Read-Aloud Recommendations for Middle School

Over at the A to Z Teacher Stuff forums, CanadianTeacher asks about reading aloud in middle school:

Do any of you middle school teachers do read aloud novels? I love to read aloud and I think most kids still like to be read to at this age, but I wonder….Do you follow up with activities of any kind or do you just do it for the pleasure factor (if you do it at all). I’d like to incorporate this into my curriculum, but I’d like some feedback as to it’ value at this age.

Here’s the answer I posted there:

To me, read-alouds are for the sheer pleasure of an entire class sharing a reading experience. As long as students are listening and paying attention, I don’t usually assign any work to go along with the read-aloud.

I read to my eighth graders at the beginning of class to settle them down and get them to class on time. A well-chosen book can be the best remedy for tardiness. No one wants to miss a word. I usually read for 5-10 minutes.

Some of the most successful books I’ve read aloud: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Dante’s Inferno (I couldn’t believe they liked it as much as they did, but they begged me to keep reading), and the most popular read-aloud I’ve ever done, The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

The Princess Bride has become so popular that many of my incoming students expect me to read it to them, because their older brothers and sisters have told them about it. I love reading it too, because I get to do all the accents. I usually skip most of the author intrusions (the long italicized sections) and just summarize them. After we finish the book we watch the movie (which a suprising number of my students have never seen).

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for reading aloud? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.