Simple question but...what rules do you give your children for when they read aloud?

[praisefor3]

My ds12 is a good reader. He loves for me to read to him. However, when I have him read aloud he tries to start out very monotone and mumbling. Of course, I make him start over. But we go through that too frequently. So...I told him we would need to look up some "rules" for reading aloud. Every link I find is more about adults reading to children, many of which apply but not exactly what I was hoping to refer him to. So...you are my "resource" for this: What rules/guidelines do you give your children when they read out loud?

[pageta]

Try taking turns - you read a page, he reads a page. Challenge him to make it sound as interesting as you are. Model what he's doing and what you want him to do. My ds is doing this at six and those are the ways I'm working with him to teach him to read with expression.

[robsiew]

Be sure to model for him what you'd like to see. Have him imagine he's in the story and speaking as the characters would. Let him experiment with saying it monotone, then saying it to make the words come alive off the page. You also might want to let him listen to some good books on CD. He could hear how others read aloud as well. Sometimes I prompt them by saying... "that doesn't sound very excited... how would you say it and sound excited?" You might want to slow down the reading and concentrate on expression for awhile, not caring how much material he gets through, rather how expressive he is. You could also talk to him in monotone and let him see how that sounds... and then tell him when we read we should read as though we're speaking to someone.

[sherry80]

:lurk5:

[Guest janainaz]

I agree with taking turns and modeling what you expect of his oral reading. I tell me my son that I want him to pay attention to punctuation when he reads because it will help with his writing.

[Osaubi]

speak loud

no mumbles

watch the punctuation for pauses

 

 

I also alternate reading so he can hear the flow the the sentences. I encourage him to alternate voices, but at his age I focus on the acutal reading.

 

I just got this book: Medieval Tales that Kids can Read and Tell . After they read a simple 2 page story they are encouraged to put the story in their own words, use props and different voices, and to just generally make it their own. I haven't used it yet, but it looks good.

 

HTH

[Tracy]

You might want to try reading to him the way he reads to you (without announcing it in advance). See if he notices the difference. Just keep going and wait for him to say something.

 

As for rules, I think it totally depends on the child. My dd is very, very sensitive to criticism. She often changes the words in the sentence without changing the meaning. But I don't correct her unless she has actually changed the meaning, because I don't want to quench her enjoyment of reading together. I think that this is key. You want to make sure that your reading time together is something your child thoroughly enjoys. Maybe you need more interesting material. Maybe he is feeling very self-conscious, and what you need to do is back off and focus on what he is doing well. Perhaps he feels that at 12yo, he is too old for this, and his behavior is a way to rebelling. Maybe another approach, such as narration or book reports would be better for his age. It is hard to tell without seeing what is happening in your home, but any child that is mumbling his way through reading is probably feeling something negative about it. I think you should figure out what those feelings are and address them first, rather than creating reading rules, which will only serve to create an even more adversarial situation. (OTOH, I have a very rule-oriented child, and I can see where having rules can be very helpful with this type. But I don't think this is very common.)