Read alouds are done by me on a daily basis. There is not a day that goes by that I do not share the joy of a good book with my students. With my older students I tend to read both chapter books and picture books, but with my younger students I use word less books, big books and picture books. With all grades I am conscious of making sure that I introduce students to a variety of different genres so that students can decide for themselves which books to chose during independent and guided reading time. Read alouds teach students the fundamentals of reading when they are younger and teach students of all ages different reading strategies through the use of my think alouds. I explicitly model different reading comprehension strategies for my students and encourage them to try them with me and then they are reminded to use them during their independent reading time. Students also benefit from read alouds because they are being exposed to vibrant vocabulary that may not be in the books they tend to pick. During read alouds we discuss our strategy used and always talk about the story through partner sharing and whole group discussions.
Here is my lesson plan from a read aloud that I did with second graders. I modeled the strategy of making connections and then encouraged students to try it as well. Students then partner shared about which characters they were connecting with and at which parts in the story. We then discussed the book and how the events unfolded through this book about bullying.
Read Aloud Lesson Plan – Connecting (Strategy)
Here is an interesting fact sheet about read alouds that I will be sending home to my future student’s families. This will help families see the importance of read alouds and how they can help their child succeed by reading to them.
http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/facts-about-reading-aloud.htm
Alyssa Huth 