Introduction

Once upon a time, there was a grownup, a child, and a very good book.

Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a beloved children’s bedtime story. Young children instantly relate to the struggle of the little bunny trying to get to sleep. Such stories are memorable because they move children and allow them to make personal connections that inspire them to think more deeply, to feel more wholeheartedly, and to become more curious listeners.

The purpose of literature is to provide meaning to our lives. — Jim Trelease (Trelease, 1995)

Many of us can remember from our own experience the precious time spent sharing and talking about stories. We remember relating to the friendship between a little girl and a teddy bear named Corduroy in the book of the same name by Don Freeman. We also related to the friendship between a spider and her pig friend, Wilbur, in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. We connected to the characters, their situations, or the settings in which the stories took place. Little did we know that when we were making such connections we were learning to think and act like good readers. Because reading aloud provides children with a model of confident and expert reading, many tutors make it a vital part of their tutoring practice.

This article praises the power of reading aloud and goes a step further to praise the power of thinking out loud while reading to children as a way to highlight the strategies used by thoughtful readers. Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, once told a seventh-grader, "A book is a cooperative venture. The writer can write a story down, but the book will never be complete until a reader, of whatever age, takes that book and brings to it his own story." Developing into this kind of reader requires children to become conscious of the multiple comprehension strategies that allow them to deeply understand and engage with the material.

This article focuses on three specific comprehension strategies:

1. Connecting books to children's own life experience
2. Connecting the books children are reading to other literature they have read
3. Connecting what children are reading to universal concepts

The first three sections of this article present current research and practices related to reading aloud. The last section shows how to apply this research to your work with children. We will discuss:

• The important benefits of reading aloud
• How to choose good books to read aloud
• How to model or teach comprehension strategies as you read aloud
• Examples of using the comprehension strategies with two sets of books