Interactive+Read+Aloud


 * __ INTERACTIVE READ ALOUDS: __**

When planning your interactive read alouds, there are many things you probably consider. You might read though the text you've chosen yourself and "spy on yourself" as you read, noticing the skills you are employing as a proficient reading then decide how to guide your students toward that same thinking work. You plan moves such as "think-aloud", "turn and talk", "stop and jot". You think about the skills you are teaching in reading workshop and writing workshop and decide how your interactive read aloud lesson could feed into these important parts of your balanced literacy classroom. You also think about your data from diagnostic reading assessments and add instruction around the comprehension skills that many students in your class need next. You consider all of these factors, then choose the simple precise moves that will make the greatest impact, realizing that an interactive read aloud lesson can quickly become too fractured, taking away from the flow of the text.

Often, teachers jot their moves that they plan to make on sticky notes and place them right on the page in the text where they plan to stop. They write the exact words that they plan to say and they leave the sticky notes right on the pages for subsequent work with the text in other settings. These sticky-note riddled mentor texts are then often the places that teachers go for quick, targeted modeling in their reading and writing workshop minilessons and conferences. Since the book has been read completely during interactive read aloud, the teacher can easily turn to the exact page they wish to use to highlight the minilesson skill of the day and actually keep the minilesson mini.

Now, if grade level colleagues wish to share the planning for interactive read alouds and happen to have their own copies of the same mentor texts, they may wish to record the instructional moves in a format beyond the typical sticky notes process. The following resource was created for just such a purpose. (If you use the Benchmark Assessment System and the Continuum of Literacy Learning, you'll notice the reference to the different levels of comprehension at the top. These sections were included if you want to jot the goals you have selected from the menus in the Continuum.) Check it out, take out what doesn't fit for you, and share your wise planning with others! Planner Document in Word:

Here is an overview document on the purpose and procedures that you can use in an Interactive Read Aloud. Thanks Mary Johnson!

Here are some introductory PowerPoints. Thanks Sally Kahlo!



Here are the specific teaching options for Interactive Read Alouds, connected to the reading skills that are taught in the units:

Upper Grades document: