Hi Randy: Good observation about immediate disengagement. One way to offset this is to set expectatations about when you have to read from the text. For instance, if students know they will be asked to read a portion, ask questions from, or will have a quiz on the material from a certain page, or some part of their grade is tied to their following you along, then they are more apt to listen, pay attention, and participate. That said, I agree that real life examples are always better than plain reading from the text. It keeps you more natural, and I think students will warm up to someone when they feel more comfortable with the instructor. Regards, Barry