For many children, books come to life when adults read aloud. In Doc's blog she stated how excited that she was that her high-school-aged students loved it when she read to them. From the article, I gleaned that reading aloud is a powerful motivator because students are engaged. This provides the context for extended vocabulary enrichment. That is probably why Doc's students were so motivated; because she engaged them!
In my assessment of the article, read-alouds could become the way to bridge the gap from everyday language to book language. Read-alouds introduce formal language to students in an informal context that extends beyond everyday conversation language to novel language. This activity is widely accepted for the development of vocabulary for obvious reasons.
Repetition and practice help students to move to a more critical level of word knowledge. However, only high quality read-alouds and adult mediation will assist students in obtaining the highest level of vocabulary comprehension. This is mastered by questioning, discussion, and conversation about the text.
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