Interactive Read Aloud

[Notes from Christine Robson's Session]

Some Tips for Getting the Most Instruction Out of Your Interactive Read Aloud Time:

• Consider current and upcoming units
• What skills and strategies are upcoming?



Capstone Press Nonfiction Text

• Behaviors and habit

• Vary the kinds of texts that you read
• Genre
• Publisher: Capstone Press has great literary nonfiction (Found at Barnes and Noble)
• Sometimes there is a disconnect between what you read during interactive read aloud and the books kids are reading independently. Sometimes you might want to do a read aloud with the kind of books they are reading independently to show that there really is a lot of great, rich work they can do.

• Demo reading behaviors
• Ex: Using bookmarks
• Reading the blurb
• Taking time to figure how the book is organized (cumulative/episodic)
• Picture walk

• Demo reading skills
• Consider which skills you want to highlight:
• Activating Prior Knowledge
• Determining Importance
• Monitoring and Adjusting for Meaning
• Envisioning
• Accumulating the Text
• Predicting
• Inferring
• Empathy
• Synthesizing
• Critiquing
• Many skills are used in tandem. Ex: Need to accumulate text and infer before you can synthesizing
• As a teacher I have thoughtfully planned what skills I will model and have kids try, but it won't be one skill in isolation. There isn't a teaching point. 
• Reading a book more than onces might influence what you model. Ex: Predicting works better when reading for the first time, Synthesizing might work better on a reread
• Think about how many times you will need to model first before having kids try it
• Be explicit as you think out loud. (Not just what you are thinking, but unpack how you got to that thinking [Step 1, step 2, step 3])

• Vary the practice methods
• Turn and talk [Sit with reading workshop partner during read aloud] -Using accountable talk prompts
• Acting out (Will show you how they are accumulating text, predicting, vocabulary, etc.)
• Stop and jot (If you don't have them practice, their post-its will be terrible)
• TIP: You might want to add a tab to the Reader's Notebook that is reserved for Read Aloud
• TIP: Might want to include a content section for content read alouds (Or a folder)
• Whole class conversations (Record some big ideas from read aloud on post-it. Once a week, start the read aloud with a whole class conversation)

Recommended book: Climb Inside a Poem by Georgia Heard and Lester Laminack 

• Support all learners in the room
• front load read alouds for ELLs (By the time you use a book in your mini lesson, it would be helpful if they have heard it 2-3 times, focusing on key vocabulary)
• Use checklists to track what your kids are doing (Checklists are fast and easy)
• Every time she has kids turn and talk, she will listen in on a different group of kids. She keeps this checklist on her clipboard. (She might be looking at a few skills across a week or across a few weeks)
• You can create one for each unit and during each assessment time.
• Checklist of skills she wants to focus on:
• Makes a prediction using their own life
• Makes a prediction using other stories/movies/TV
• Makes a prediction using this story
• Revise their prediction
• Infers character's feeling
• Infers character traits
• Infers character motivation
• Checklist might be about behaviors
• sits knee to knee
• looks partner in eyes
• takes turns talking
• adds on to what partner says
• Checklist might be about skills

• uses text evidence
• etc.

Read Aloud: Recess Queen by Alexis O'neill

1st read: Lots of prediction

2nd read: Lots of character work

• Collect ideas on post-its and keep in the back of the book
• Use post-its as a way to launch whole group conversations

Jobs of SPEAKER	Jobs of LISTENER(S)
Think before you speak	Be ready to speak next. Be patient.
Use a voice that can be heard.	Have a calm body.
Look at the listeners.	Look at the speaker.
Add on to the idea being about.	Think: Do I agree or disagree? WHY? Do I understand what my friend is saying or should I ask a question?
Use evidence!	Think about more evidence!

Create character traits and character feelings charts out of context.

Collect big ideas from across the school year.

Model how to create post-its:

How Do I Know When to Stop and Post-it?

• When a new character enters the story
• When you have an emotional reaction to the text
• When you notice big changes
• When a character acts out of character

Readers Stop and Jot IDEAS:

Character:

Relationships:

Lessons:


Ways to Reflect and Write about Reading:
Friday is sorting day. How can we sort our post-its?
Reflect after sorting:

• Most of my post-its seem to be about...
• It seems as though...
• Maybe this book is REALLY all about...
• These post-its show that I'm the kind of reader...
• The author probably wants me to notice...