Informational Text Read-Alouds #doctoralpursuit

My continued research on read-alouds has me focusing on the informational text; more specifically- the informational picturebook. Unfortunately, there is still an imbalance in the about of this type of read aloud. Diane M. Barone and Andrea Morency give some reasons for this. They state:

• Teacher prefer fiction
• The term informational or nonfiction make most readers think: textbooks or encyclopedias
• Informational texts are often more expensive
• Informational text are boring (myth)

We have to get past these reasons not to do informational picturebook read-alouds and introduce our students to informational text and a very good way to do this is by using the read aloud as a tool. So, how do we go about doing a read aloud of an informational picturebook and what are the benefits?

Sunday Cummins and Cate Stallmeyer-Gerard, state in the article: "Teaching for Synthesis of Informational Texts With Read-Alouds" that: "Based on our understanding of the research, a core component of our instruction with informational texts was reading aloud in a interactive way." (Cummins & Gerard, 2011) The interactive read aloud is a good way for teachers to introduce the informational text. Some of the benefits are:

• Boosting students' comprehension
• Developing students' familiarity with the sounds of informational text
• increasing students' background knowledge

With an interactive informational text read aloud you (as educator) could stop and make text to text connections-which is a good way to model for your students how they can read the text for themselves. You can make connections to other concepts learned while in other content areas which is a good way to help with the transfer of information. You can also model how you would handle self-monitoring when coming in contact with unfamiliar vocabulary and/or concepts and yes you can also show your students how to analyze any pictures and text features that you come across. Give students the opportunity to respond to what their are hearing both in conversation and in writing. Doing these things while doing an interactive read aloud will contribute to students being able to not only recall facts and details, but to also be able to synthesize the information that they hear.

Barone, D. & Mallette, M. Best practices in early literacy instruction.

Cummins, S. & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. (2011). Teaching for Synthesis of Informational Texts
           With Read-Alouds. The Reading Teacher, 64(6), 394-405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1598  
           /t.64.6.1

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