In whole language reading aloud is a vital, integral part of your program. Keep one going all the time. Read books like Bones on Black Spruce Mountain by David Budbill and then let the kids find other wilderness books to share. Try reading aloud one of the stories in Listen Children , edited by Dorothy Strickland or do the play in the book as reader's theater. Read aloud one of the awful scenes of racial violence in Roll of Thunder, Hear by Cry by Mildred Taylor and then watch the kids fight over who gets to read it next.
Books become the vehicle for much of the activity in a whole language classroom.
It isn't enough to tell the children that reading is wonderful. Elaborate bulletin boards and reading contests aren't enough either. In our current society children get many messages which say that reading and writing are unnecessary. Seldom do they see their role models reading or writing. If we really believe that reading and writing are exciting, vital parts of the human existence, we must show the children that it is so.