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Teachers Policy & research

Reading aloud to a child

Speaking - reading aloud to a child

Reading aloud is shown to improve confidence and understanding. These activities have been designed to help you practise your reading and speaking skills in an authentic way. In this section you will practise reading a story to a child.

Instructions and downloads

You can either do the activities in this section online, or you can download the worksheet and do the activities on paper.

Reading a story to a child - worksheet

Preparation - read the story

Take a few minutes to think about the following questions:

Why is it important to read aloud to children?
If you have/know any children, do you read aloud to them?
Do you feel confident enough to read aloud to them in English?

Read and listen to the story of Zak and Zee, which is typical of a book that a child aged 5-6 may bring home from school.

The activities are based on the Ebook below.

Project X: Bugs: Zak and Zee by Jeanne Lewis (OUP, 2009), copyright © Oxford University Press 2009, reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Try reading aloud at the same time, as if you were reading to a child

If you would like more practice to improve how you read the story aloud, do activities 1 to 5

Task 1 - useful words and phrases

In this activity, you will study the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of some words and phrases from the story.

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Task 2 - pronunciation of -ed endings

Look at the following sentences taken from the story:

/d/
Zee turned very, very red.

                           /t/
Zak’s eyes helped them find their way.

                     /Id/
So Zee shouted in his ear.

In this activity, you will identify the pronunciation of –ed endings and put them in the right group.

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Task 3 - rhyming words

Words which rhyme have the same sound.

e.g. say and day

In this activity you will identify pairs of rhyming words from the story.

Even though the words may sound the same, their spelling may be very different.

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Task 4 - rhyming phrases

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Task 5 - word order

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Discussion

Over to you:

How about reading the Zac and Zee story to a child that you know?

Tell us how you got on!

You may want to record and listen to yourself reading the story aloud. If so, visit http://vocaroo.com/. If you do this regularly, you will really begin to notice how you speak and you will improve your pronunciation.

More books like Zac and Zee

If you enjoyed reading the Zac and Zee book aloud to practise your speaking skills, you can go to www.oxfordowl.co.uk where you can access many more fantastic Ebooks for free.

Encouraging children to read

“Encouraging your child to read can be one of the most important things you can do. It has a significant positive impact, not only on their attainment but by helping them fulfil their life potential.”

Watch this video which explains more about why it is important to read aloud to children: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Video/Parenting/A/DG_191398

If you have young children, the OUP website may also be of interest: www.oxfordprimary.co.uk .

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