Remember those storytimes you grew up with? Remember sitting next to a warm parent at night before bed . . . or with a rambunctious crowd at the library . . . or mesmerized at your desk with the teacher reading aloud?
All children need to be read to--to introduce them to quality literature, to help them with early reading development, to familiarize them with advanced vocabulary and sentence structure, and to learn the love of hearing stories.
There are no shortage of lists of recommended books for children. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information for parents on how to read aloud, which is equally as important! It seems so simple, doesnt it? You just open and read! But for a child to get the most out of a book, there are things you can do that will make the experience even more meaningful to your child. Here are a few steps that will soon become a natural part of your read aloud habits if you practice them every day.
1. EXAMINE the cover together. Then, ask the child what he or she thinks the story will be about. This is called making predictions, which experts now know all good readers do automatically. Good readers make and revise their predictions constantly while reading. It is one way the brain stays actively involved in the story. (By the way, there is no wrong prediction. If the child was wrong, he or she just revises the prediction! It's very liberating.)
2. READ THE TITLE (again) and then the AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR names. Knowing the author and illustrator is so important. First, it teaches children that books just don't appear--someone had to create them. Reading their names shows respect for the people and their hard work. Another good reason to know the author and illustrator is for recognizability. My boys quickly learned that they liked Jan Brett's style, so library searches were easier--I sent them to the B's and let them bury themselves in books until they found another Jan Brett.
3. READ THE STORY. Always read slowly. I say this as a reminder to people like me who tend to talk fast naturally! Remember that an author and editor chose every word to be in that book, so respect the wording the author has used. If the book has a couple of lines of text per page, it is good to move your finger along under the words. This shows children the patterns of reading that will be foundational as they learn to read.
One of my young adult children recently told me that he loved how I read aloud to him. He said, "You made the voices for characters and you did different things with your voice to move the story along." So, in that vein, read extra slowly at suspenseful parts, speed up when Peter is being chased my Mr. MacGregor, and whisper when he is hiding under the pot. Reading with energy and purpose will engage your children in the story.
Don't stop to answer a lot of questions or explain material, but if there is a question in the text, have your child answer it!
4. WRAP UP. Encourage some dialogue after the story: "Wow, I sure didn't expect it to end that way! " or "What was your favorite part?" or "Should we read this one again tomorrow night?"
5. ASK QUESTIONS. Only do this if the child is still interested. "When we were reading, I heard an interesting word. [Turn back to the page, point to the word, and say it.]. Do you know what that means? Let me read that sentence again and maybe we can figure it out." Or "Do you think this story could have ended differently?" Children will often have questions while you are reading, and if you don't answer them during the story (which is best because things are often explained in the course of the story or context will make things clearer), this is a good time to say, "What was that question you had back on page [x]?"
One thing we did with our children while they were growing up was to discuss the art medium the illustrator used, which led to a lot of creativity in their own artistic expressions.
It is fine, of course, if the child is done with that book for the day and doesn't want to do any "vocabulary development" or "analysis." Children don't learn to love books by analyzing them to death.
These five steps, with any age child and any genre of story, will get you started in a very enriching reading time together!
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