Reading Aloud to Children

George Jacobs

Read Aloud Asia, published by Times

available at National Library

gmjacobs@pacific.net.sg Internet: www.georgejacobs.net

9389-8360

Agenda

Why Reading Is Important

Benefits of Reading Aloud

Techniques for Reading Aloud

Demonstration of Reading Aloud

Your Turn

Agenda (cont)

Reading Aloud with Prediction: Demonstration, Benefits, Your Turn

Q & A

Conclusion

Why Reading Is Important

Language acquisition – grammar, spelling, vocabulary the fun way

Knowledge acquisition

Life-long learning

Benefits of Reading Aloud

Introduces children to books, poems, etc.

Provides a model for pronunciation

Develops vocabulary

Teaches knowledge of the world and of books

Builds bonds between the reader and listeners

Offers a model of the joy of reading

Encourages a love for reading silently/aloud

Reading Rights of Children

International Reading Association

http://www.reading.org/positions/MADMMID.html

1. Children have a right to appropriate early reading instruction based on their individual needs

2. Children have a right to reading instruction that builds both skill and the desire to read increasingly complex materials

4. Children have the right of access to a wide variety of books and other reading material in their classrooms, and in school and community libraries

7. Children have a right to reading instruction that involves parents and communities in their academic lives

Read Aloud Checklist

Choose good stories

Practice first

Set the scene

Give title and author

Read with feeling & variety

Perhaps, summarize slow parts and paraphrase new words

Stop at interesting placesInvite participationAsk questions, make connections, make commentsMake gestures, body movements, sounds

Advice on Television by Roald Dahl

The most important thing we've learned,

So far as children are concerned,

Is never, Never, Never, let

Them near your television set - Or better still, don't install

The idiotic thing at all.

In almost every house we've been,

We've watched them gaping at the screen.

They loll and slop and lounge about,

And stare until their eyes pop out.

(Last week in someone's place we saw

A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)

They sit and stare and stare and sit

Until they're hypnotized by it,

Until they're absolutely drunk

With all that shocking ghastly junk.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,

They don't climb out the window sill,

They never fight, kick or punch,

They leave you free to cook the lunch

And wash the dishes in the sink

But did you ever stop to think,

To wonder just exactly what

This does to your beloved tot?

IT ROTS THE HEAD!IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLINDHE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!

HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!

HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!

HE CANNOT THINK - HE ONLY SEES

'All right!' you'll cry, 'All right!' you'll say,

But if we take the set away,

What should we do to entertain

Our darling children! Please explain!

'We'll answer this by asking you,

'What used the darling ones to do?

How used they to keep themselves contented

Before this monster was invented?'‘

Have you forgotten? Don't you know?

We'll say it very loud and slow:

THEY ...USED...TO ...READ!

They'd READ and READ and READ, AND READ and READ, AND THEN PROCEED to READ some more.

Great Scott! Gadzooks!

One half their lives was reading books!

The nursery shelves held books galore!

Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,

More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine fantastic tales

Of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales

And treasure isles and distant shores

Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,

And pirates wearing purple pants,

And sailing ships and elephants,

And cannibals crouching round a pot,

Stirring away at something hot...

Oh books, What books they used to know,

Those children living long ago!

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your T.V. set away,

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books,

Ignoring all the dirty looks,

The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,

And the children hitting you with sticks -

Fear not, because we promise you

That in about a week or two of having nothing else to do,

They now begin to feel the need

Of having something good to read.

And once they start - oh boy, oh boy!

You watch the slowly growing joy that fills their hearts.

They'll grow so keen

They'll wonder what they've ever seen

In that ridiculous machine,

That nauseating, foul, unclean,

Repulsive television screen!

And later, each and every kid will love you more for what you did.

‘Advice on television’ Extract taken from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Demonstration

Please see if I do what is in the checklist

Remember: your turn is coming after this

Read Aloud Checklist

Choose good stories Practice firstGive title and author Read with feeling & variety Perhaps, summarize slow parts and paraphrase new words

Stop at interesting placesInvite participationAsk questions, make connections, make commentsMake gestures, body movements, sounds

Your Turn

Look through the books available.

Choose one - prepare to read it aloud to a partner - use checklist to prepare.

Take turns reading aloud - your partner plays the role of a child - you say what age.

Partner checks you with checklist.

Key Point

Reading aloud is a journey, not a race

Thus, the longer it takes to finish the story, the better

The book can be a tool to launch a conversation, mostly about life, and, to a lesser extent about language

Prediction - Procedure

1. Read aloud the title and the portion of the text up to the point of prediction. Ask a question about what will happen next.

2. Children make predictions and provide reasons for their predictions.

Prediction Clues

Title

Author

Illustrations

Knowledge of the world

Similar stories

Knowledge of the genre

Previous parts of the book

Procedure, continued

3. Read the text until the next prediction point.

4. Discuss whether children’s prediction were confirmed or disconfirmed.

Key Point

However, the quality of a prediction is measured by the reasoning behind the prediction, not by what actually does happen next in the story. After all, stories are just inventions of writers.

Benefits of Prediction

1. Arouses the interest of children2. Allows children to follow the story

better3. Encourages careful listening4. Allows children to interact with the story5. Promotes logical thinking6. Promotes creativity

Ideas for Motivating Children to Read More

1. Share/discuss books you have read.2. Keep records of children’s reading and

display them in an interesting manner.3. Display books in a prominent part of the

your house and in children’s rooms.4. Don’t force reading if kids aren’t in the

mood.5. Let children listen to CDs, etc. of books

being read aloud.

More Motivational Ideas

6. Children swap books with friends.

7. Children read aloud their favorite stories to you or read along with you.

8. Recreate a scene of the book through role play or puppet play or drawing.

9. Design a comic strip/book mark

Q & A

Questions

Disagreements

Experiences

Ideas

Final Tips

Store read aloud books where children can reach them

Keep library books all in the same place, unless you want to make lots of donations to the library Enjoy reading aloud to children!

Books with Lists of Read Aloud Books

Honey for a Child’s Heart (includes annotated list of books for ages 0-14)

Books Children Love

The World through Children’s Books

Great Books about Things Kids Love

Best Books for Children

Books to Grow With

Reading Rainbow Guide to Children’s Books: The 100 Best Titles

100 Best Books for Children

Best Books for Kids Who Think They Hate to ReadThe Read Aloud Handbook70 Tried and Tested Great Books to Read Aloud by Jacqueline Wilson, who is/was the UK Children's Laureate published by Corgi, an imprint of Random House, 2006

Please Thank

Your Partner