Shared Read-Alouds #doctoralpursuit

"If we want our students to be excited about literacy, they need to have teachers who love coming to work, who are literacy learners themselves, who find ways to make curriculum relevant to children's lives, and who can put high-stakes testing in perspective." -Regie Routman -The Essential Reading Life

I read a chapter in the book "Reading Essentials" by Regie Routman. The chapter reading gave me some incite into shared reading. The chapter noted that shared reading is a part of the literacy block that-for some educators-is missing or non-existent. Routman defines shared reading by saying: "In shared reading, a learner- or group of learner- sees the text, observes an expert (usually the teacher) reading it with fluency and expression, and is invited to read along." (Essentials of Reading, Routman 2003) Shared reading is a way to show children how to read text, how they can think through text, and see, in a safe way what good readers do. It can be the scaffolding students need to feel successful. The chapter also mentions the Optimal learning Model, in the model (pictured) we see that teachers make reading "visible" and "explicit" during a shared reading and gradually release that responsibility (scaffolding) with exposure to the text. When students are in kindergarten the shared reading looks like the teacher rereading a familiar book with catchy repeated text that the students remember seeing and repeat as the teacher touches and says the words with them. By the time students are in second grade, shared readings are good ways to practice various aspects of reading in a way that students can feel safe to participate with the teacher. The chapter mentions a few reasons why shared reading is important:

• Shared reading is ideal for showing how any text works
• Shared reading is cost effective (you only need one copy of the textP
• Shared reading is an ideal context for guided participation

When we use a read aloud as a shared reading we combine the read-aloud, with interactive reading and shared reading. This idea of a shared read-aloud is good for all children. Routman uses the whole class shared read-aloud to demonstrate and discuss:

• Flunecy
• The author's craft
• How text works
• How to figure out vocabulay
• Character motivation
• Summarizing
•  Predicting
• Asking questions
• Making connections
• Inferring
• Confirming (predictions, difficult vocabulary
• learning new information
• Enjoying reading

She also mentions some benefits of completing a shared reading is this way. "its quick and time efficient, with no need to worry about what the rest of the class is doing." (Routman, 2003) The shared reading and the shared read-aloud can be used to hook students into a lesson because they are built around books that are of high interest to the students you work with. Just remember that you will need a way to:

• Track the print
• Have text big enough for students to see
• Plan it
  

Routman, R. (2003). Reading essentials. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Check out this video of a shared reading using a read-aloud.

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