Summer Reading: Reading Aloud
Issues of beginning adolescence, such as embarrassment (parents—oooh!) and independence, begin to appear by the end of 4th grade and starting 5th grade. Take advantage of the opportunities you have now for reading enrichment and pleasure through shared reading. For most parents, 3rd grade and 4th grade are probably the last years in which reading aloud with your child is easily initiated; and reading aloud together at this stage can be especially rewarding for all involved.
Getting Ready
Select a couple of books you know your child is likely to enjoy. Get advice from a teacher or children’s library or ask your child what book she’s heard about that she’d like to read. You might consider a book from which a popular movie has been made such as Little Women or Aladdin or The Incredible Journey.
If you haven’t read aloud to your child for a long time and feel a bit rusty about getting started again, try reading a little of the story aloud on your own, just to see how easy it really is.
Think about the best time of day to set aside 15 minutes or so for reading together on some kind of regular basis.
Activity: Reading Aloud
- Either at the special time you think might become a regular reading time or at some other convenient time to begin this activity, talk with your child about memories you have of hearing stories read aloud. Tell her about cultures in which listening to stories is not only treasured as great entertainment but even the way in which people pass on the tales of their own history. But perhaps best of all, it is a nice way to spend a bit of quiet, relaxed time enjoying something together.
- Have your child pick one of the two read-aloud books that you got for this activity. Read the first chapter or section of the book aloud to her. Encourage her to close her eyes and just relax as she listens.
- When you finish reading, encourage your child to talk about her thoughts and feelings about what was read. This not only helps your child connect to what she’s reading, but also builds reading comprehension skills used during the school year.
- What does she think might happen next? Why?
- Which characters does she like (or dislike) and why?
- What questions does she have about what she heard?
- How is what is in the reading like (or unlike) real life or other things she’s read or seen on television?
- Set up the time for your next read-aloud session. Depending on the level of reading difficulty, plan for your child to take turns with you reading, if she’d like.
- When you finish reading the first book or story, have your child select the next herself and read it to you (or take turns with you). When that selection is finished, decide together on the next selection and continue in this way taking turns reading aloud on a regular basis.
Activity from Kaplan’s Making the Grade: Grades 3-4, Creating a Successful Learning Environment at Home.