Leading to Read: Read Aloud Tips: How to Read a Story: Getting Started

1. Book Selection

• Read from different genres
• Choose books for your audience
• Pre-read the book to find words or illustrations for discussions

2. Prepare the space

• If your read-aloud is for a group or one-on-one, find a space that suits the need

3. Plan time (15-20 min) and also prompts during the reading of the book

4. Introduce the book

• Show the book cover and have the viewer guess what the book might be about
• Read the author and illustrator to understand the concepts and become familiar with names
• Hold the book wide open and at your side while reading the story 

5. Hold the book wide open

6. Read with expression

• Dramatic
• Fun
• Sound effects
• Hand motions 
• Facial expressions

7. Build in space for response

• Have listeners repeat a line
• Do hand motions
• Make sound effects
• Share what the listener is thinking

8. Develop ways to respond

• Some questions can be answered right away to understand the story
• Some questions are answered in the story itself.

9. Encourage guessing what happens next while reading

• Point out details in illustrations
• Invite listeners to use their senses and emotions
  • Have listeners pretend to be a character
  • Ask  how the character feels
  • What did the character hear?
  • What did the character smell?

10. Watch the audience and adjust as needed to continue engagement

11. Create time at the end of the story to ask for story responses and reactions

Questions to ask during or after the read-aloud:

• Use who, what, where, when, why, and how
  • Examples
    • What is the character doing
    • How does the character feel
    • What happened?
    • What are they doing?
    • Why did they respond that way?
    • What do you think will happen next?
    • How would you have written this story?