Beverley Paine's Australian Home School Curriculum: Tips for Learning How to Read

The Next Step: Shared Oral Reading

© Beverley Paine, 2004

If you can, borrow a few copies of the same book from the library. If they are different editions and have different pictures or covers, that's great: you can do a comparative study! The point, however, is to make sure the text is the same. Then the fun can begin.

Why not share reading the story aloud? You can agree to read the first sentence and your child read the next and so on to the end of the book or chapter, or to the beginning of the next section. Or different readers can take the part of different characters and read lines of dialogue, as in a play. Ask the librarian if she can get in multiple copies of books containing plays for children...

Some picture books have parts that are like the chorus of a song. Little kids love to recite these sections, while you read the narrative. Choral reading, or reading in unison, is fantastic to listen to. Children feel comfortable when their voice is lost in the 'crowd', and as 'performers' their self-esteem soars and they quickly learn how to pronounce different words, where to put in pauses, and how much expression to use.

When you read together as a family, it's fun to break after an action-packed scene and try on the roles yourselves. Or you may all read the same story, but at different times. The shared retelling of a plot can transform the readers into the story; in their minds they become the characters.

After 20 years of being a contact and support person Beverley no longer takes phone call or email inquiries. Please join one of her yahoo groups if you want to know more about homeschooling or have a question.

Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home. In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications. If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Facebook page.