One Child.
One Mentor.
One Book at a Time.
Why Read Aloud with an At-Risk Child? QUIZ ANSWERS and TALKING POINTS
Based on The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (7th Edition, Penguin 2013)
1. By age 4, low-income children have heard __________
fewer words from their families than high-income children.
a. 10,000 fewer words
b. 1 million fewer words
c. 32 million fewer words
Figure calculated from a 1995 study comparing the number of words spoken to children in 42
families of different socio-economic levels over 2-1/2 years. Besides fewer spoken words,
families at lower socio-economic levels also tend to have fewer print materials in the home.
Important because a child’s vocabulary upon entering school is the prime predictor of school
success or failure:
Young children must hear a word repeatedly before it becomes part of their vocabulary.
The more words you hear, the more words you know.
The more words you know, the more you can understand in school.
Thus, a vocabulary deficit in a child entering school only widens over time relative to peers with
larger vocabularies, since they understand less of what they read or hear in a lesson.
2. The typical children’s book features an average of __________ rare words per thousand.
a. 7.3
b. 22.7
c. 30.9
Choice (a) 7.3 is the number of rare words per thousand in an adult-adult conversation.
Choice (b) 22.7 is the number of rare words per thousand in a prime-time TV show
Choice (c) 30.9 is the correct answer—compare with 52.7 in a book for adults
Hearing books read aloud introduces children to far more new words than conversation. And
hearing a new word in the context of a compelling story, read expressively, greatly increases
the chances that they will understand the meaning of the word and remember it.
(Additional context, if desired: Most conversation is simple, consisting of the 5,000 most
commonly used words known as the Basic Lexicon. Another 5,000 words are slightly less
common, making up the Common Lexicon of 10,000 words. The strength of our vocabulary,
and our ability to make sense of academic reading as we progress through school, depends
upon our knowledge of the so-called “rare words” beyond the Common Lexicon.)
3. Reading aloud to a child…
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Builds vocabulary
Supplies background knowledge
Creates an awareness of the rules of written language
Conditions a child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure
Provides a reading role model
Plants the desire to read
All of the above
Builds vocabulary
As already described, with the accompanying impact on achievement across the
curriculum and through the years—but there are so many other benefits of reading
aloud to an at-risk child!
Supplies background knowledge
Background knowledge allows a child to understand more of what a teacher or textbook
is teaching. For an impoverished child, whose parents are unable to take them to
museums, zoos, historic sites, or travel to other places, the best way to accumulate
background knowledge is either by reading or being read to.
Awareness of rules of written language
Written language is far more structured than conversational language. The best way to
learn grammar is to hear it used correctly. Hearing books read aloud sets the stage for
later success in writing.
Conditioning the brain to associate reading with pleasure
Learning to read is hard work! It can be tedious or boring, even threatening. If a child
seldom experiences the pleasures of reading but increasingly experiences displeasure,
then they quite naturally will try to avoid reading.
Provides a reading role model
You really are a mentor in this role—a reading mentor, modeling what it looks like to be
an adult who reads and enjoys reading. Many of these children may not have any other
adults who love to read in their lives. Your interest in the child as an individual, and the
friendship that develops as you share conversations about the books you read, will turn
you into a “super-hero” in their eyes whose behavior they will want to emulate.
Plants the desire to read
Student “engagement” and “motivation” are hot topics in reading research these days.
Students from lower-income families tend to have lower reading scores than students
from higher-income families, but when they are highly motivated to read they score
better than less engaged students from more advantaged homes. Those who read the
most read the best, regardless of income level. Fostering motivation to read is now
understood to be a critical factor in elevating at-risk readers.