Reading Aloud to Children

1. Reading Aloud to Children George Jacobs

2. Read Aloud Asia, published by Timesavailable at National Library gmjacobs@pacific.net.sg Internet: www.georgejacobs.net 9389-8360

3. Agenda • Why Reading Is Important • Benefits of Reading Aloud • Techniques for Reading Aloud • Demonstration of Reading Aloud • Your Turn

4. Agenda (cont) • Reading Aloud with Prediction: Demonstration, Benefits, Your Turn • Q & A • Conclusion

5. Why Reading Is Important • Language acquisition – grammar, spelling, vocabulary the fun way • Knowledge acquisition • Life-long learning

6. 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 Benefits of Reading Aloud

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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 places Invite participation Ask questions, make connections, make comments Make gestures, body movements, sounds Read Aloud Checklist

11. 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.

12. 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.)

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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?

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

17. HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE! • HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE! • HE CANNOT THINK - HE ONLY SEES

18. '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?

19. 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:

20. 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!

21. 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

22. 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...

23. 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.

24. 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 -

25. 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.

26. And once they start - oh boy, oh boy! • You watch the slowly growing joy that fills their hearts.

27. They'll grow so keen • They'll wonder what they've ever seen • In that ridiculous machine, • That nauseating, foul, unclean, • Repulsive television screen!

28. 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.

29. Demonstration • Please see if I do what is in the checklist • Remember: your turn is coming after this

30. Choose good stories Practice first Give title and author Read with feeling & variety Perhaps, summarize slow parts and paraphrase new words Stop at interesting places Invite participation Ask questions, make connections, make comments Make gestures, body movements, sounds Read Aloud Checklist

31. 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.

32. 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

33. 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.

34. Prediction Clues • Title • Author • Illustrations • Knowledge of the world • Similar stories • Knowledge of the genre • Previous parts of the book

35. Procedure, continued 3. Read the text until the next prediction point. 4. Discuss whether children’s prediction were confirmed or disconfirmed.

36. 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.

37. Benefits of Prediction 1. Arouses the interest of children 2. Allows children to follow the story better 3. Encourages careful listening 4. Allows children to interact with the story 5. Promotes logical thinking 6. Promotes creativity

38. 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.

39. 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

40. Q & A • Questions • Disagreements • Experiences • Ideas

41. 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!

42. 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

43. Best Books for Children • Books to Grow With • Reading Rainbow Guide to Children’s Books: The 100 Best Titles • 100 Best Books for Children

44. Best Books for Kids Who Think They Hate to Read • The Read Aloud Handbook • 70 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

45. Please Thank Your Partner