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The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

spectator.co.uk

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Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#51

Post by tlb »

petercooper wrote: post #13

I love reading, but since having kids (I'd never had to read aloud before) have discovered I find the sensations around reading aloud to be extremely unpleasant. Anything that rhymes/has a sing-song meter is OK.. but I find normal prose gruelling and can't wait for it to be over. It feels like a sort of claustrophobia, but trapped by the slowness rather than physically. I often end up paraphrasing or dropping unneces…

A lot of prose sucks to read aloud, because the author didn't try it. Philip Roth, to pick one of many, doesn't work well spoken. Tolkien read chapters in development aloud to his kids every night, and it shows in the way it flows. Pick a good author and keep practicing!

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#52

Post by sundvor »

dangayle wrote: post #5

It's been long established that reading aloud to your children is one of the best ways to advance their early learning. ( https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2267171 )

I can easily do half an hour or more for my six year old at night. Have always been reading for him, but it's more enjoyable now that he understands more interesting works.

Revisiting my child hood classics such as Hardy Boys, mixing in Harry Potter (books are so much better than the first and only movie that I saw) and so on: Feels like quality time, and a great way to connect. I can easily get into those books too, even in my mid 40s. ;)

I have noticed that enjoyment increases with my reading engagement level - creating different voices for the different characters and such. He has attention issues, and it's a pleasure to have him focusing on something other than a screen. I will stop every few minutes and ask questions to check if he is really listening to the story and not just the sound of my voice. Previously, it might have been more of the latter.

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#53

Post by quickthrower2 »

KGIII wrote: post #49
beachy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try reading Dr. Seuss's "Fox in socks" for a chore.

When hiring secretarial and sales staff, I'd have them read that book. It was a great way to tell their abilities to enunciate and share information. It was also good to see how well they'd perform under pressure.

Old fashioned whiteboarding

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#54

Post by sundvor »

clord wrote: post #31

Just finished reading the hobbit and lord of the rings to my 7 year old. I absolutely loved it, and he's a full blown Tolkien nut now. Previously we read through Harry Potter. By the end I noticed I have really developed a voice. He has developed a richer vocabulary (dad what is "clemency") and is better at reading between the lines. Certainly enjoyable and educational for everyone. Looking forward to the next series…

Great work; yep, it is interesting to notice how interactively I'm reading for my own six year old, sometimes substituting hard words for simple ones, at other times stopping to explain a new one.

It's a great learning experience and quality bonding time.

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#55

Post by gnicholas »

sova wrote: post #17

Not sure how relevant this is but I worked at a dayschool for a beat and they had a few service dogs come in to sit with the children while the kids "read to the dog." Most doggies are really chill and the kids were able to read without fear of criticism or correction, and the dog was there always happy. Studies (don't ask me for references, dunno) show that by reading to a dog at a young age, people become much more…

Looks like there was a study [1] that looked at reading skill and reading attitudes among young children. Attitudes improved, skills did not.

But over time, students with better attitudes toward reading probably do more of it, and therefore get better at it.

1: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-therapy-dogs-literacy-attitude...

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#56

Post by thret »

mikepurvis wrote: post #8

My wife and I had a long-distance courtship. We used to read novels to each other over Skype. It was a nice change from chatting when we'd run out of things to say, and a fun way to share favourite stories. We didn't ever try to read anything really ambitious, but that was part of what made it enjoyable— even just kids' chapter books, stuff like Gordon Korman, Louis Sachar, Sid Fleischman. We don't read to each other…

I loved Gordon Korman as a child, does he hold up as an adult? I practically memorised "I Want To Go Home".

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#57

Post by ycombobreaker »

kenjackson wrote: post #11

I used to read to my kids and what is interesting is that for the first time in my life I discovered some things that I never learned as I went through school. 1) Reading poetry is really enjoyable. To this day, if my son asks me to read to him, I'll probably try to read poetry. It just feels so good to read. 2) There are certain books that I really enjoy reading aloud and others that I don't. And its not the content…

My personal favorites are Where the Wild Things Are and The Giving Tree. Both stories are very simple, but they flow well and IMHO really grow when read aloud.

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#58

Post by cyberferret »

One of my fondest memories of our trip to England/Scotland many years ago, was my wife in the passenger seat reading me entire chapters of a book that I had bought in a beautiful little bookshop earlier in the trip while we did long cross country drives.

Must admit though, that my wife has a fantastic speaking voice, and should probably do voice over work or something in her spare time. We were both at a seminar once, where the presenter asked her to read out some customer quotes. As soon as she read the first one, he basically handed her the script to read most of his actual presentation after that.

Myself personally though, I don't read aloud much at all. I always find that my brain tends to work much faster than my mouth muscles, and I frequently speak too fast or stumble over words, which results in me speaking less in public in front of strangers especially.

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#59

Post by EugenioPerea »

clord wrote: post #31

Just finished reading the hobbit and lord of the rings to my 7 year old. I absolutely loved it, and he's a full blown Tolkien nut now. Previously we read through Harry Potter. By the end I noticed I have really developed a voice. He has developed a richer vocabulary (dad what is "clemency") and is better at reading between the lines. Certainly enjoyable and educational for everyone. Looking forward to the next series…

I read Harry Potter to my kids, on Periscope, and it turned out to be wonderful. Their English skills developed tremendously, we spent a lot of time together doing it, and they understood that the internet needs constant input from normal users to remain such a fantastic resource.

Re: The Lost Pleasure of Reading Aloud

#60

Post by nicolas314 »

sundvor wrote: post #52
dangayle wrote: post #5

It's been long established that reading aloud to your children is one of the best ways to advance their early learning. ( https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2267171 )

I can easily do half an hour or more for my six year old at night. Have always been reading for him, but it's more enjoyable now that he understands more interesting works. Revisiting my child hood classics such as Hardy Boys, mixing in Harry Potter (books are so much better than the first and only movie that I saw) and so on: Feels like quality time, and a great way to connect. I can easily get into those books too,…

Did the same with my first son with all Harry Potter books, which came out as he grew up. When my second son was born he caught up with the early books by watching the movies then participating to our reading sessions. I acted all voices when reading, and we sometimes would re-enact a complete scene all together, improvising lines to fit with the story and acting with any kind of props we could put our hands on.

My sons are grown-ups now, how I miss these times.

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