Reading Aloud

A neat piece from the NYTimes about reading aloud. Here's an especially relevant paragraph for our work:

But listening aloud, valuable as it is, isn’t the same as reading aloud. Both require a great deal of attention. Both are good ways to learn something important about the rhythms of language. But one of the most basic tests of comprehension is to ask someone to read aloud from a book. It reveals far more than whether the reader understands the words. It reveals how far into the words — and the pattern of the words — the reader really sees.

How do we read a student's paper? Is it just a half-mumbled reading, more to ourselves than the writer? Or is it a true measure of comprehension? An act of communication that shows us and the writer what is making sense and what isn't? I still think the act of reading a student's paper is a performance. It should be done so that we garner the most meaning we can from it. Read boldly and for purpose. Make sense of the text.