Richard Peck seems to be missing the point. He states that students are telling him over and over again that teachers are reading aloud his books. That is meant as a compliment, not a complaint!
I’m sure not one teacher who has chosen to read his book aloud, set out with the goal of teaching a list of vocabulary words. That part of his interview in Horn Book seems to be at direct odds with the stories themselves!
Endings aren’t “given away” by read alouds-they are shared by students with bated breath, hardly able to wait and see what unfolds.
With “limited classroom time”, reading aloud is the most valuable (and least expensive) of all teaching tools that every teacher has.
While I adore Richard Peck I agree with The Reading Zone, he is really off the mark.
