Reading Aloud

"Nooo!" the children cried out when I told them we were going to put a bookmark in the book and continue the story later. It was a lengthy story and we had been sitting for quite a long time, yet our young three, four, and five year olds who so often are on the move, wanted to sit for the remainder of the story. What more can I say? Reading aloud is one of the most important gifts we can give our children. Lucy Calkins says that these stories become a "part of the fabric of who we are." Yes, our children are learning that all those jumbled black marks are words. Yes, they are learning that we read from top to bottom and left to right. Yes, they are learning the important 'concepts about print.' Yet when I talk to you about "reading aloud," I want you to think of the story.

We read to make meaning of the story and our children as Jane Yolen describes, need to "fall through the words to the story." When you talk with your child about a story, try to ask open-ended questions that have no right or wrong answer, simple questions that encourage your child to share his/her thinking (e.g. "What would you say to (the character)?" or "What do you think will happen next?").

Mem Fox reminds us that, "The more expressively we read, the more fantastic the experience will be. The more our kids love books, the more they'll pretend to read them, and the more they pretend to read, the more quickly they'll learn to read."