This is Your Brain on Shakespeare is a pretty interesting short article on a research a professor did on what listening to Shakespeare did to people’s brain. He found that it can “shift mental pathways and open possibilities” for what the brain can do.

I think the research reinforces the importance of Read Alouds in general. I’ve learned from Kelly Young from Pebble Creek Labs how valuable a carefully selected short passage (that is well-read by the teacher) can have on students. By including a few words that might be new to them and by showing writing styles that they might be seeing for the first time, I could see how good Read Alouds can have an unusual affect on the listener’s brain. You can read Kelly’s description of the Read Aloud instructional strategy here.