The same logic applies to chapter books, even if audiobooks are commercially available. To answer the second question, you have to ask whether the reading would interfere materially with the sale of physical or electronic copies. The point is not whether the book in question originally was intended to be read aloud, but whether this reading takes on new significance in the class, which it typically does. What, if any, is the harm to the core market for the original book or resource?įor example, reading a popular picture book aloud to a class of pre-readers can be a transformative activity if it supports a specific lesson or is designed to reinforce group identity.What is the new educational purpose for which teachers and students are reading this material to each other?.Where reading aloud is concerned, these factors can be condensed into two questions: In the U.S., fair use law takes into consideration the purpose of the use, the nature of the underlying work, the amount used, and the effect on the market for the original work. This means that when teachers reading aloud online, using tools like school websites, learning management systems or live webcasts, fair use enables most of the same practices that take place in person. In short, fair use is a limit on copyright law that allows anyone to use a copyrighted work for a “transformative” purpose that doesn’t harm the core market for the original (meaning you can’t compete with the publishers’ efforts to sell books). What Is Fair Use?įair use is a provision of copyright law that allows many reading aloud activities to be translated from the classroom to online learning. As instructors and learners adapt to new educational environments, copyright concerns about reading aloud need not be among the challenges they face.

While many well-intentioned commentators have warned teachers against this practice, the fact is that copyright law-specifically fair use-permits many read-aloud activities online. A second question has been given almost equal importance: Is reading a book to students online even legal? And teachers across the country reenact the scene daily-or did until a few weeks ago.Īs schools, teachers and families face the shock of abruptly shifting to online education, one small question has been how to shift these read alouds to Zoom, Facebook, Google Hangouts and YouTube, the spaces where many classes continue to meet. Indeed, presidents and sports stars choose exactly this photo op when visiting schools. The first image many people have of school is a circle of small children, sitting cross-legged, paying attention (or not) to an adult reading a book aloud and showing pictures to the class.

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