For instance when I read the beginning of Koala Lou, my voice swings up and down in the same tune, the same s-l-o-w song, every time:There was once a baby koala, so soft and round that a–l–l who saw her loved her. Each of us will have our own special way of reading a story. There’s no exact right way of reading aloud, other than to try to be as expressive as possible. Section 3 /wp-content/uploads/2017/07/read-aloud-lesson-Audio-Extracted_2.mp3

As we read the story we need to remain aware of our body position, our eyes and their expression, our eye-contact with the child or children, our vocal variety, and our general facial animation. And naturally we’ll maintain our enthusiasm for it even if we’ve read it five thousand times. When we read the story we are usually familiar with it. Section 2 /wp-content/uploads/2017/07/read-aloud-lesson-Audio-Extracted_1.mp3 So reading aloud is not quite enough-we need to read aloud well. 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. The more expressively we read, the more fantastic the experience will be. When I see a read aloud session in my mind’s eye, there’s either an adult sitting in a big old chair or on a sofa, with a child on the adult’s lap or snuggled up close, sharing a book, or an adult sitting or lying on a bed with the child tucked up, wide eyed, as stories are being read. I wanted to say: “Well, you know-find a book, get a child, and sit down and read the book to the child,” but it seemed so simple that I was too embarrassed to say it. Wasn’t it obvious? Then I realised it wouldn’t be obvious if he hadn’t been read aloud to as a child. Section 1 (Click the “play” buttons to hear the text read aloud.) /wp-content/uploads/2017/07/read-aloud-lesson-Audio-Extracted.mp3Īn American father once said to me: “So how do you do this read aloud thing?” I was almost too taken aback to answer.

Koala Lou by Mem Fox