I agree that reading to children every day from birth until they enter kindergarten is important to expose them to more words and lessen the million-word gap, my friend read to her daughter almost every day since she was a baby, shes about to go into first grade and her word knowledge is amazing, so I have seen this work first hand! I think it’s great that you’re planning to incorporate read-aloud into your small groups and make the needed changes within them for the students.