In my last post, oh so long ago, I tried to be encouraging about that reluctant reader, giving you some tips on how to motivate real reading (not rushing to get a reward or being forced to slog through something, anything, but real reading that is enjoyable for its own sake). And the readers’ comments are pure gold!
Perhaps some readers, even if wishing to instill a love of reading in their children, have some trouble reading out loud, which could be just awkwardness or lack of confidence of how to do it. Even professionals have trouble getting it right — have you ever started an audio book only to find that you just can’t take it?
So I will give you a little tutorial; I will tell you all I know.
My first moment of awakened listening to a book read out loud — having left behind the childhood comforts and made my way almost through high school to read on my own, silently, like all the mature folks — came in my senior year AP Lit class. Mrs. Stecchini was the teacher. Far enough into middle age to have solidified her methods, and utterly passionate about each and every book we read, from Chaucer to James, Mrs. Stecchini used her considerable powers of narration to draw us in. For even in this elective class, there were some who weren’t excited — and even those who were needed, she knew, to be shown how to read.
It was in this class that I shed my “devour it quickly” approach to books. I think those of my fellow students who suffered from real reluctance also learned something. Mrs. S. simply carried all along by sheer force of will. At least half of each (double period) class was taken up, simply, with her reading aloud, in a highly idiosyncratic manner, whatever work we were studying. Whole chapters of the densest prose were bestowed on our initially unbelieving ears. She was going to read to us? Like that?
And I had never, ever, heard anyone read the way she did. It took me weeks just to get used to it! But eventually, what I considered her slow pace and over-exaggerated emphasis on parts of sentences I would have just skimmed past, became the norm for me — and the artistry of the author we were examining was able to bloom fully in my intellect. (This was most true of Henry James, not my favorite writer, mind, but one whose polished prose is lost on most high school students who don’t have a Mrs. S. to guide them.)
Her class made me realize that I needed voices in my head as I read, that a good writer chooses every word carefully — so every word must be given its due, which means not more than its due, but also not less; that savoring good writing is its own reward; in short, that the reader is part of the art of writing: the writer depends on his reader to meet him halfway.
So — reading out loud to children, some thoughts:
Choose (and make) a good place. So many living areas aren’t conducive to comfortable conversation or listening — it pains Auntie Leila! David Clayton and I actually go over this to some extent in our book, The Little Oratory, just because family life in general is related to family life in prayer, of course. (Some reviewers called what we said “holy decorating” or decorating for a purpose other than a. to put things in a room or b. to make an impression.)
Mainly, consider pulling the furniture, at least some of it, away from the walls and into proximity with each other, so that some could sit on chairs nearby and still hear.
Maybe you have a ceiling light fixture, maybe not; but regardless, you need at least three lamps in any given room. Please, I will not tire of begging you, get incandescent light bulbs, if only for these living areas where a warm glow, not a harsh glare, is so very necessary for flourishing. You can always have an extra soup night to pay for them.
Of course, you might read in the hammock or by the campfire or in the tent or under the stars or in your big bed or by the fire, and that’s all good too.
Timing: it’s never going to work to try to read aloud when everyone is bursting with climbing, swimming, jumping, or running energy. Rest time is excellent (although dangerous for the overtired parent; in my later years with Bridget I would sometimes just say “Mama’s going to put her head juuust back here for ten minutes…”); after supper and the Rosary; before bedtime when baby is finally asleep. Everything has its time and place… but a really wonderful book will tempt you to “read one more chapter!” — which is such a joy, isn’t it?
Excellent reading happens when you know the book and know what’s coming. Even if you can’t read it first, you can read ahead in the text as you go, even a little, to make a big difference in how you sound. Read ahead by phrase, scan the page as you go. Your brain retains the words and you can speak them while your eyes move ahead; this skill is the very heart of successful reading out loud — once you get good at it you can help your children much better to figure it out for themselves, and then they become excellent readers out loud.
Reading ahead helps you see the words in phrases and plan ahead how you will use your voice to convey whatever emotion, tension, relaxation, drama, or other mode fits best. When you scan ahead, you can usually catch the occasional “he said in a low whisper” direction that’s unhelpfully thrown in after the actual dialogue, which you might otherwise read loudly or what have you. You can sort out who is saying what in untagged exchanges. You can foresee where a dramatic pause would work best. Et cetera.
Phrasing enables you to present a thought in a unified way. Because most of us rarely read aloud, and because journalism, not fiction, rules our day, contemporary sentences often just plop the subject at the start of the sentences.
Older fiction is more subtle, uses more dependent clauses, runs on with more freedom; hence, the ability to see where the phrase is going in relation to the whole of the sentence and even paragraph has a salutary effect on how we read.
Vary the speed of your words. One of my pet peeves with even professional narrators is equating slowness and even pace with effective reading aloud. Yes, fast is not great, but even Mrs. Stecchini wasn’t always slow — it’s just that when she did want to go slow, she really took her time! Some words are getting you to where you need to be; you can’t leave them out, but they point to something beyond. Some are tricky to process or have more importance, or have an unusual meaning that takes a moment to understand; these are the ones you linger on. The best books are written with a certain amount of irony and a sort of detachment from the narrator and characters; you’ll have to vary your pace to catch all that.
Silences and pauses are reading too!
Try voices. This can seem daunting and silly, but here’s the secret: begin with your own natural voice, making it the voice for the narrator. Another criticism I have of audio books I’ve listened to is when the default voice — the voice you are going to listen to the most — is strained and either too loud or too soft, and often overly self-conscious and dramatic. Relax your voice and use its best placement. (Rosie said: Be sure you tell them to have a relaxed default voice! I said: I am telling them!)
How to find this default voice, that is, your own voice? Think of the sound that comes out of your mouth as a soft ping-pong ball. The ball should be just behind your teeth, in the middle of your mouth, not in your throat or in your nose or caught in your palate or lying on your tongue! Relax your throat while you are talking normally to people and make some space there in your mouth for that ball! Soon you’ll feel how it should be.
Give the protagonist a slightly higher — slightly — or slightly lower pitch than your natural voice, depending on its sex. If the main character is a girl, pitch your voice slightly higher; if a boy, slightly lower (if you are a man, make a boy’s voice higher than yours but not as high as the voice you will give to the main girl in the story). Otherwise, keep the manner of speaking the same as yours, for this character. This is what I think of as the “default” voice, and the narrator as my own voice that I revert to.
Whenever you come upon another character, give it a slightly different sound — whether accent or pace or intonation, just like in real life. In fact, I sometimes make certain characters sound like people I know who remind me of them! Breathless like the checkout lady I always see, or nasal like the reader at Church, etc. Here’s where you play around with moving that ping-pong ball I was talking about.
And accents are fun; you can channel all your BBC favorites, giving each character a different regional accent. A drawl, a lisp, a thickening… just a little of this goes a long way, so don’t think you have to be super accurate or very consistent — it’s more just a flavor to keep each member of the cast separate.
NB: When you are reading Scripture — especially if you are a reader at Mass — keep all these ideas to the minimum. Sacred Scripture, though often very dramatic, must be read with gravitas (dignity) and austerity.
Gently emphasize difficult words. Many readers think that clarity demands landing on all the consonants… which too often means that it’s all Tees and Esses. Keep those light and give a little more oomph to the Dees (especially those at the end of words) and others. Names especially need just a little more daylight around them (that is, don’t run them into other words) so that they can be made out.
Listen to good readers and imitate them. We will try to get you a good list of our favorite narrators soon! If you search for “read aloud” here on the blog, you will find many of our recommendations for which books make the best read alouds — and you know what? They are the best written books. Sometimes we have trouble reading aloud because the book just isn’t that great. It’s a good test, actually!
Thanks to Rosie for all the reading aloud pictures, including the fun phone ones! (Although this last one is mine 🙂
I was planning to compliment you on the charming photos, but it turns out the compliment goes to Rosie. They are so lovely and sweet!
What do you do about accents? I’m reading The Secret Garden to my boys right now and every time Dickon enters the scene with his Yorkshire dialect I get all tangled up. My default is to convert to ordinary American English because I find it too difficult. Also I feel silly….
I did read this aloud to my girl, but I didn’t know what a Yorkshire accent sounded like. Now, I may just put this one in as an audio book, because I’m bad at accents. I am also going to do that for Uncle Remus, because I cannot do that accent! I don’t think there’s any shame in that.
Tia and others — don’t overthink the accents. It’s fine to read without accents or just do your own generic British accent or what have you — it’s really important just to read to your children without worrying too much about it.
Yes, you can listen to some examples (it would be fun to watch some All Creatures Great and Small and learn your Yorkshire accent that way!) — and that would be fun!
But it’s fine! It’s all good!
This is going to sound silly, but I actually always read out loud in a British accent. English is my second language and somehow it just helps me enunciate better. Plus, I always admired the way the British are brilliant storytellers and I think in a strange way, it helps me put more “acting” into it. Since I’m already not speaking in my normal voice, I can enter into “character” with better ease. A funny consequence of this is that I hear my daughters pretend play in different accents!
Thank you for the note about lectors. As a lector at my parish, I read pretty straightforward, with very few long pauses and very little excitement (ie almost none). Some of our lectors read like it’s story hour at the library. Makes. Me. Crazy. Watch the priest. He does not look up, nor add drama.
That said, reading out loud to children is one of my favorite things. As a brand-new first-time grandma, I’m sooo excited! He loves to listen and watch us talk to him already (at two weeks) so I can’t wait to get into books!
I was also interested to see the note on the difference for reading Scripture at Mass. The lectors at my church tend to read in a monotone, which, personally, drives me crazy! There must be a happy medium! 🙂 Honestly though, I have thought they must have been told to do it that way, because I just couldn’t believe anyone would really read like that naturally. And I understand that a reader can “shade” the interpretation of the text depending on how they emphasize words and enunciate certain things, but is it strictly necessary to read in a monotone? Because it seems to me that so much of the real sense of the text is lost if the reader drones on in the same tone for the entire section; it’s been something I’ve pondered quite a bit since converting. I thought about asking what was involved in being a Lector, but decided there was simply no way I would be able to read in that manner, and so haven’t looked into it.
We had a lector at our former parish who was a member of the community theater. She always put feeling and drama into her reading, and it drove me crazy. It made the kids rolls their eyes and sometimes snicker (not a good experience of Scriptures). This lector trained other lectors and the problem multiplied, especially since most of the lectors could not carry off the theatrics. The lector by kids liked the best was a dignified older gentleman.
Oy, all these people need to stop. Scripture needs to be read with dignity and restraint! But not monotone!
Agree. It shouldn’t be a monotone. But it shouldn’t be a Dramatic Reading, Either. I was so blessed to have a seventh grade teacher who had left a convent during formation–we never knew the story, but it was always Highly Interesting or us to think about–and anyway, she taught us how to lector appropriately. Essentially, you can add some emphasis, but don’t read fast. Don’t read too slow. Be sure to stop appropriately at the punctuation. Project! (Gosh, so many people do not know how to project…..) And look up every so often. 🙂 And enunciate!
As far as reading to kids–this is all the best advice. It is so vital! So many of my parent friends do not know how to read aloud to their kids, and I feel like I have to give them tutorials!
Wonderful post! I too used to have a “devour it quickly” approach to reading, but have learned to relax and enjoy the author’s words. It may take longer to work your way through the book, but I find it far more rewarding. It’s amazing how learning better ways to read aloud can even improve your personal silent reading!
The suggestion from Read Aloud Revival for getting accents was to listen to them on youtube. I believe that was in the Melissa Wiley episode. The second and third episodes are Jim Weiss talking about reading aloud well. Thanks for your thoughts on how to read aloud well.
What great advice! I’ve know some of your tips instinctively, but it’s great to see it set down in writing. Do you find that if an adult reader follows these “rules,” children pick up how to read aloud well without effort?
One of my husband’s pet peeves, is that people don’t read poetry or plays aloud. “It’s like music; it’s meant to be heard.” This was a new idea to me, and when I’d hear his voice coming from an otherwise empty room, I’d ask him if he was talking to himself. He’d give me an exasperated look, and tell me he was reading a poem (or Shakespeare). After 30 years of marriage, I think I get it.
One thing to add to your first tip: Get comfortable, but sturdy furniture – for the reader and listeners. Kids love to gather around or snuggle around the reader (as you see from your photos) and also want to see the pictures if it’s a picture book. Depending on the number of bodies, that sometimes means sitting behind the head of the reader or on the arms of the chair or wherever they can squeeze in. If some bodies aren’t going to fit on the furniture, make sure you have a comfortable rug and plenty of throw pillows.
Kate, great thought from your husband! And yes, children DO learn to read well, both silently and aloud, when adults read to them well!
Though some more easily than others (learning to read aloud well). For some of them, I think it just takes practice!
Great suggestions all! My mother read to me and just used her normal voice for everything; I didn’t notice or care, I just loved that she read to me: Anne of Green Gables, The Prince and The Pauper; Heidi, etc. I did the same with our children, no special effects, just reading and they loved it too. I miss the togetherness and look forward to some grandchildren in the future to read to and enjoy introducing good literature to them.
This is very very sweet Auntie Leila, thanks a million for the words and beautiful pictures of so many of your treasures.
I have been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately and that has really helped me with my reading aloud skills. Most frequent on my list are classics (because they are easy to check out from the library and because I am trying to fill in the gaps of my literary education). There are a lot of narrators that I really enjoy, especially from Recorded Books, they have good readers and good directors. Barbra Caruso, who reads Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. Flo Gibson, who reads Jane Austen and Jane Eyre, Patrick Tull, who reads some Sherlock Holmes, Dickens, Around the World in 80 Days, and The Vicar of Wakefield. John Horton, who read the Innocence of Fr. Brown. Alexander Spencer who I really liked in Dracula though he has also read some Doyle, Wells, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Listening to these books has cured me of the hurry up and get through it phase, into a phase where I really appreciate good writing.
Yes to all the above. It’s also nice to know that you can say “no” to reading aloud books you don’t enjoy reading aloud. (This is probably obvious to everybody out there, but for me it was hard at first to say “let’s pick a different book” when the little ones would bring me something “Meh…” to read.) I love reading Beatrix Potter and others aloud, but would much rather listen to our beloved British recording of Winnie the Pooh etc. And I leave those really repetitive ‘easy readers’ to the beginning readers. I tell them. “You will be reading that book soon on your own, so let’s read something else together.” Sometimes, children just pick whatever their eyes happen upon first, so unless they really have their hearts set on it, I don’t mind choosing an alternate that I can really enjoy and do a good job with as well.
One thing I can’t really explain because it seems so obvious, but really pay attention to “reading” the punctuation. My mom was always fabulous at reading as if she was telling a story and doing dialogue the way real people talk; I didn’t know there was any other way! But my dear mother in law ignores commas and occasionally periods! She reads like it’s one big run on sentence and breathes when she runs out of breath instead of at the normal punctuation where normal people breathe when speaking normally. Maybe it’s my mom and dad’s singing background…you have to breath in the “right” place.
Kari
Kari, exactly! I was trying to get at this with the “phrasing” section but you hit the nail on the head. The punctuation is there to guide you… the whole keep reading until you run out of breath method is not the best one LOL.
Thanks!
Stellar topic! I love this post and all the lovely photos. It makes me want to make some cocoa curl up with a book and read to anyone that will listen. In this case my little French bulldog who loves to listen to me read out loud. We noticed some time ago that he loves to sit quietly and listen attentively when we read children’s stories. So it’s a win for the whole family.
Faith
I find this post so moving, both as a young married woman who’s looking forward to having children and as an educator. There’s this narrative that life with young children just has to be total chaos all the time, but these pictures show that’s not the case! I love the sense of family togetherness in them. As a teacher, I also find it very moving that Mrs S’s words are still with you all these years later and have brought a beautiful love of reading to your family too. I just love this blog. It makes me feel so hopeful and reassured. Thank you for all you do, LMLD ladies!
Such a beautiful post! And the photos (as is so often the case in your posts) offer their own unspoken lesson. I’m reminded of what my mother calls “the bubble”—a warm, safe, loving space, in which children can relax enough to learn. The physical closeness that comes with reading aloud, especially in the early years, is part of what helps connect children to books and stories, I believe. And, in the older years, even if everyone isn’t still on your lap, that connection persists. I have such warm memories of my mother reading aloud ‘The Sword and the Stone’ when I was a teenager, and my father joining in to sing “God save King Pendragon” in his beautiful deep voice! And, your practical suggestions about voice are wonderful! In my family, we talk about avoiding the dreaded “teachers voice” at all costs—it’s that patronizing, sing-song voice some people use with young children. When my mother is hiring teachers (can you tell this is a much-discussed topic in our family!?), she has them choose a favorite children’s book and read it aloud – as an important part of the hiring process!
Seamus Heaney reading his translation of Beowulf is stupendous. Years after listening to it, there are still certain phrases marked in my memory for the way he relishes the words and plays with the consonants. A lot of that is due to the structure of Anglo-Saxon poetry, which in and of itself is a lot of fun to read out loud, both for the subject matter and the construction. To give you a taste…. imagine Heaney’s deep brogue as he narrates Grendel the monster making his way to the hall and the hero tearing him down: “In off the moors, down through the mist, God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping . . . Sinews split and the bone-lappings burst.”
It used to all be available online, on WW Norton’s website and on YouTube. If it isn’t anymore, I have the discs if you want to borrow it!
Lovely post with such cozy pictures! We are almost done with our third straight read through of Winnie-the-Pooh and our three-year-old is starting to quote it- it’s so lovely! (Though, yes, we just need to get her the House at Pooh Corner and Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.) I tend to forget what voice I’m doing for which character and just drop voices altogether, so thanks for the prompting to go back to that.
I just re-read the “Should Parent or Child Choose” Post, and I saw that you gave the great advice to find out why a child likes a mediocre book and find something that fits that need but is better. Anyone have advice for a three-year-old who loves the Olivia books (and has for a year!)??? The two we own are on the “upper closet rotation” more or less permanantly (mother-in-law gift, will probably get rid of them in the future) but she will just gravitate to them in a store. Even the “based on the TV show” ones that have none of the cleverness in the original. What can I give her instead???
Do you know the Max and Ruby books? They are lovely – Max and ruby are rabbits – and the illustrations are great for that age. Rosemary Wells is the author.
Thank you, we will check them out! We just got her “Ten Kisses for Sophie” and it seems that has a similar attraction to Olivia.
And the ‘Mother and Father to Be’ can read together to their babe that is yet to come into this world. And then that new born babe will remember, and be soothed and comforted, when his parents take up the same books to be read again.
Haven’t quite finalised the ‘Antenatal Booklist’, The gift of these books to the ‘Parents to Be’ comes with a bookplate that has written on it the names of the expecting mother and father. For some reason I think there is something in these books actually being the Parent’s books and that the Parents are reading/sharing them with their children from and early age.
Thank you for the wonderful tips. I also loved the photos!
One of my favorite audio book narrators is Finty Williams. She’s Dame Judi Dench’s daughter, and has definitely inherited her mother’s talent. I don’t think that she has narrated any children’s books, but a friend and I are convinced she could make the phone book sound riveting!
Good narrator: the late Robert Hardy (RIP)! E.g. the Patrick O’Brian novels, among others. Great reader-aloud-er