Reading in Front of the Class

One of the things I have gotten much better at this year is reading in front of the class. I used to HATE reading to the class, or really reading out loud in general, because I read so much faster than I talk. The more I have practiced, the more I like it. I began to think of it as a way to model fluency and reading with expression and realized that if I focus on those things, just as we ask children to, I was a much better reader.

My students are a great audience and they LOVE books!We take full advantage of this and teach through our reading time as much as possible. Here is a list of things from the "Childhood 101" blog that are some basic ways for children to learn through story time. To see the full post click here.

1. As you read a new book, pause to make observations together or ask questions about what is happening in the story.

2. In picture books, illustrations are as important as words. Notice together interesting details or clues as to what is happening in the story.

3. For older children, ask what they think will happen next or what they would do if they were in a similar situation.

4. At the appropriate moment, pause as an invitation for your child to join you in reading a rhyming word or familiar phrase.

5. Ask your child to point to where the words are on a page (as separate to the illustrations). Talk about the words being the part of the book which you read.

6. Point to the words as you read them. This will show your child where you start reading, that you read English from left to right and that there is one word represented on the page for each word that you say.

7. When re-reading familiar books, point out (or ask your child to point out) any letters which are significant to them, for example, the first letter of their name.

8. For older children, notice punctuation marks, such as full stops, question marks and exclamation marks.

9. Explore the end pages of the book. SquiggleMum posted about the purpose and possibilities of end pages here.

Explore the Cover: (original post)

1. Read the title of the book. You might like to point out the words which make up the title with your finger.
2. Read and point out the name of the author.
3. And the illustrator.
4. Point out any letters which are significant to your child, for example, the first initial of their name.
5. Before reading a book for the first time, look at the cover illustration and talk about any clues you can see which might help you both to understand what the book is about.
6. Look at the spine of the book - point out the title and talk about why a book has a spine, SquiggleMum has a great post about book spines here.
7. Use the correct vocabulary - cover, title, author, words, illustrator, illustrations, spine.
Whilst you might not do all of these things every time, taking time to explore the features of the book cover helps your child to;

• Build prior knowledge of what the book is about
• Make predictions
• Set the purpose for reading

all of which are important, especially when it comes to comprehending what you (and later they) are reading.


Hopefully I will get a chance to post some specific lessons we have taught or introduced through stories, but what I like about these tips is that anyone can implement them and when done in moderation, the children won't even notice they are learning!