All Info About Reading

 We all know how important it is to read aloud to children from the earliest possible moment, but what can you do if the kids won’t pay attention?  You’ve had the experience, I’m sure.  You choose a book and settle in for some reading and bonding time.  You call the kids to join you.  As you read, however, they seem to disappear.  The blocks across the room seem far more enticing than your story, and off they go.  There are some other options besides throwing your hands up in despair.  You need some attention-grabbers!  Here are some tricks and techniques to keep the attention of your young audience.

Oral reading is much more interesting when you vary your tone, expression, and pacing.  Use different voices for various characters and add volume and tone to show emotions.  Speed up the pace when the plot takes an exciting turn.  This will make your reading more enticing for your listeners.  By adding expression, you will also be helping the kids’ comprehension.  They will be more able to follow the plot of your story.

If your book is a familiar one, there are quite a few tricks you can use to involve your audience.  Try pausing just before the end of sentence and see if the kids can provide the missing word.  Make an intentional mistake and see if they can catch you.  Kids love to feel that they are showing up the adults!  Repetitive stories (those with catchy phrases repeated again and again) are great because the audience can chime right in.

Another technique that you can use to capture children’s attention is to whisper.  Many children are drawn to whispers.  Perhaps it sounds like a secret, or maybe they just hjave to pay closer attention to hear.  Whatever the reason, you may find that lowering your voice gets as much or more attention than raising it.  At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Secret Word game.  Before you read together, choose a secret word that is repeated several times in the text.  Instruct the kids to make a sound, give a shout, or clap whenever they hear the secret word.  For older, more experienced listeners, you can choose a number of words from the text and assign motions or sounds to each one.  The kids have to listen for the special words and do the matching action or make the matching sound.

The illustrations in many books are carefully planned and drawn.  You can use the illustrations to engage your listeners.  Try finding specific things in the pictures or naming items that are visible.  Name colors, and use language to describe the items, like a big tree or a red barn.  See who can make sentences describing where things are in the picture, like “The cat is under the tree.”

Finally, get the kids involved by making and checking predictions and by asking questions.   Stop every few pages and ask the audience to predict what will happen next.  Pause to have someone summarize what has happened so far.  Ask what would change if a plot event had been handled differently by the characters.  This sort of conversation will enhance later reading comprehension skills, and will help your children to think about what is going on in the story.  It will help them stay more focused and maybe even listen clear to the end!

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© 2006 Sandra Fleming