Transcript Inspiring Children to Love Reading

Reading Aloud to
Children
George Jacobs
Read Aloud Asia,
published by Times
available at
National Library
[email protected]
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/MA
DMMID.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
places
Invite participation
Ask questions, make
connections, make
comments
Make 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
BLIND
HE 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 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
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 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
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 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
Please Thank
Your Partner