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Teacher read-alouds are planned oral readings of children's books. They are a vital part of literacy instruction in primary classrooms. Teachers can use readalouds to develop children's background knowledge, stimulate their interest in high-quality literature, increase their comprehension skills, and foster critical thinking. While reading, teachers model strategies that children can use during their own independent reading.
This article describes read-alouds that feature critical literacy literature. Critical literacy literature consists of high-quality children's books that prompt children to think and talk about social issues that impact their daily lives. The article includes a rationale for the importance of using children's lit- erature and read-alouds in primary classrooms; a description of critical literacy and the kinds of children's books appro- priate for critical literacy read-alouds; and an example of a critical literacy read-aloud in a first grade classroom by one of the authors.
Critical literacy read-alouds: Establishing the basics
Books play an important role in children's social and academic development. Reading high-quality books increases children's overall language competence, and the process of reading, listening, questioning, and responding to a story provides a foundation for reflective and critical thinking (Pressley 2006). Children emulate their teachers, and they are eager to read the books their teachers read (Cunningham 2005). Reading aloud from high-quality literature supports primary children's literacy development in multiple ways. Including the reading and discussion of critical literacy texts can add even more learning opportunities for young children.
Every read-aloud should include high-quality children's literature, but not every read-aloud has to feature a critical literacy text. In fact, texts are not critical in and of themselves; it is the conversations that take place around the texts that qualify as critical. Teachers initiate critical conversations through the questions they pose. Such conversations move beyond traditional who, what, when, and where questions to a deeper understanding that goes beyond the print on the page.
Before developing critical questions, a teacher must settle on a book for the read-aloud. Traditional children's books seldom address social issues of interest or importance to children, making the task of finding the right book a challenge. Harste (2000) believes that in order to have conversations about social issues, the books a teacher selects should meet one or more of the following criteria:
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