In celebration of Nevada Reading Week, March 4-8, the UNLV Teacher Development & Resources Library has created a list of tips to help you select books to read.
These tips include:
Expand past the "classics."
There are a lot of tried and true read aloud books out there, but there's a good chance that the kiddos you are reading to have already heard a lot of them. If you can, think about what you like about a certain classic and look for similar reads. Not sure where to start? Look up a picture book favorite in NoveList Plus and scan the Read-alikes column for similar books.
Determine Your Goal
What is it that you hope the kids will get out of your read aloud time? Your main goals should always be to help kids build trust in reading and for them to see the joy that reading can bring, but this "joy" can be more than laughing at a silly story.
Bring Multiple Books
Give yourself options. You may practice with reading one book in the allotted time, but it's not uncommon to read a book to kids faster than what you practiced at home. Always bring a couple of backups. Giving the kids options on what book will be read is always a great way to get them invested from the start; just don't give too many options (three is a good place to start).
For our full list of tips and suggested books, visit our Nevada Reading Week Guide. Read-along books are available for borrowing from the TDRL for all members of the UNLV community, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and P-12 educators.
The UNLV College of Education Alumni Chapter is organizing a matching service to get guest readers into local classrooms. Opportunities for in-person, virtual, and recording readings are available. Sign up now to participate.
