Group Reading: Guidelines

First Read:
1. Considerations:
     a. The purpose of the first read is to have the students understand and follow the plot and generally enjoy the process. As such, any technical issue such as new vocabulary should be kept at a minimum so as not to obstruct the flow of enjoyment of the story.
     b. The main technical issue however is reading fluency. Most children become frustrated with reading because of their poor fluency. They then will avoid reading since they cannot enjoy the story. Avoidance leads to their fluency not improving and starts a vicious cycle.
     c. Therefore, it is most critical to have the students’ first exposure to a book to be a joyous one, unimpeded by decoding or reading issues.
     d. Thus, the best way to introduce the book is to select one or more of your top readers, and assign them the role of the grandson: Zakiyy.
     e. The teacher will then read the grandmother’s role: Nainai.

2. Method:
     a. Student/s and teacher take turns reading out loud.
     b. Emphasis on expression
     c. Feel free to stop in order to answer the children’s questions.
     d. Depending on the children’s ages, you may need to stop and explain some of the terms, or issues.

Second Read
     1. The purpose of the Second Read is to review the story, better understand the characters, dwell over whatever delighted the readers during the First Read and initiate a dialogue.
     2. For this purpose, you may now assign different students to read out loud, taking care to give the parts of Nainai (which can further be subdivided into paragraphs) to the better readers and the parts of Zakiyy to the weaker readers.
     3. Just as Nainai stops to allow Zakiyy to ask questions and discuss the issues, you may stop and discuss any issues the children might have.
     4. During this Second Read, you may reinforce the students’ ability at fluency and expression by telling them for instance, “Wait! Is this how the Duke of Normandy would say it? You need to make your voice very “syrupy”, you know, thick like honey. Pretending to be nice. And since he’s old, make your voice old. Try reading it again with that kind of voice!” You may even model it. Make the student repeat it until he gets the voice and expression right. Thus he will have read the sentence 3 or more times without realizing it, improving his fluency in the process.