The nature of middle school read aloud : profiles of four teachers

The purpose of this study was to understand teacher read aloud at the middle school level from the perspective of the teacher. The central question was, "What is the nature of middle school teacher read aloud?" The intent of the study was to describe several dimensions of the read aloud process through a naturalistic research design. Participants were four female middle school reading and language arts teachers chosen through reputational networking. There were two sixth grade teachers, one seventh grade teacher, and one eighth grade teacher Data was gathered from the four teachers and their classrooms through the use of qualitative field notes, open ended interviews, and classroom artifacts over a period of five months. Field notes were collected in classrooms on a notebook computer. Interviews proceeded from exploration of the general phenomena to more focused questions and included an adaptation of a specialized interview, Enciso's Symbolic Representation Interview (1990). Artifacts included photocopies of open ended written responses on the phenomena of read aloud from 274 students. The final outcome of the study was a description of the nature of read aloud at the middle school level through a set of four case studies and a thematic analysis of data across cases. Themes included passion, the distinctiveness of each reading event, drama, transport and imagery. Passion included anticipation, sadness and laughter. The distinctiveness of each read aloud event was illustrative of transactional theory. Read alouds involved the dramatic phenomena of silence, the empty space, and the eye of the audience. Transport metaphors were used by students and teachers to describe positive aspects of teacher read aloud. Imagery was reported by students as a major positive aspect of teacher read aloud. Findings revealed that, for these teachers, middle school read aloud was rationalized and developed from teachers' histories of aesthetic experiences of reading aloud with students. Teachers wanted to "hook" students and provide engaging experiences with text. Students indicated engagement through observable responses, attentive silence and written metaphors of engagement. Middle school read aloud for these teachers was a reading transaction that included author, text, teacher-reader, and student- listener-reader. It was a social phenomena in the classroom that involved the distinctive use of signals and space as well as several aspects of drama. From these case studies and the analysis of data across cases a tentative model of the process of reading aloud for these teachers was derived.