Suggestions for Selecting Read Alouds for High School Students
1.Choose books you love so that you are sure to read them with enthusiasm.

2.  Don't choose books with too much dialogue--it's hard to read aloud and hard to follow as a listener.

3. Try to choose books with short chapters. This provides a natural stopping place each day.  Chapters that end with "cliffhangers" are great!

4. Consider choosing books that have been made into movies. You can watch the movie afterward as a reward to the class for being good listeners. After watching the movie, you can discuss the differences in the stories, as well as the differences in the two experiences of listening and viewing.

5. Don't feel like you have to choose "easy" books--kids resent being read down to, and they'll appreciate the confidence you place in them by selecting a challenging book. They'll understand more when they are read to than they could reading the same material independently.

6.  Consider tying the read-aloud in with what they are studying in your class or other classes (historical fiction works well with this).

7.  Encourage students to talk and write about the read alouds.

8.  Be sure to have students evaluate the book as you read it and after you are done. It's o.k. to quit reading a book--and probably a good  idea if students are bored.  The last thing you want to do is show them that books are boring.  Vote on the books as a class as you read and after you finish a book. 

9.  Ask students to recommend their favorite books to be read aloud.  I've had classes request to hear old favorites, including James and the Giant Peach, The Giver, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Re-visiting these books with students has been a lot of fun.

10. When you read for pleasure yourself, consider everything a potential read-aloud, and be on the look out for offensive or embarrassing parts. 

11.  Be sure to forewarn students if there is material that is potentially offensive and give them the opportunity to opt o

12.  Maintain a record of what you read aloud to refer to later and to recommend to colleagues.

13. Maintain a file of short pieces to read aloud.  These are great for filler. I scan newspapers for human interest articles, collect cuttings from magazines (Harper's has some great short pieces) and mark passages in books that would be useful as read alouds later.