What Is Popcorn Reading? (And The Best Alternatives To Use!)

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“You cannot open a book without learning something.”

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Popcorn reading (also known as ‘round robin reading’) has been a classroom staple for the past two centuries. Chances are you reading this article right now were taught through it during your school days. Yet, over the past few years more and more commentators have voiced concerns that it might not be as effective at improving comprehension, enhancing fluency and promoting word decoding; and could be detrimental to young readers in the long run. So join us today at What We Reading as we break down what popcorn reading means, the major problems with it as a strategy, and some great alternatives parents, teachers and others can begin using! 

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What Is Popcorn Reading? 

First off, what do we mean by the term ‘popcorn reading’? Popcorn reading is a teaching method where students take turns reading from a book. The benefits of round-robin reading were thought to be the following: 

• It guarantees a means of getting through reading material in class. If everyone in a class is reading along simultaneously, in theory, no one is getting ahead or falling behind. 
• It promotes listening and reading skills. Young readers need to be able to listen to their classmates to see where they are up to in the book, and confidently read aloud when it is their turn. 
• Finally, it is a means of keeping a classroom settled (any teacher will tell you how hard that can be!)

The Problems With Popcorn Reading

You don’t get very far into the popcorn reading debate before running into all the problems with the practice, many of which debunk the ‘pros’ above wholeheartedly. 

As Cecile Somme claims in Popcorn Reading: The Need To Encourage Reflective Practice: ‘Popcorn reading is one of the sure-fire ways to get kids who are already hesitant about reading to hate reading’. 

But, why all the criticism? Condensed down, the major problems with popcorn reading are: 

• Weakens comprehension: Listening to other people read too quickly or too slowly weakens a learner’s comprehension. This is only heightened by turn-taking interruptions.
• Hinders fluency and pronunciation: Less-developed readers demonstrate poorer fluency skills and pronunciation. Corrections made by others have been shown to compromise fluency even further. 
• Making readers uncomfortable: Making non-native English speakers or lower-level learners read aloud can be one of the most daunting and anxiety-inducing tasks. A reader’s confidence is far more likely to be knocked back rather than heightened here. 

To confirm, reading aloud does improve a young learner’s fluency, comprehension and word recognition. With that being said, it’s something that should be encouraged less and less as they develop, being replaced by silent and independent reading time. 

Alternatives To Popcorn Reading 

So now you have a better understanding of the issues of popcorn reading and other forms of round-robin reading, what are some of the best alternatives on offer? Whilst there are plenty of engaging exercises available, here are some of our favourites: 

• Echo reading: This method is where a teacher reads a short part of text and students read it back to them. This can be done either one-on-one or by an entire class. Echo reading is effective for developing fluency as it demonstrates what a proficient reader sounds like, rather than forcing a learner to work it out on their own. 
• PALS: Peer-assisted learning Strategies are exercises where stronger readers are paired with weaker readers. The two take turns reading, re-reading and retelling. 
• Partner reading: Two-person teams take turns reading aloud, switching when there is a new paragraph. Alternatively, they can read aloud each section at the same time. 
• Independent silent reading: With the right frameworks and scaffolding such as anticipation guides and guided notes, independent reading is one of the most effective means of having students become fully solo readers. 
• Teacher read-aloud: Because a teacher is an expert reader, hearing them read aloud has so many benefits for developing learners. Hearing the text read correctly and smoothly allows them to build an understanding without interruptions and allows them to hear what proficiency should sound like, rather than picking up on mistakes and less-skilled reading. 

Wrap Up 

Hopefully, this article has demonstrated how popcorn reading and other ‘traditional’ methods of round-robin reading can be detrimental to a learner’s fluency, comprehension, confidence and, ultimately, enjoyment of reading. 

By incorporating some of the methods we listed above, you can ensure students have a better understanding of what skilled proficiency sounds like aloud, and begin making connections between words on the page and the expressions they evoke!