National Storytelling Week: What Makes a Good Classroom Read-Aloud?

February 1st 2022

Some books are renowned for having that special magic that makes readers want to pick them up and browse. A catchy title, an intriguing cover or appealing illustrations can quickly entice children and draw them into the pages of a book. Teachers have told us that they love our Reading for Pleasure collections for this reason, knowing that children love to pick up and browse the curated selections for their year groups.

But sometimes what teachers ask us for is a book with a different quality – one whose magic works not as an independent read but as a class ‘read-aloud’ for guided reading activities. They ask for the kind of story in which the sound of the words and quality of the storytelling are the factors that draw the readers in. There’s no joy in the classroom quite like the joy of hearing children ask for ‘just one more chapter’ even though it’s time to go out to play. In fact, when I was teaching, my absolute favourite part of the day was storytime; I loved doing the voices, leaving the cliffhangers hanging, drawing out the humour and - most of all - looking up at the sea of transfixed faces hanging on to my every word.

When we put together our Storytime Read-Aloud booklists for Upper KS2, Lower KS2 and KS1, there is a special type of book that we look to select. Our school-based review panel of teachers and librarians are quick to let us know when a book possesses all the right ingredients to make it a good read-aloud.

Here are five factors that can contribute to making a story good to read out loud:

1. Storytelling that lasts between sittings
   A good read-aloud hinges on the strength of its storytelling. Is the plot well structured, with a build-up of tension, the right measure of intrigue, convincing world-building and a pleasing resolution with few surprises along the way? For chapter books, teachers often read instalments of one or two chapters a day, and this works best for class storytimes if there is a strong mission or purpose driving the plot, so that listeners will easily pick up on the action when they return to each day’s instalment. We love the strong action-driven plot of Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon, the personal family mission in The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates or the race-against-time wildlife rescue quest in When the Mountains Roared. For younger readers, unified story collections work well, so that listeners can visit a familiar character or setting in each self-contained chapter without having to hold plot elements in mind from previous days. We suggest Alf Proysen’s Mrs Pepperpot stories, Isla Fisher’s Marge in Charge or Dick King Smith’s Sophie series for this.

2. A healthy dose of laughter

Most teachers can recall storytime favourites that have led to peals of laughter from their listeners and there’s nothing that unifies a class quite like a shared bookish in-joke. Research has shown that people who laugh more are prone to being healthier, less affected by stress or depression and have better immunity - so it follows that providing opportunities to laugh as a class really is beneficial to children and adults alike. Among your storytime repertoire, do you have books that provide a much-needed giggle at the end of the day? For upper KS2, we suggest Llama Out Loud or The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh (which was recently voted Best Classroom Read-Aloud in our Books of the Year award) or for lower KS2 we love Sam Copeland’s Charlie Changes Into a Chicken.

3. Something to think about
Stories can serve as a springboard to delve into more complex topics, such as bullying, mental health, climate change or grief. Many teachers like to use the opportunity of storytime to provide a safe environment to discuss difficult topics. This may not be appropriate for every story selected to read aloud to a class, but balancing the selection across the year in order to sometimes provide stories exploring tricky topics can provoke deep thought and lead to rich and meaningful discussions. The Last Bear or The Song of the Dolphin Boy are popular choices for exploring climate change with KS2, while Race to the Frozen North or Amari and the Night Brothers can lead to discussions about race, civil rights and social inequality.

4. The rich language of storytelling

A classic mistake is to choose a story that relies too heavily on pictures. There’s a time and a place for capitalising on the power of illustrations in literature and books with a strong visual element often make great independent reads, 1-1 storytimes or class study texts - where children can see the pictures close-up. But for a whole class read-aloud, the tricky logistics of enabling all children to see the illustrations well mean that the books that work best are those with a story that unfolds through text. The best read-alouds are told through high quality and age-appropriate language that paints a strong picture in the mind of the listener and the books on our Storytime Read Aloud booklists have been selected with this in mind.  We love Nizrana Farook’s evocative descriptions of the Sri Lankan setting in The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, or Peter Brown’s convincing world-building in The Wild Robot.

5. A pinch of peril

Teachers need to make a judgement call on how much peril their class can handle. The safety of a classroom storytime session is a good place to introduce children to a story that is a little bit scarier than the books they might read independently.  Many Year 6 classes become quickly hooked on thrillers like Orphans of the Tide, Room 13 or Jennifer Killick’s wildly popular Crater Lake (just don’t read this one on your Year 6 residential if you want the children to go to sleep!). For younger children, animals are often the vehicle for delivering a dose of danger followed by a safe resolution - try Charlotte’s Web or the Animals of Farthing Wood for lower KS2, and Harry the Poisonous Centipede or Martin’s Mice with KS1.

Providing a balance across the year is the key to keeping storytimes fresh and enjoyable, and as teachers and librarians get to know their classes well they can make a judgement call on how to hone their choices within books for topics. All of the texts suggested in this blog post are part of our Storytime Read-Aloud book packs, which can be viewed here and are now all available to purchase as full packs through Peters.

Class story times are shared experiences that have the potential to be a magical bonding time for adults and children, and often are eagerly anticipated by children. In the words of Sir Michael Morpurgo, “Let there be half an hour of storytime at the end of school in primary schools up and down the country. Make this the half hour they all long for, that they don't want to be over. Let the children go home dreaming of the story, reliving it, wondering.” By making quality selections for storytime texts, teachers will be one step closer to this goal.

Alison Leach is a qualified librarian and the founder of BooksForTopics, a website that supports schools in finding great books to enrich their curriculums and to promote reading for pleasure. As an experienced primary teacher, Alison knows that it is not always easy to source the right books amid the time pressures of teaching and she is passionate about helping the best books reach the spotlight. Visit BooksForTopics.com to find out more, or follow Alison on Twitter or Instagram as @booksfortopics.