Read alouds

I remember how much I loved read alouds when I was in grade school, and to be perfectly honest still love to be read to today.  Reading was always a stressful part of my schooling, and being read to allowed me access to many worlds and information that I could not get to on my own.  This year I have been forced out of my comfort zone a bit by doing the read aloud in my 5th grade placement every day, and reading aloud to my 8th grade dyad placement.
I thought I would feel a bit more comfortable reading to the 5th graders because they did not have the exact words that I was reading in front of them.  Because of that, I figured if i stumbled, no one would know but me.  When reading to the 8th graders, they have all of my text in front of them.  I thought I would going to sweat bullets.  But, to my surprise, my stumbles were noted just as much as the 5th graders without the text...not at all!  I think that just like me, everyone just likes to be read to.  They are not trying to be overly critical about my skills (or in the case my faults), but about what they are able to get out the reading when they are not under pressure to read it themselves. 
The more I read aloud, the more comfortable I become.  (Thank goodness!)