Ep. 86 Zooming In on Dynamic Read Alouds

Transcript:

Melissa Milner 0:09

Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. I'm your host Melissa Milner, a teacher who is painfully curious and very easily inspired. This podcast is ever changing. And I hope with each season, you find episodes that speak to you in your work as an educator. This is the fourth season of The Teacher As... and it's exciting to see the growth in how many educators are listening. Episodes are released every other week. If you enjoy The Teacher As... please rate it on Apple Podcasts and leave a review, it helps the podcast reach more educators. Thanks for listening.

Here we are at the last episode of the fourth season. I felt a revisit of the read aloud topic was a great way to finish up the season. This way, the teachers who are interested have this summer to think about what I share here, and maybe implement some of the ideas to prepare their read alouds for the school year. If you haven't listened to Episode 74, top 10 Underrated Read Alouds for grades 3-6, you should definitely check it out, as well as Episode 80, which is my read aloud zoom in episode about the book Malamander. I got to chat with Thomas Taylor, the author of Malamander and the whole Eerie on Sea series. He's fantastic, and so are his books. I hope you enjoy this read aloud episode about the ways I make my read aloud dynamic and entertaining for my students.

I love reading aloud to my students. It's fun to read dramatically and bring stories alive for the kids. My acting experience certainly helps me do this. But even the quietest most shy teacher can read dynamically to the class. So what I'm sharing in this episode is some small moves that you can try right away in your read alouds. And then you can slowly add to your read aloud bag of tricks. For me, it all starts with book choice. Make sure you like the book that you're going to read aloud, you will be more likely to read aloud dynamically if you like the characters, and the story. Plus, kids can tell if you don't like the book, and they won't like it either. Make sure it's a book that has something different or surprising about it. Most of the books I read have some sort of surprise element to them, or a different structure. So one of my favorites is By the Great Horn Spoon. There's the main plot, which is from beginning to end of the book. But then each chapter has has a beginning, middle and end, mini subplot. That's a really fun book. Malamander is another one that keeps the kids guessing. And the other thing I like it Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Also, they don't know what NIMH is, until it gets to it in the book. There's so many examples. So what happened recently for me, is I had to read certain read alouds that go along with my district's new reading and writing curriculum. I ended up liking most of the books, but the tips I'm going to share will help you whether you like the book or not.

So along with book choice is reading and knowing the book well, please make sure you read a book before you read it to your class. There are many reasons why doing this is a good idea. So one important reason is avoiding any triggers for students in your class who have experienced any kind of trauma, you can skip that one line or a whole part, or choose to skip the book altogether if it's going to be too much of a trigger. Another is if a student recommends a book for you to read aloud, they may have enjoyed it. But it might not be a book you or your whole class would like I experienced that this year, a student really enjoyed a book. And I knew the series was one that students have enjoyed in the past. So I said yes and broke my rule about reading the book to the class. Before I've read it. It had an interesting premise. But it was the first book in a series, and it took its sweet time getting to any kind of meaningful plot points, since it had to stretch its story across multiple books. Honestly, I didn't like it that much. More importantly, there was not much reaction from the students while I read it. Many seemed bored and it was wordy and confusing for them in parts. Another big reason for reading the book first is to be able to plan out some of the tips that I'm going to mention in this episode. As I mentioned before, this year, we implemented a new reading writing curriculum called ark that stands for American reading company. We received some books only a week or two before starting the unit. We are all busy and it's just not always realistic to get through an entire book before you have to start reading Read aloud. If time won't allow reading ahead, at least find time to pre read what you will be reading that day. So you can do some of the ideas I'm sharing in this episode, your students will hopefully enjoy the read aloud even more. Be present when you're reading. See the movie in your mind, just like we tell students to do. This is easier when you know the book. Knowing the story helps you to know where you want to slow down, get softer or louder, get animated, all things that any teacher can do more about this later.

Another thing I recommend is doing a short book talk before you start reading aloud. This is another reason that it's important to love the books you're reading aloud. I like to give an enthusiastic commercial type book talk about why this is one of my favorite read alouds how it is a favorite of past classes, a little genre talk. And sometimes I talk about how the text is structured. So in the case of SOS Files, I shared that this could be a fun writing assignment for our class to do write SOS stories real or fiction. priming the pump for the book instantly intrigues the class. The next tip is planning and marking up your read aloud. So you can mark it up color code the text for a number of things, pacing, volume, voices that talk more about that. If you're not good at acting on the fly, this can help with confidence. marking up is like a roadmap. I know a lot of people who do audiobooks have color codes for when they read.

Let's get into the real details of when you're doing the actual reading. The first thing I'm going to talk about is pacing, I want to talk about the power of the pause. This is a great way to get students on the edge of their seats. listening intently. The pause also helps when a character is upset, pausing with a serious expression on your face goes a long way. marking where to slow down or speed up could be helpful if you don't naturally feel the timing. When you read aloud, and showing the pictures if there are any, the pacing of stopping, showing the pictures and getting back into the story. There's there's a lot of power in that to try not to stop too much for discussion or teaching. Save that for after if it naturally arises. Or the book has elements you're teaching the students about. So for example, shoeshine girl, we analyze the plot moves that the author makes. So we do like a plot mountain, I really work hard, and sometimes they don't always do it, to not discuss the plot until the end of that read aloud that day. And then immediately afterwards, I asked the students to recall what happened and we do the plot mountain. I do recommend, however, to strategically stop at big moments in the story. So students can infer, which also adds to the anticipation. An example of when you might use the strategic stopping for big moments would be mysteries like the Sami keys series, they're perfect for this. But really all great books apply at some point in the story, they have moments where something's about to turn in the plot, or a character realizes something. So really, really a great use of pacing can help you read aloud be very, very dynamic for the students.

Next is volume. One thing that if this doesn't come naturally to you, is mark up your copy of the read aloud. So some people use highlighters, some like to color code, you can also just put in the margin get loud, or whisper, whispering, so powerful, it's almost as powerful as the pause. At times, it can be even more powerful. So for instance, when a character is angry, instead of getting louder, try whispering with your teeth together, instead of going loud. Kids are riveted by this. getting louder in dramatic parts is sort of the more obvious tip also getting louder when the dialogue requires it. So for instance, in Fantastic Mr. Fox that I'm just recently I just recently finished. There's a woman down in the cellar, getting the cider, and then there's the woman up at the top of the stairs and I'm picturing the seller. I'm picturing the old wooden stairs and I'm picturing the woman at the top. Again that's making the movie in your mind. It makes more for more dramatic reading. But I act this out and I yell so I'll yell with my head up when she He's yelling from the seller up to the woman at the top of the stairs. And then I'll yell, you know, kind of tilted down when the character is yelling down to the person that's in the cellar. acting it out, helps the kids see the story more.

Another tip I have that I don't think is used all the time with teachers. I don't know, some teachers do it naturally. But I think some might not think of doing this. So stopping and looking up at the students and pausing like OMG, I can't believe what I'm about to read. That gets them like what what's going on. So that's really fun. And you as the teacher should react to the story as if you haven't read it before. And so it's really funny, because they'll be like, Oh, my gosh, you know, I wonder if they're going to Baba bah. And sometimes I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I wonder if this character is going to do what I think they're going to do right now. And the kids will be like you said, you've read it before. So it's kind of funny, but I try to as much as possible, react as if it's brand new. Now, you do not have to be Meryl Streep, to strategically look up at the class, when something surprising is about to happen. Pause and you look up with a confused or inquisitive expression, it gets the students so excited, so interested, and they have to put on their inferring hats to fear a what's about to happen, and why she acting like that. Again, anybody can do this.

Another part of read aloud that some people feel they can't do that's doing voices. So putting voices to the characters. Yes, I kind of do this naturally. And yes, the kids love it. But I really believe that any teacher can do voices, it does not have to be this amazing impression of a person. It's just tweaking your voice a little bit. And I'll probably do more about this. in later episodes, I might even try to have a voice actor Come on, who does audio books and and get some tips. But for me, as I'm reading to students, I naturally read ahead to the dialogue tags on the fly in the moment to make sure which characters talking so I do the right voice. And sometimes I mess up, and I stop, I look at the kids and I go that's the wrong voice and they start laughing. You can take note of the character voices if you need suit, you know, so there's dialogue tags, like said Mrs. Boggas. Or you can you can highlight those in your copy. That is very helpful. You also could color code the characters. So and this is a tip I got from someone who does the audiobooks, you could color code the characters so that quickly you know which voice to do. So you could even get that far. Especially if this does not come naturally to you. That's going to be very helpful. And sometimes a voice can just be okay, this character is going to have a low voice. And this character is going to have a high voice. It can be as simple as that. The color code for voices you could mark in the margins. Like I said, you can do the dialogue tags, or you can mark the color code in the margins. If you're not comfortable with acting and trying voices, but want to be I've already mentioned audiobooks. You can listen to books on tape, to hear how the readers do the character voices. And if you have the time and the resources, you should listen to the book on tape of the book you're going to be reading because then you don't have to create the voices. You can steal from the voices on the audiobook. Here's some examples. So for voices, one, I mentioned SOS files. Each short story is supposed to be written by a different student. And there's a picture of the student that tells you sort of what they're kind of like attitude wise, or their personalities, etc. And you would have read the book already, so you would know kind of what voice you might want to choose. I approach this book, as if it's a collection of monologues. I try to do a different voice for each short story. I found this year some of the stories were more like I was a stand up comedian. I have never had kids laugh so hard at my read aloud For this one book SOS files, there is built in comic timing. And if you read ahead, your delivery, if you get the comic timing right and your delivery of the of the of the words, the kids will be crying from from laughing so hard, I just, it just struck them as so funny. I'm sure if I had read it without the voices, I probably wouldn't have captured the timing and the humor of it as well. I also know that my facial expressions certainly made them laugh too. I think I should do an episode where I give examples where I do, you know, do some of this reading aloud and give examples of some of these things. But for now, I'm just sharing the tips.

I just talked about my facial expressions, gestures, facial expressions, body language of the characters sitting up when it's a certain character slouching, when it's another type of character. So for instance, when reading that same Fantastic Mr. Fox scene mentioned earlier, not only did I raise my voice to portray yelling up to the main house, or yelling down to the seller, I also physically looked up or looked down accordingly. And I scrunched up my face and hunched my shoulders up, because the illustration sort of gave that body language kind of hint. That's the other thing is looking at the pictures can give you hints for facial expressions, gestures, and body language. Students really do love when a teacher acts out the parts, or takes on the character's body language, whatever gets students engaged with the story and caring about the characters wins. Another example is if a character is talking about how awesome they are, stand up, or sit up straight, and say the dialogue looking off into the distance or up, make sure to pause for a second afterwards. So for example, I just recently did this with a Fantastic Mr. Fox. At one point, the Fantastic Mr. Fox is talking about how fantastic he is. And there's another point where Mrs. Fox is talking about how Fantastic Mr. Fox is, it's very dreamy, and just looking off into the distance, the kids laughed a lot just at that body language.

I'm going to end with one of I find the most important moves during a read aloud. And it's how to end that day's reading. I keep saying it, it goes back to knowing the book, well, you want to leave them wanting more. So skim ahead and choose where you're going to end that days reading. Or when you first read the book, mark where you think a good stopping spot would be, that's going to make the kids not want you to put that book down. You're making it a moment that students are going to beg you not to stop. It is not always necessarily at the end of a chapter. So once that decision is made, I slow that part down. I dramatically reach for the bookmark. And the kids call out and groan that they don't want me to stop. It is great, and it makes them anticipate the next day's reading. So a couple of examples, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. When Mrs. Frisby gets captured in the kitchen at the end of the chapter, it kills them every time. I do have to say there are some books that that do a really good job of having those little cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. I would say most of the chapter endings of Malamander by Thomas Taylor are perfect cliffhangers so I mean I could go through there's a Thief of Always is another one that has some good stopping points that make the kids go crazy. Shoeshine Girl really any book, you can find these moments. And again, they're not always at the end of a chapter. And then you know you have books that don't even have chapters, right. So you want to find those moments where you can do that. Have fun when you read aloud, and don't be embarrassed as you lose yourself in a character. Your class will thank you for it and remember it for years to come. I hope you'll try even just one of these tips with your next read aloud.

Thanks for listening. For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned. Visit my website at www.theteacheras.com You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.