4 Simple Skills to Practice During Read-Alouds

{Originally published March 2010}

A bit of thinking-aloud, conversation, and encouragement are all you need to add a little extra learning to your snuggly read-aloud time! Boost your child’s reading comprehension skills by incorporating these simple activities into your existing read-aloud time:

1. Predict

• Look at the cover and read the title. Ask, “What do you think this story will be about?”
• Take a picture walk before reading – look at all the pictures, or just the first few.  Ask, “What do you think is going to happen in this story?”
• Stop reading mid-story and ask, “What do you think will happen next?” or “How do you think this problem is going to be solved?”
• Be sure to revisit your predictions when you finish reading the story.  Were your predictions correct?

2. Question

Think aloud and ask questions while you read.  Encourage your child to ask questions too, especially the classic kid question, “Why?” :)

• I wonder why…
• What would have happened if….?
• What do you think about…?
• Do you have a better solution?

3. Retell

• Encourage your child to use the pictures of a familiar book to retell the story to you.
• Before you start a new chapter, help your child retell what happened in the last chapter.
• Model the use of sequence words for retelling: first, next, then, finally (or last).
  

4. Connect

• Connect with a character: Would you have made the same choices? Which character are you most like?
• Connect with an emotion: How do you think (character) felt? Have you ever felt like that?
• Connect with a place: What do you think it’s like to live there? Would you want to visit this place?
• Connect with another story: This reminds me of another story we have read…

Here are a couple articles with more great ideas for making the most of your read-aloud time:

Reading Tips for Parents (Reading Rockets)

Tips for Reading Aloud With Preschoolers (Reading is Fundamental)

Happy Reading!

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