I absolutely love to read to children.

One of my favorite parts of the day is taking out a good book and reading it to my students. Since reading “The Read Aloud Handbook” by Jim Trelease, I’ve decided to incorporate more reading aloud to students throughout the day. Before, because my schedule is so jam packed with curricular content, I would maybe get to read once a day. Now I read twice every day.

The academic benefits of reading aloud to children, especially in the younger grades, are obvious. It provides the teacher an ample opportunity to model expression through reading. You can exclamate character dialogue or highlight tense moments throughout the story. We get to explore the wide variety of emotions that we experience while immersing ourselves in a book; joyfulness, anger, sadness, love, loss, etc. By demonstrating these pieces of reading, we’re modeling positive reading habits that go beyond simply reading what’s on the page. For more academic information, you can check out links here and here.

We know the research behind it, but what exactly makes a great read aloud, anyway?

(side note: I enjoyed most of “The Read Aloud Handbook”, but near the end, it got into some racial/heteronormative profiling that made me a bit uncomfortable as the author failed to acknowledge the racial/social implications that POCs face that affect their access to resources. But I digress…)

Read with expression

I’ll never forget one teacher I had while in college. Her class was 100% lecture and she read directly from a textbook that she wrote. It didn’t help that the class was Arizona Constitution; which wasn’t the most engaging of topics.

I slept through every single class. For an entire semester. The odd thing was that it wasn’t even my first class in the day! I had an algebra class BEFORE this one, and I was wide awake for that.

Reading can be an absolute snooze fest if we just read what’s on the page. There’s so much we can do with how we manipulate our voice to read with more expression. It doesn’t matter what type of book we’re reading; we can still emulate excitement in our voice. If we’re excited, the kids are excited. It may take more energy on the teachers end, but the kids will be hooked the entire time.

Picture in your mind a read aloud. What is the reader doing? Chances are, they’re sitting. This is perfectly fine as teachers are often up and about all day long. Think about what you can do in addition to sitting. Try using a free hand to make grandiose gestures signifying crucial details in the story. Use your body to emulate characters speaking. If you have the energy, get up and ACT! Improvise a little by adding your own flare and sparse reading with guffaws, cackles, diabolical grins, or faint whispers. Make it theater. Trust me, both you and the kids will have much more fun.

Start slow and build stamina

At the start of the year, especially for the younger kiddos, chances are their attention is not at the same caliber as the kids who left your classroom to the next grade a few months earlier. In my case, jumping into “The Twits” or “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is probably not a great beginning of the year book. There aren’t many pictures, and the stories are layered with complex plot twists and character development. It’s better to start off with something short and sweet, like “Miss Nelson is Missing” or “LIttle Elliot Big City”. Jon Klassen’s books are fantastic for introducing read alouds. They’re short and goofy with almost dream-like illustrations that kids adore.

Get the timing right

Read alouds are built into my regular school day. We read for 10-15 minutes in the morning, again after lunch, and before the final bell rings if we have a few moments to spare. This works great for my schedule because occasionally something comes up and we may have to skip one read aloud. With this set up, I’m almost guaranteed to read at least twice a day to the kids for a total of 20-30 minutes. 

It’s important to stress that read alouds should never be rushed. Reading aloud should be an enjoyable, relaxing experience, not something to check off the day’s “to do list”. If you don’t have the time to spare to read, you’re probably better off saving it for a part of the day where you can make the time. Also, don’t be stressed about finishing a book in one sitting. Sometimes even books can take me days to finish. I read a book called “I Dissent”, which is about the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and it took me about two and a half days to finish. The book itself was long and the pages were full of text, so I decided to take my time with it. 

It’s also OK to acknowledge the need to stop. During a reading of “I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark”, I only got through 2-3 pages before I saw a few kids getting antsy. Instead of correcting the behavior and ruining the mood of the book, I decided to “pause” (I literally say, “Right kiddos, we’re going to pause here and come back to it later.”) and start again another time that day when they’re more attentive. 

Once I’m able to hold the kids’ attention for longer periods of time, we sometimes cycle between two read aloud books throughout the day. We have a longer chapter book (I usually read through Roald Dahl during the second half of first grade) and we break it up with picture books to mix up our reads. The kids are more than capable of handling more than one story at once so they’re not both too long.

Quality over quantity

This is my personal golden rule with read alouds; I’m committed to read as many quality books as I have available to me. Books by Michael Curato, Jessie Sima, Juana Martinez-Neal, Christian Robinson, Leslea Newman, Mo Willems, and Jon Klassen (to name a few) are incredible. The stories are rich with diverse characters, the illustrations are tailored to both kids and adults, and the themes are on point with modern experiences of children today. The books that we love as teachers and what we read as children just aren’t up to par with what’s available today. We need to be careful not to project our nostalgia onto our students and let them develop their own taste in books.

One important thing to remember about choosing any book to add to your read aloud library is to vet. Vet the hell out of your library. There are so many children’s books out there that may seem like a decent choice to read to the kiddos, but they end up containing problematic themes that are harmful towards diverse communities. For instance, think of all of the books we read as kids about celebrating Thanksgiving and the problematic themes that are attached to them. Resources like www.booktoss.blog and www.booksforlittles.com were created by people of color with the intention to help us select quality books to read to our children that portray diverse stories in an uplifting and positive way.

Not just for elementary

For one reason or another, some teachers are reluctant to read aloud, particularly picture books, to older students. I get that reading “Green Eggs and Ham” is probably not the most appropriate for teenagers, but there are plenty of children’s books that perfectly weave in themes for both young adults and children.

My husband Barrak and I collaborated together when he taught freshman dramatic literature class at our school in Kuwait. I read the story “Faithful Elephants” to the class, which is a true story about Japan during WWII and how they had to euthanize the animals at the zoo. It’s one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, and it brings me to tears every time I share it with the kids. As I read to the class, Barrak and I extracted elements of war, choice, and death. Barrak’s students took these themes and created tableaux in small groups. It was a powerful way for students to engage with the themes of the text beyond a lecture style retelling of events.

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Reading aloud is for everyone, regardless of age or classroom dynamics. There are fewer things as powerful in the classroom as sharing the love for a good book. I hope that some of these strategies have helped you consider ways you can incorporate different styles of read alouds in your own context. Feel free to comment with any questions or anecdotes below!