Shared reading is a 15 minute time period where all students receive a copy of an on-grade level text and gather in a circle to read the text together with the teacher. By including shared reading sessions, all students are exposed to a rich and engaging discourse with books that range in text complexity. Use shared reading as a time to enrich, extend, and teach reading standards. The teacher can use the text throughout the week to teach one standard each day. Here are some standards that can be taught using shared reading.
Shared Reading
At the beginning of the year, the teacher should choose or create a shared reading that supports students reading behaviors. This could be in the form of stapled morning messages, a little booklet the teacher has created, or a poem. Every student should sit in a circle with his or her own copy and read the text together. Here is a time the teacher can practice text direction, looking for beginning letters, ending letters, upper and lowercase letters, and different punctuation with the class as a whole. The teacher can show students how to keep track of each word by using fingers or pointers. Teachers can also have a pocket chart with the letters or words students need to find in the text. As students progress, the teacher can adjust the learning to include advanced tasks. For example, students can be taught sight words, rhyming words, crosschecking, and phonological word parts.
Introduce New Vocabulary
Shared reading can be used as a method to introduce new vocabulary to readers. Here is a chance for students to gain practice with frequently used nouns, noun plurals, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. In addition, the teacher can choose text that integrates vocabulary from science and social studies, as appropriate to support other lesson objectives. As new vocabulary is introduced the teacher can add the vocabulary words to the word wall or appropriate anchor charts. Students will be able to access this learning frequently throughout their day.
Informational Text Highlights
On certain weeks, teachers will want to use literary and informational text to extend whole group teaching points or provide exposure to students who are still emerging readers. Shared reading will expose students to different genres (i.e. poems, fables, storybooks) and bring text features closer to all students. In literary text, teachers can review and teach the concepts of characters, setting, and retell. Teachers can have students ask and answer questions, infer about characters feelings, and visualize as the week progresses. Through informational text, teachers can highlight key components such as, title pages, table of contents, image labels, and glossaries. Informational texts also offer the opportunities to discuss concepts such as main idea, or theme, and purpose of reading. The teacher can create labeled tubs in the library with literary and informational genres. Every week the teacher can add shared readings into these tubs. Students now will have a better understanding of the literary and informational genre and will always have a book they can read in the library.
Benefits of Shared Reading
Shared reading is a great opportunity for students to speak and listen. Students can sit in a circle with all of their classmates engaging in rich discourse with the teacher and multiple partners across a wide range of abilities. It differs from guided reading and interactive read aloud because all students have the text, the text complexity is on grade level, and it gives students a chance to hear from different partner perspectives in the class. The teacher should make sure that throughout the week students have different partners to turn and talk to about the text. The teacher can facilitate active speaking and listening skills by asking questions about the text and having students answer their own or paraphrase their partner’s response. Students will make many connections with one another through shared reading time and all students get the opportunity to learn.