The single most important activity in school is reading aloud to the children. It is more important than homework, assessments, worksheets, or the interactive work-board. It is the simplest of tools that teachers have, yet the most effective. Reading aloud to children encourages children to want to read on their own; it lays the foundations for listening. Listening comprehension comes before reading comprehension; it provides the basis for children to understand  what they read.

However, it is not just about reading aloud; teachers need to make their reading interesting and absorbing. Teachers should practice their reading skills and learn the art of dramatic reading, thereby engaging the listener. 
School readers

What some schools are creating are ‘school readers’. This means the child reads sufficiently well to pass an exam and understand their text book but does not enjoy reading for pleasure. Reading aloud to children is the first step in creating lifetime readers, who love reading.

We teach our children to read but have forgotten to teach them to want to read.  The children know how to read but they often don’t like to. This means we have School readers, but not the Lifetime readers we really want.  
Some children who came to my school at Grade 6 Level were typical examples of ‘school readers.’  A ‘school reader’ is a child who has never been exposed to proper reading and has purely academic knowledge of text. They rely on direct comprehension and possess no inference skills or understanding of what lies beneath the writing; they are in fact remedial readers. 

Lifetime readers

So how do we get children to read and become Lifetime readers?

First, think about why we read to children. We read to entertain them, give information and explain things to them.  When children enjoy a story they associate it with reading. When we read aloud we are making the child’s brain associate reading with pleasure, thereby providing a role model to which the child’s natural reaction will be, to want to do it again. Listening to a story encourages speaking and writing vocabulary.  They will associate the reading with pleasure and be able to give the background knowledge to a story with ease. Reading aloud increases their vocabulary levels.

Children who read the most, read the best. Children who don’t read much tend to be not very good at reading. Maybe the children who do not read much have had unpleasant associations with reading?  Maybe there is no role model at home to show them that reading is a pleasant experience?  These children will often avoid books.

Within the compass of Reading Aloud is the often ignored Silent Reading.  How often do teachers get their pupils to do this activity?  Having read a passage aloud, a teacher should get pupils to continue reading the chapter in silence on their own. It is a proven fact that children who have Reading Aloud more than once a week score higher marks in tests and comprehension exercises, but that children who have Reading Aloud once a day combined with short sharp sessions of Silent Reading do the best on comprehension exercises and score the highest marks.

 Every time you read aloud to a child you are telling the child about the pleasures of reading.  A big mistake is not reading to children. In my many years of teaching, I have often heard teachers assign a chapter to be read for the next lesson and it makes me want to weep. 

Some parents say “My child is in the highest reading group in Standard 3, why should I read to her, surely the school should be doing that not me?” Yes, but parents can also do so much for their children by reading to them on a regular basis. The child might have scored the highest in reading, but what about that child’s listening level?
Listening skills

Listening skills are often way above a child’s reading age. Listening skills, it is said by researchers, start to match when a pupil reaches 8th/9th Standard. Never lose sight of the fact that pupils listen at a higher level than they read. This means that children can understand stories that are complicated and interesting and way above their own reading age. Remember that Standard One children can understand stories that are Standard 4 level. Standard 5 pupils can enjoy stories that are written for 6th and 7th Standard level.

There is a difference between listening level and reading level.  That is why we should continue to read aloud to children as they mature.  A bond will be created with your pupils as you introduce them to higher vocabulary words, first through the sense of hearing and then through the brain, by explanation.

As teachers, our real objective should be to create lifetime readers. Children who love reading, will continue reading and they will help to educate themselves.

Just think of the pleasure it gives a teacher to enable a child to understand and appreciate a book and its hidden meanings; to become alive when reading.  To be able to facilitate this journey for a child gives so much satisfaction.

It is my firm belief that reading aloud should continue throughout all the levels/grades in schools.