Paralinguistic

"of or having to do with factors connected with but not essentially part of language, such as tone of voice, tempo of speech, gestures, and facial expressions." (World Book Dictionary)

Whodathunk that all those little gestures and movements that I add as I read aloud to my students actually have a NAME and their own field of study (paralinguistics)?!?

Even more astounding is the fact that I had never considered the place of read-aloud in the whole scope of human literacy. If storytelling is at the beginning, and reading text silently in one's head is at what we think is the other end (but probably isn't), then read-aloud is a bridge between the completely oral/aural experience and the completely textual experience.

Hmm. Food for thought.

Thank you, St. Charles Parish, LA teachers for stretching MY thinking during our day together yesterday!