Reading aloud improves listening skills, vocabulary acquisition, and the understanding of common story themes and structures that will factor into children’s future success. Even for adults, reading aloud is a fun, easy way to connect people. Use the tips below to create a powerful, memorable read aloud experience.
❖ Read the book before hand to familiarise yourself with the story. Make note of places you want to stop and ask questions.
❖ Be animated! Change your voice during the read aloud to match the expressions of the characters and emotions of the story; this will truly bring the text to life.
❖ Use different voices for different characters so that listeners come to recognise dialogue within a text and individual character traits.
❖ If your book has a lot of text, try a story walk instead of reading every word. A story walk is when you summarise what is happening on each page while pointing to the illustrations to help explain the action.
❖ Ask questions out loud as you read. Ask listeners to predict what will happen next, how they would feel if they were in the story, or the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Limit your questions to one or two per story so they do not disrupt the flow of the reading.
❖ After you finish a story, have a conversation that focuses on connecting the text to the listeners’ lives and experiences.
❖ Try incorporating some theater into your Read Aloud! Invite listeners to act out portions of the story as you read or designate some actors to help bring parts of the story to life!
❖ Make sure to talk about the Read Aloud experience itself! Ask listeners to reflect upon how it feels to be part of a Read Aloud community. Discuss the importance of these types of experiences both locally and around the world. Brainstorm ways to bring the community feeling of the Read Aloud to other activities that they complete throughout the day.