ExcitedMama Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 DS is reading really well and pretty much reads anything he sees and often knows the next lesson of AAR as soon as he sees the words without needing anything explained to him. I've been having him read a short book to me before I read to him in the afternoon and at night. In general he wants me to read him so he is willing to read first to get me to read to him but he often whines or complains about doing it. He has no problem reading anything and does it well but he always chooses a book below his reading level, like a phonics type picture story, instead of something more at his level. On his own I often find him sitting and reading harder stories but he won't choose to read them aloud to us. I've been getting different options for him from the library on topics he likes that are just a little harder than the ones he chooses to read aloud but he still balks at reading them aloud. Usually I choose what he reads one time and he gets to choose the next tme. He is very confident in general and very proud of how well he reads so I'm not sure how to help him transition to reading aloud books that are more appropriate to his reading level for a longer amount of time. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nature girl Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Have you tried alternating pages with him? I've done that with DD for a long time, with the harder books, because she gets intimidated by all the print on the page. She reads the page on her side, I read the page on mine...It gives her eyes a break, and I think being able to just listen half the time helps her enjoy the story more. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiara.I Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Reading aloud requires more processing functions to happen than reading silently. In addition to decoding the words, he has to send them to his mouth to pronounce properly, as well as try to manage punctuation and phrasing. I'm not surprised that he chooses to read aloud from easier books than he's reading silently. I really think it's just time. Let him keep reading silently and keep reading aloud to him, and I expect the fluency and willingness will come on its own. But question: For yourself, do you choose to read aloud from books that stretch your reading level? I don't! ;) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Read alouds in our house are often below level. They're to work on cadence, fluency and interpretation. My kid reads chapter books, but last night he chose to read aloud Chomp! A "monster at the end of the book" type story, where the character is pleading with the reader not to turn the pages. It's simply written with a lot of CHOMP!s in there, lol, but he loves being able to read expressively with ease. He picks rhyming books sometimes, sometimes repetitive wording (like King Bidgood)...during reading class he works on vocabulary, phonics patterns, comprehension...we don't mix the two for free reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 It'll take a while. Kids' comfortable read-aloud level is below their instructional level; being able to read any given word on the page is not enough. The longer the passage, the easier it needs to be to keep from wearing him out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 (edited) We did read alouds "popcorn style" ("you read a page, I read a page") all the way up through high school as part of our daily school schedule. We used a mix of books that were at reading level, and some that were just a little above comfortable reading-aloud-level, to help stretch a bit. Alternating pages allowed DSs to "take a break" and just listen and get the rhythm of the writing, ask for the meaning of vocabulary words, or for us to stop and discuss, or summarize what is happening (for when DSs' were focusing so hard on the language they were losing the context). Edited March 31, 2016 by Lori D. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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