WHOLE GROUP READING STRATEGIES
The Power of Daily Interactive This workshop provides samples and teaches the procedures and benefits of interactive read aloud and shared readings.
Learn two effective reading strategies to use for daily literacy instruction. They expose students to new vocabulary and rich, higher-level texts that are not accessible to children at an independent level. They also help spark excellent discussions and develop language skills for English learners.
Shared Reading Opportunities for Direct Literacy Instruction (Burkins). Strategy in Practice.
Before Reading
Select a more difficult text than one you would use for guided reading but simpler than one you would read during a teacher read-aloud. Choose based on relevant criteria such as print features, patterns in the text, and comprehension opportunities.
Secure a copy of the text for each student because the heart of shared reading involves all students and the teacher looking at the text while reading together. Possible variations are small groups reading a common text or dyad reading (Morgan, Wilcox, & Eldredge, 2000).
Preread the text, identifying your teaching points. Focus on a comprehension purpose, and direct the experience toward meaning work. Shared reading is highly useful for teaching about print and for illustrating strategies of cross-checking and monitoring. Plan carefully for these teaching moments to identify the lesson’s most important points.
During Reading
Make sure everyone has access to the text.
Support fluent shared reading in which either you or a proficient student reads the text aloud while others read aloud at the same time, with periodic stops to discuss content. This implementation may vary depending on the grade level, the purpose of the lesson, and the difficulty of the text. In kindergarten, shared reading often involves an enlarged text that everyone reads together, while middle school students engage in shared reading with partners or in small groups.
Engage in a think-aloud, modeling the strategies that are your instructional focus for the lesson. Support students in concentrating their energies on that focus. For high school students, the lesson can be about understanding Shakespeare’s language, while a third-grade class can practice using context to determine the meanings of words.
Regardless of grade level, shared reading should engage students in a discussion of the text. Support students in thinking deeply about their reading and in discovering things in the text.
Incorporate the text into other reading experiences, such as students rereading the text independently or finding other texts by the same author.
After Reading
Revisit the text during other group reading times.
Provide students with their own copies of the text that they can carry into their independent reading.
If the text remains difficult for some students, let them practice during guided reading or with more teacher support in a small-group, shared reading experience.
Click here for sample lesson plans.
Resources: Strategy in Practice Burkins, Jan Miller (2016) Teaching Literacy Accross the Gradual Release of Responsibility. Retrieved from (http://www.readwritethink.org).
Interactive Read-Alouds (Hoyt)
Hoyt's Interactive Read-Alouds book of lessons contains standards-based lessons designed around children's classics with Share the Reading strategies and Readers Theater scripts. Click here to view sample lesson plans and a teacher interactive guide that outlines the thinking behind the interactive Read-Alouds and describes how to apply them in the classroom.