How to choose which books to read aloud
Teachers should promote a love of reading by showing that they love stories.
But, this doesn’t mean that they should only choose the books that they loved as a child.
Choose books that:
- Engage pupils emotionally
- Elicit a strong response, such as curiosity, anger, excitement, laughter or empathy
- Have a strong narrative that will sustain multiple readings
- Extend pupils’ vocabulary
- Have illustrations that are engaging and reflect children from all backgrounds and cultures
- Help pupils connect with who they are
- Help children to understand the lives of people whose experiences and perspectives may be different from their own (find out how to improve diversity in your children’s books)
- Include stories set in both the UK and around the world
- Include both modern and traditional stories
- Include fiction and non-fiction
Note: it's unlikely that just 1 book will meet all of these criteria, but the full selection as a whole should cover them.
