Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 1
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud
What I Need To Know From This Lesson
 Fourteen skills of a good reader.
 How to mark up a reading passage.
 How to read aloud with verve.
Notes for Teaching.
1. Ask the focus question: what methods do I use when I read? For our
students this is a vital question, because memorization is the only skill they
are good at when it comes to reading, and this helps little with reading for
understanding.
2. Read through the list. The students have a copy of this in their booklet.
3. Exercise One: display on the screen the words without my highlighted
comments, but read from my highlighted version, reading the highlighted
version to show how I use reading skills.
4. Exercise Two: have the students do these, maybe in pairs. I’m hoping they
will read the sentences with real flair, and that they can identify some of
the reading skills. Copy pages 5 through 7 for each student.
5. Exercise Three: model how to mark up a sentence. Then have the students
do this, and read the sentences to the class.
6. Exercise Four: this passage will take a long time for the students to
practice. Perhaps they can read it aloud when there’s a quiet moment in
another lesson.
7. As usual, end the lesson with an Exit Ticket.
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 2
Week One: Reading Aloud
Focus question: what methods do I use to when I am reading?
We read for understanding. If we read aloud well, we help our listeners to
understand what we read. Also, if we read well, we understand more deeply what
we read.
Here are some of the skills used by good readers. A good reader:
1. Predicts what is coming.
2. Self-corrects as he reads.
3. Reads ahead.
4. Reads aloud to check if unsure.
5. Reads with his eye, not with his finger.
6. Pauses in good places.
7. Reads groups of words together.
8. Reads faster and slower for effect.
9. Reads with emotion or without emotion, for effect.
10. Doesn’t miss or add words.
11. Breaks difficult words into syllables.
12. Pronounces words correctly.
13. Looks for cohesive words.
14. Visualises what he is reading.
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 3
Exercise One – The Goat Story - Demonstrating the Skills of a Good Reader
Find the list in your booklet. Tick off the skills that I use as I use them.
Let me tell you a story about (ah: prediction: this is a story, so it’s going to have a
beginning, a middle and an end. What else do I know about stories?) a goat.
(prediction: what do I know about goats? They are beasts of burden, they give
milk and meat, they eat high branches and they like rocky ground) I always liked
goats, but this goat gave me the most terrifying moment of my life. (terrifying:
emphasis and change in tone: the fearsomeness of ‘terrifying) Goats are (I’m
reading ahead and I see the word tempestuous. What does this mean? How do you
pronounce it?) temperest (– no, that’s not right. What is the word, ah,
tempestuous. I’m self-correcting) tempestuous creatures.
It all started (ah, cohesive expression: the introduction is over and now I’m going
to get into the story) when my wife screamed, ‘Darling, you’ve got to run and you’ve
got to run fast!’ (Change of speed: read faster. Emphasise the key words: run and
fast. Also, read the words ‘you’ve got to run and you’ve got to run fast’ all
together in a clump) I and saw a goat (hold on, that doesn’t make sense. Let me
read it again: oh,) I turned and saw a goat. It was charging at me like my son
escaping from the hair dresser. (group words: it was charging / like my son /
escaping from the hair dresser.)
I elas (what? What is this word? E-las-ti-cized. Oh, I get it:) I elasticized my
body and leapt onto the fence. But goats like high targets (ah: what did I predict
about goats: that they eat from high branches! Yes!) so I knew I was in trouble.
With one, (long pause) gigantic (another long pause) heave (emphasis), I threw
myself (read quickly, for effect) over the fence (Long pause) and landed in the
duck pond. (read slowly as this is the end of the story: for effect.)
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 4
Exercise One – The Goat Story - Demonstrating the Skills of a Good Reader
Let me tell you a story about
a goat.
I always liked goats, but this goat gave me the most
terrifying moment of my life.
Goats are
temperest
tempestuous creatures.
It all started
when my wife screamed, ‘Darling, you’ve got to run and
you’ve got to run fast!’
I and saw a goat
I turned and saw a goat. It was charging at me like my son
escaping from the hair dresser.
I elas
I elasticized my body and leapt onto the fence. But goats
like high targets
so I knew I was in trouble. With one,
gigantic
heave,
I threw myself
over the fence
and landed in the duck pond.
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 5
Exercise Two – Using the Skills of a Good Reader
Prepare to read aloud the following sentences. Note what reading skills you use
when you read them aloud.
1. I find anemones inconspicuous creatures.
………………………………………………………………………………….
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………………………………………………………………………………….
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2. The fairy penguins plodded like weary grandmothers up the shifting sands.
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
3. The eagle soared like a jet of steam and then plummeted pitilessly towards
the rabbit.
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
4. ‘I so, really, truly love you, my darling, I so really truly do!’
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 6
Exercise Three - Rabbit and Snake & Mad Cow Disease
Practice reading these two passages. Mark them up by:



Underlining words you wish to emphasise.
Putting a line where you want to pause – two lines where you want a long
pause.
Using brackets to indicate the words you want to group together.
One day there was a rabbit and a snake who were both growing old and could not
remember what animal they were.
"Okay. I'll describe you and then see if you can guess what you are," said the
snake.
"That's a good idea," said the rabbit.
"You are white, fluffy, and you have big ears and feet," said the snake.
"Oh good, I'm a rabbit!’ So the rabbit said, "You are long, slim, and have a forked
tongue."
"Oh NO, I'm a lawyer!
Mad Cow Disease
There were these two cows, chatting over the fence between their fields.
The first cow said, "I tell you, this mad-cow-disease is really pretty scary. They
say it is spreading fast; I heard it hit some cows in El Ain."
The other cow replied, "I ain't worried, it don't affect us ducks."
Week 1 Reading – Reading Aloud - 7
Exercise Four - ‘A Long Walk to Water’ by Linda Sue Park
Practice reading this passage until you can read it without error and with real
understanding. Use the marking up techniques you used for Exercise Three. This
passage should take approximately one minute to read aloud.
Southern Sudan, 1985
The walking began again. Salva shook with terror inside and out.
He clung to Uncle like a baby or a little boy, hanging on to his hand or shirttail
when he could, never letting Uncle get farther than an arm’s length away. He
looked around constantly: Every movement in the grass was a lion stalking, every
stillness a lion waiting to spring.
Marial was gone – vanished into the night. He would never have wandered away
from the group on his own. His disappearance could mean only one thing.
Lion.
A lion had been hungry enough to approach the group as they slept. A few men had
been keeping watch, but in the dark of night, with the wind rippling through the
long grass, the lion could easily have crept close without being seen. It had sought
out prey that was small and motionless: Marial, sleeping.
And it had taken him away, leaving only a few splotches of blood near the path. If
it hadn’t been for Uncle, Salva might have gone crazy with fear. Uncle spoke to
him all morning in a steady, low voice.
‘Salva, I have a gun. I will shoot any lion that comes near.’
‘Salva, I will stay awake tonight and keep watch.’
‘Salva, we will soon be out of lion country. Everything will be all right.’