Reading aloud
Reading aloud to children and teenagers is enjoyable and stimulates interest, imagination and a love of reading. Finding and choosing a ‘read-aloud’ that you and your students will enjoy is crucial. Explore our other tips and resources.
Benefits of reading aloud
Research proves conclusively that one simple activity — reading aloud to children — is the best way to prepare them for learning to read and to keep them reading as they learn and grow.
The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.
Anderson et al, 1985, Becoming a nation of readers: The report of the Commission on Reading
Reading aloud also benefits secondary school students and opens up the world of books to non-readers and those who are struggling. Teresa Cremin, a Professor of Literacy at the Open University, insists that reading aloud and discussing texts is crucial and creates a sense of community. She says:
Research indicates that reading aloud to young people, without attendant work, is a key pedagogic and professional practice in fostering reading for pleasure. It is not an optional ‘extra’ activity, but every child’s right to hear fiction, non-fiction and poetry read aloud with passion and pleasure. Such shared experiences offer rich reading role models, create ‘books in common’ in families and in classrooms and help build communities of readers … this is not just crucial in the early years but across primary schooling and beyond.
— Keep reading to children into their teenage years, urge experts
Oturu School case study — Oturu School worked with Services to Schools on a capability-building project to investigate and develop teacher reading-aloud practice.
The power of the story — Ben Brown, inaugural Te Awhi Rito New Zealand Reading Ambassador.
Strengthens speaking, listening, writing and more
Hearing stories read aloud:
increases students' vocabulary, comprehension and grammatical understanding
helps them appreciate the beauty and rhythm of language
enhances imagination and observation skills
improves critical and creative thinking skills
expands a student’s general knowledge and understanding of the world
develops positive attitudes to reading and stories as sources of pleasure and information — helping create lifelong readers
builds community and a sense of belonging through the shared literary experience.
If we are to empower students as readers of all the texts in their world, we must ensure they have ample opportunity to listen to and reflect upon the broadest possible range of text types.
— Linda Hoyt, author of the Interactive Read-Alouds: Linking Standards, Fluency, and Comprehension series (Heinemann)
How to read aloud — some tips
First and foremost, read. As a reading role model, you will inspire your students to read. You'll be able to talk about and recommend books and it makes selecting read-alouds easier.
Extend your reading beyond the familiar. Explore children’s literature review journals and websites. See what booksellers and book-focused social media accounts are recommending.
Some other general guidelines include:
Read to suit yourself and your students.
Set aside a regular place and time — at least 15–20 minutes per day.
The more you read aloud, the better you get.
Here is some read-aloud advice from writer, educator and international literacy expert, Mem Fox:
Choose appropriate reading material
Appropriate reading material is essential when you are reading aloud.
Choose a story you will enjoy reading aloud. Your enthusiasm will be contagious, and you'll feel more confident as a reading role model.
Select stories with:
an interesting plot, dialogue
some suspense or adventure
suitable emotional content for the age and background of the students.
Look for books that support and extend the students’ needs and interests.
Ask students for suggestions. Booktalk 4 or 5 options and ask the class to vote for one.
Reading aloud for pleasure can be a powerful shared experience, but it is not a panacea, a solo remedy that turns disengaged readers into keen and eager ones. When thoughtfully planned and developed in a manner which is learner led, informal, social and with texts that tempt, reading aloud can inspire and motivate choice-led independent reading.
— Teresa Cremin et al (2023)
Other things to note when choosing a read-aloud book:
Books heavy on dialogue or dialect are harder to read and listen to.
An award-winning book isn’t necessarily a great read-aloud.
Don’t choose a book which is very well known, for example, because it's been made into a film or adapted for television. Once the plot is known, much of the interest is lost.
Avoid long descriptive passages until the listeners can handle them.
Look for books that represent a variety of cultures or experiences in content and illustration.
Many public libraries will have read-aloud book lists. Journals of children's books also recommend read-alouds in their reviews.
Books and Reads — for kids and teens — a number of the sites included in this tool have lists of read-alouds.
Find read-alouds in our Schools Lending Collection — available through our school lending service.
Lending service — about our lending service for schools and home educators, and what you can borrow.
Share recommendations for great read-alouds with your library and teaching colleagues, either through listservs or at network meetings. Set up regular staff-sharing sessions.
Prepare for reading aloud
Preparing for reading aloud helps avoid surprises.
Pre-read or skim the book to identify any possible pitfalls, such as:
unexpected themes or plot developments, and
good ‘stopping points’ like a cliffhanger.
Match the length of the story with the children’s attention spans and listening skills. Begin with short selections and increase story length gradually.
Decide whether you want multiple copies of the book so children can read along if they want.
Try to set aside at least one time each day to read aloud. Don’t leave a long gap between read-aloud sessions of a serial novel. Keep it regular, and remember you can read quite a lot in 5 minutes!
Don’t use withdrawal of read-aloud time as a threat.
Let your school librarian know what you are going to read aloud, as there may be a surge in demand for the book. This allows them to buy an extra copy or request the book from our lending service to meet demand.
I know precisely when I fell in love with reading. Mrs Kermode, my standard four (year six) teacher, read to our class every afternoon for up to an hour. The way she read and the books she chose, still fondly remembered so many decades later, drew me in so much that I would desperately await that time to arrive each day.
— Blair McMillan, author's notes in ‘Here Upon the Tide’ (David Bateman Ltd)
At the start of the read-aloud session
Build anticipation. In the days before the session, express your excitement about the new book. Give clues or drop hints.
Show the cover and read the title, author and illustrator of the book. ‘Name drop’ if you have information, for example, other stories by the same author or similar titles.
Explain why you chose the book, and suggest things to look at, or listen for, during the story.
Allow a minute or two to settle and for everyone to get comfortable.
Some students may need an activity to keep their hands busy while listening, such as creating a pen or pencil drawing related to the story.
Reading pace and eye contact
Read at a varied and moderate pace and allow listeners to create mental images of the words. Make eye contact with your students, and change your voice to fit the mood or action.
When a book isn’t working
Don’t persevere with a book your students aren't enjoying. Discuss the reasons it’s not working before moving on to a new book or activity.
If you're unsure, one approach could be to tell students, ‘We’ll start on Monday. If, by Friday, we agree it isn’t working then we’ll stop’.
Alternatively, give a book a ‘50-page test’. If the students are not hooked after 50 pages, discuss whether to keep going or start a different book.
Reading to tweens and teenagers
Older students also need to develop their listening skills and stamina. Reading aloud provides an opportunity for them to hear stories they may have missed out on — myths and legends, books from childhood or stories beyond their comfortable reading level.
Things to consider
As well as novels, you could read:
short stories
poetry
magazine articles
newspaper columns or editorials
non-fiction books.
With novels, it’s even more important to preview the book.
Read a chapter or a good ‘chunk’ each day — keep the momentum going.
Read books that suit students intellectually, socially and emotionally.
Keep them hanging — finish at the end of a chapter. If it's a long chapter, stop somewhere that will leave them wanting to know what happens next.
We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. To do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves.
— Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman on why we read and what books do for the human experience
Reading aloud: Are students ever too old?
Use reading aloud to create a listening culture
Reading aloud requires listening, which you can support in a number of ways:
Extend the duration of the read-aloud sessions as your audience become better listeners.
Ask the children to listen for interesting words. Write down interesting words from the text and their meanings. Encourage students to use these words in their own writing.
Use a bulletin board to add information about the book as you read, such as words, author information, related works, other books in the series, and artwork.
After the read-aloud session
After the read-aloud session, you could:
do ‘warm ups’ and ‘follow ups’ — allow time for discussion after the story (and during the story, as appropriate) but avoid quizzes and tests
make the book available for students to borrow when you have finished.
You might want to share your own thoughts about the story or discuss aspects of the story — engaging in book chat, for example:
Does this book remind you of another book? Why?
What is your favourite part of the story and why?
How did the story make you feel?
How might you feel or act if you were one of the characters in the story?
Has anything that takes place in the story ever happened to you?
One teacher's journey towards building a class reading culture — Trina Yuretich shares how reading aloud improved the reading engagement of tamariki.
Find out more
Articles and research
Improving empathy in children: Interactive read-aloud as a counseling intervention by Eleanor Thompson and Shekila Melchior, 2019 — Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, volume 15(5), pages 199–211.
Interactive read-aloud instruction with narratives: Teaching inferencing using theory of mind by Jerae Kelly and Ana M Taboada Barber, 2021 — Teaching Exceptional Children, volume 54(2), pages 106–115.
The Open University Reading for Pleasure — reading aloud research, strategies and examples of practice.
Reading aloud: Children's attitudes toward being read to at home and at school by Susan Ledger and Margaret K. Merga, 2018 — Australian Journal of Teacher Education, volume 43(3), pages 124–139.
Reading aloud can increase a child’s resilience at school, study shows — News Medical Life Sciences article, March 2022.
Reading aloud to your kids might make them smarter — Phys.org article, May 2022.
Reading for pleasure and purpose report — Farshore Insight (formerly Egmont Insight), released March 2022.
Two different communication genres and implications for vocabulary development and learning to read by Dominic W. Massaro, 2015 — Journal of Literacy Research, volume 47(4).
Using the read-aloud and picture books for social justice by Katherine E. L. Norris, 2015 — Kappa Delta Pi Record, volume 56(4), pages 183–187.
What are teachers reading and why? An analysis of elementary read aloud titles and the rationales underlying teachers' selections by Kristin Conradi Smith, Craig A. Young and Jane Core Yatzeck, 2022 — Literacy Research and Instruction, pages 1–19.
Online resources
NZreadaloud — a social literacy approach that connects classes across Aotearoa New Zealand with a focus on NZ authors.
Picture books read aloud videos for lesson use — Pernille Rip’s curated list.
Read aloud — Mem Fox, a passionate advocate of reading aloud, demonstrates on her site how to read aloud and provides a wealth of articles and resources.
Read aloud 15 minutes — offers a wonderful selection of posters for download, a blog and lists of recommended books to read aloud.
Reading aloud — tips for parents and teachers — Literacy Connections website has a range of information.
The Global Read Aloud — a project focusing on reading aloud one book during a 6-week period to make as many global connections as possible.
World Read Aloud Day activity pack — every year World Read Aloud Day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories.
Books
Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Collins, F. M., Powell, S., & Safford, K. (2014). Building communities of engaged readers: Reading for pleasure. Routledge.
Cremin, T., Hendry, H., Rodriguez Leon, L., & Kucirkova, N. (2023). Reading teachers: Nurturing reading for pleasure. Routledge.
Read-aloud brochures to download and share
Download the following read-aloud brochures. They include tips and strategies for reading to children, with an emphasis on reading for pleasure and listening to your child read.
Read aloud — English (pdf, 1.1MB)
Me pānui ā-waha — te reo Māori (pdf, 1MB)
Faitau fakaleo — Tokelauan (pdf, 265KB)
Faitau leotele — Samoan (pdf, 254KB)
Laukonga le'olahi — Tongan (pdf, 266KB)
Read aloud — Arabic (pdf, 285KB)
Read aloud — Hindi (pdf, 283KB)
Read aloud — simplified Chinese (pdf, 565KB)
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