctors, coaches, even probation officers about the importance of motivation for the people they're dealing with, they all will tell you it's crucial."

"Drill and skill don't motivate. What motivates fans to come back to baseball games are foverite players and favorite teams. Nobody has a favorite vowel or favorite blend. What motivates children and adults to read more is that (1) they like the experience a lot, (2) they like the subject matter a lot, and (3)they like and follow the lead of people who read a lot."

"Motivation is the kind of intangible that can be included in Einstein's observation: 'Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.'"

"Research has shown that repeated (at least three times) picture book readings increases the vocabulary acquisition by 15-40 percent, and the learning is relatively permanet."

I really enjoyed the history of the men who rolled cigars for a Cuban tobacco company hiring a person to read to them while they worked during the 1800's. "The best tobacco cam from Cuba (and the industry later moved to the Tampa area.)
The Rollers became Artisans in the delicate craft, produing hundreds of perfectly rolled specimens daily. Artistic as it might have been, it was still repetitious labor done in stifling factories. To break the monotony the workers had the Lectura read to them four hours a day.

The reader sat on a platform or podium in the middle of the room and read from local newspapers for an hour, SErialized novels the 2nd (classics like Cervantes, Hugo, and Dumas.), hour three was for political thinking and then the fourth was dedicated to Shakespeare or short stores.

One of their premium cigars was name the 'Montecristo' after The Count of Monte Cristo.

The daily reading added to the workers' intellect and general awareness while civilizing the atmospheree of the workplace. By teh 1930's the cigar sales slumped along with the Depression and the Lectura was bagged.

Protests happened but still eventually the readers were replaced by the radio like the radio has been replaced with the Walman and Ipod.

Jim Trelease continues that today many "high schools look like factories, so schools seem to me to be the perfect setting for reading aloud!"

He continues to talk about 'background knowledge' is one reason children who read the most bring the largest amount of information to the table and thus understand more of the what the teacher or the textbook is teaching . Children whose families take them to museums and zoos, wo visit historic sites, who travel abroad, or who camp in remote areas accumlate huge chunks of background knowledge without even studying." What about those kids who can't do those things?

"For the impoverished child lacking the travel portfolio of affluence, the best way to accumlate backgund knowledge is by either reading or being read to.