Dos and Don'ts of Read Aloud

In chapter 4 of Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook, he lists several tips for helping to make your read alouds meaningful and successful.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Do

• Listening is an acquired skill and won’t happen overnight. You might start with a shorter read aloud time and build the time up.

• Vary the length and types of text read aloud. Picture books work just as well as chapter books.
• Always read the title and author, even if you have read the book a hundred times! Kids should learn the names of the people who write the books they read.  Talk about the cover illustration and what the book might be about.
• Follow through.  If you start a book, it is your job to make time to finish in a timely manner (unless of course the book turns out to be a bad book.) I have abandoned books before with my children, always with a discussion of why.
• If there is more than a two year age difference between your children, consider separate read alouds. This can be tricky but reaps many benefits.
• Remember that everyone  enjoys a good picture book. With the Holiday season here, there are many amazing picture books about the spirit of giving.
• Allow time for discussion after finishing a story-thoughts, hopes, fears, and discoveries.  Do not turn discussions into quizzes. Remember, how does a book leave you feeling? What’s your take away?
• The most common mistake in reading aloud is reading too fast.  Read slowly enough for the child to build mental pictures of what they have heard you read.  Slow down enough for the children to see the pictures in the book without feeling hurried.
• Reluctant readers or very active children often find it difficult to just sit and listen.  Paper, crayons, and pencils allow them to keep their hands busy while listening...you doodle while talking on the phone, don’t you? Even in school, there are times we have allowed children to sketch while reading aloud.
• Fathers should make an extra effort to read to their children.  Because the majority of primary school teachers are women, young boys often associate reading with women and schoolwork.  Boys more often associate their dad’s with being more likely to play catch out in the yard than taking them to the library.  A father’s early involvement with books and reading can do much to elevate books to at least the same status as sports in a boy’s estimation.

Don’t

• Don’t be afraid to abandon a book once it is obvious it is a poor choice. Just make sure you have given the book a fair chance. Some books start slow but get better as they go.
• Don’t overwhelm your listener.  Consider the intellectual, social, and emotional level of your audience when making a book selection.  Never read above a child’s emotional level. Kids internalize more than they let us know.
• Don’t start reading if you are not going to have time to do it justice. You should be able to finish a picture book or at least a chapter.
• Don’t impose interpretations of a story upon your audience.  A story can be just plain enjoyable, no reason necessary, and still give you plenty to talk about.  The highest literacy gains occur when children ave access to discussions following a story. We have found asking, “Should the character have ____________?” while  keeping a neutral face to be very powerful.  For younger kids, we have stopped and said, “Tell (the character) what to do right now!”
• Don’t confuse quantity with quality.  Reading to your child for ten minutes, with your full attention and enthusiasm, may very well last longer in a child’s mind than two hours of television viewing.
• Don’t use the book as a threat (“If you don’t pick up your room, no story tonight!”)  As soon as children see that you’ve turned the book into a weapon, they’ll change their attitude about books from positive to negative. Some books can even be shared to start a conversation about a problem a child is having at home or school.

We hope that this list gives you more ideas and inspiration to either start or improve upon your read alouds at home.

Tracey Carbone and Jessica Carey

Literacy Teachers at KingsHighway School

Thoughts to Ponder and Discuss

Do you have any additional tips for making read aloud work?

Do you have any stories about things you have tried, that haven’t worked so well?

Did anything on this list surprise you or make you want to learn more?

What might you try?

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Stages of Read Aloud

Both Jessica and I started reading aloud to our children in their days as infants. It seems most parents know the benefit of reading aloud to small children. This is a natural practice that is rarely questioned. However, the tradition often fades as children grow older. Maybe it is because as children grow, their lives get busier or as parents, we think, they read on their own and they don’t want me to read to them. Maybe we think, they are already reading above grade level, so what good would it do? Across all ages, read aloud improves vocabulary, grammar, spelling and writing. As literacy teachers, we have seen the most proof in the area of writing. We have read many writing samples this school year and it is apparent that the students who read more, write better. They incorporate the writing crafts they have encountered in the books they have read and heard.

Although it is easier to begin to read aloud when children are younger, it is important to remember that children are never too old to start being read to. You might start engaging older children by sharing an excerpt or passage from a book you’re reading, or sharing a short article together. In chapter two of The Read Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease points out that the older the child, the more complicated the books become.  “According to experts, it is a reasonable assertion that reading and listening skills begin to converge at about eighth grade.”  Up until this point, kids can usually listen on a higher level than they could ever read and understand on their own.  For example, first graders can listen to books written at a fourth grade level and fifth graders can listen to texts written on a seventh grade level...as long as it is socially appropriate.  

When children are younger it is easier to find a suitable book that they can enjoy together with you. As children get older, this can be challenging. I see this in my home. My fifth grade daughter is reading at a higher, more socially mature level than my third grade daughter. My first grade son has very different interests than his two sisters. Trelease recommends children be read to individually, especially if there is more than a three year difference in their ages. I’ve been trying this. Although it has been a challenge, I can see the value in this practice. Each of my children is listening to a book that they are invested in and look forward to their own read aloud time with me or my husband. We may not always have individual read alouds but it is a nice “once in awhile” routine.

Trelease reminds us that readers need to build endurance similarly to runners.  We need to start slowly and build up gradually.  Short picture books are a great place to start, followed by longer picture books that might span across a few days.  For instance, Jessica’s first books read to her infant daughter were wordless stories.  Now at 14 months, they have progressed to rereading  familiar texts each night, such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Next, shorter novels, broken into chapters naturally lead to full length novels.  Currently, my first grader is engaged in connecting to a first grade classroom world in the Roscoe Riley by Katherine Applegate, my third grader is enjoying the vocabulary and language in Stuart Little by E.B. White and my fifth grader is thinking a lot about the social issues in Fire Girl by Ralph Fletcher. This transition from short to long should be done gradually over a variety of different books.  We want to naturally build a child’s attention span to require fewer illustrations in relationship to the number of words on a page. That being said, a child is never too old to listen to a picture book.  A good story is a good story with or without pictures. In between our chapter book read alouds, we often have days where we all enjoy a picture book as a family.

Our hope is that through our family read aloud traditions, we will instill a lifelong love of reading in our children. Someday, when they have their own families, our read alouds will be remembered fondly and a new tradition will be born.   

Tracey Carbone and Jessica Carey

Literacy Teachers at Kings Highway School

Thoughts to Ponder and Discuss

Our hope is to build a sense of community through this blog and the comments section.  If this post has left you thinking or wondering, please consider adding a comment.  

What makes read aloud challenging for your family?

Have you started a read aloud since reading our last post?  How’s it going?

What are questions you still have about read aloud?

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Why Read Aloud?

For the last year, elementary school teachers in Westport have been studying read aloud and the positive impact it can have on students.  We have used both chapter books and picture books for this purpose. We have talked about the good places in our reading to stop and think.  This means not stopping to quiz but pausing to discuss, and to apply good comprehension strategies like questioning, visualizing, inferring and connecting. Most importantly, we have asked kids to think about how a book leaves them feeling.  What’s their take away?

Ginny Lockwood, a staff developer and former member of the Columbia Reading and Writing project, always reminds us, “Every person has to have some take away from their reading.” Reading shifts our opinions, strengthens our convictions and lets us live in more involved and more aware ways. Every reader should finish a text with a personal take away. This may not happen naturally for every child. As adult readers, we need to model this. We can do this by choosing high quality texts, reading them aloud, and stopping to discuss with our kids.  We do this frequently in the classroom. But is this enough? Research shows that this work cannot begin and end during school time.  Volume matters and kids need to spend time reading at home. Yes, they can read independently, but why not consider reading aloud too? We know from our own experiences that life is busy and making this happen can be challenging, but we are convinced that the benefits are well worth the effort.

In chapter 1 of The Read Aloud Handbook, Trelease explains that we read to children for all of the same reasons we talk to them: “to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity, and to inspire.”  But the work is also so much greater.  When we read to children, we begin to:

• condition a child’s mind to make a link between reading with pleasure;
• create background knowledge;
• build vocabulary;
• provide a reading role model.

It is very natural for parents to read aloud to their children when they are young. We all know the value of read aloud in preparing students for school and exposing them to the world of reading. However, sometimes, this practice dwindles as children get older. It is important to remember that at every stage of elementary school there are opportunities to continue to strengthen the above mentioned four areas, especially since we can always read aloud to children at a higher level than they can read and comprehend on their own.

Trelease goes on to define two basic “reading facts of life”.

Reading Fact 1: Human beings are pleasure centered.  People tend to voluntarily do the things that bring them pleasure in life.  Read aloud needs to become an activity that is associated with pleasure.  

Read aloud should not be looked at as a chore. Who doesn’t love to hear a great story? A child’s strongest role model is their parent. In our houses, our children look forward to read aloud each night, maybe it is because our enthusiasm is apparent. We want children to associate this same enthusiasm with read aloud. Even those who struggle with reading can gain pleasure from read aloud. Read aloud experiences level the playing field. No matter what level we read at, we can share a common reading experience. It is through the read aloud experience that children learn what the highest quality reading experience is like. There is usually 100% engagement.When you take away the decoding work for a child, they have more opportunity to consider the meaning of a text.

Reading Fact 2: Reading is an accrued skill. In order to become a better reader, we have to do it a lot.  

A common mantra in the KHS reading room is “How will you become a better reader” to which kids respond, “read a lot!.” Like anything else, we get better at reading by practicing reading. Not just practicing reading words, but practicing listening to a story and thinking deeply about it. Research shows that the volume of reading matters, not just the amount of time spent reading, but the amount of books. This reading can happen in many ways but one of the most simple ways to promote more reading is through read aloud at home. We have been convinced that powerful read alouds can support more engaged independent readers who begin to apply the same thoughtfulness that we promote in read aloud to their own reading.

Thoughts to Ponder and Discuss:

What positive impacts have you experienced with read aloud in your family?

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Coming Soon...

If you have been to a parent volunteer training or a PTA meeting at KHS, you may have heard a literacy teacher mention Jim Trelease’s Read~Aloud Handbook. This book was originally published in 1979, but still remains a valuable source for both parents and teachers on the important topic of read aloud. That’s why Jessica and I were so excited when a new edition was released in June. No matter how many times we revisit the book, we always learn something new, whether it is how Jessica begins the tradition of read aloud in her house with her 14-month year old daughter or how I maintain read aloud with my own three children, ages 6, 8 and 10, who are all reading at different levels and with different interests. Read aloud is always something we want to learn more about and share our triumphs and struggles with others as we continue to nurture life-long readers along with you.

Next Monday, November 11th, we will be starting our first blog discussion. In each of the ensuing four weeks, we will introduce a topic of read aloud and share some research about the topic along with our experience and  thinking. We hope you will join in the conversation. We have purchased four copies of Jim Trelease’s book to raffle off to participants at the end of each week. Together, we hope to spark excitement about reading aloud in the home and carry on a common conversation in order to learn from one another!

Tracey Carbone and Jessica Carey

KHS Literacy Teachers