Read Alouds: Benefits & Bonuses
By Rachel Angrisani
December 7, 2020
Do you remember the first book that was read aloud to you? Was there a book that completely swept you away into the story and ignited your love for reading? The book that did this for me was C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. As I reflect back on my experience of listening to this book for the first time, I not only remember the story itself, but I also remember the connections I made to the story and to the person reading it to me. This read aloud experience impacted my trajectory as a reader, and I have no doubt is one reason that I love to get lost in a book to this day.
Benefits of Read Alouds For All Ages
In the early years. . .
Read alouds provide children the opportunity to observe how readers read: how we open a book, turn the pages, and engage with the words and illustrations on the pages.
They also open the door to helping small children navigate big emotions; stories can give language to emotions that children feel but don’t yet have the ability to verbalize.
As children become readers themselves . . .
Reading aloud together can act as wonderful models for fluent reading and reading with expression.
It can also introduce new and more complex vocabulary and concepts that children are able to understand in regard to content, but are not ready to read independently.
For children, adolescents, and even young adults . . .
Read alouds can help to build empathy, as their eyes are opened to situations and emotions that they might not have experienced in their own lives.
For the whole family . . .
The quality time spent with your child and the connection that they feel to you during a read aloud will be hugely beneficial, so just sitting down and reading with them is an amazing start!
Bonus Read Aloud Tips & Adaptations
Now that we’ve established the benefits of read alouds for all ages, let’s talk about how to engage in effective read alouds at home! ! There are some very simple, fun ways that you can enhance your read alouds at home and make them more enjoyable for both you and your child.
Choose books that you enjoy yourself!
Your child will pick up on your enthusiasm for a book, which will in turn make them more excited about listening to it. Also, you are more likely to read with expression if you’re reading a text you yourself are engaged in, therefore modeling great reading fluency practices.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race!
Most of us don’t realize how quickly we’re speaking when we read aloud. By being conscientious about slowing down a bit as we’re reading, we give children more time to construct important mental images about what they’re hearing that help them to better comprehend the story. Also, it allows us as the reader to incorporate more expression into our reading, including changing our voice for different characters and reading the context of the sentence to help with our expression. This not only helps with children’s comprehension, but also provides them a wonderful model for reading fluency.
Make your read alouds interactive!
Children will get even more out of a read aloud when they are active participants. Here are a few ways to engage in an interactive read aloud:
Have your child make predictions about what they think might happen in the story prior to reading, and continue to check in on that prediction throughout the story. Why did they make the prediction they did? Was their prediction correct? If not, what happened instead?
Stop and ask questions about the characters, setting, and plot of the story as you read. For all ages, try to ask questions that will invoke discussion as opposed to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. For example, “I see in the illustration that this character is frowning. Do you have ideas about why that might be?” or “In this chapter, the character is feeling uneasy about his decision. I wonder why he’s feeling that way. Do you have thoughts about that?”
Talk about vocabulary words that you come upon that are new to your child. It is helpful for children to take a pause and understand any words that are new to them before continuing on with the story, as this will help them with their comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.
Include a variety of genres in your read aloud repertoire!
Read alouds provide a wonderful opportunity to include different types of texts into your child’s rotation, even (maybe especially!) those that they might not choose for themselves. Select books that will open their mind and enrich their world.
Put on a family play!
Reading from a script is a great way to get everyone in the family reading aloud together. Decide on a movie or play that the whole family is excited about and find a script for one or two scenes. Assign each family member a role, rehearse independently, and then come together for a performance of the scene!
The Lion King is a fun one. You can even just select a scene or two. Here is a link to The Lion King script.
Have family karaoke night!
There’s reading in the lyrics! Plus who doesn’t love a great karaoke sesh?! If you don’t have a karaoke machine, youtube has some great karaoke versions of songs.
Looking for a crowd-pleaser? Here is a link to the karaoke version of Frozen’s Let It Go.
Engage your child’s “mind’s eye”!
The “mind’s eye” is what we all use to create mental pictures when we’re reading or listening to a story. One way to engage this part of the brain is to have your child draw a picture of what they see in their mind and imagination while they listen to a read aloud. Encourage them to include things like the setting of the story. You can include the whole family and take turns reading aloud to each other while those who aren’t reading draw pictures of what they see in their mind’s eye. Then, compare pictures to see how your imaginations are similar and different!
How will you…
incorporate meaningful read alouds into your child’s routine? Will you pull out a favorite book of your own to share, or perhaps find a new genre to introduce to them? Begin with one of the strategies above and explore how this impacts your child on their journey to becoming a lifelong reader.