The Read-Aloud is the teacher’s opportunity to make content come to life! Check out our Read-Aloud info and get ready to start making the most out of your Read-Aloud TODAY!
What is a Read-Aloud?
The teacher models reading with a purpose while encouraging active listening, thinking ,and responding from the students.
Why Should I Use a Read-Aloud?
Students gain knowledge about reading and are exposed to good literature while hearing what fluent reading sounds like and what thinking while reading looks like through a good Think-Aloud. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to share their excitement for books and share a love of reading. It makes reading contagious! This is how teachers foster a love of reading in their classroom!
Where Does a Read-Aloud Happen?
“I will read here or there. I will read everywhere!” A Read-Aloud can occur anywhere, but it typically occurs in the classroom. The whole class sits as a group.
When Does a Read-Aloud Happen?
A Read-Aloud occurs throughout a Mini-Lesson. (If you want to learn more about Mini-Lessons, check out our Mini-Lesson Blog Post!) Let’s say you are teaching Reading Strategies. You would go over the Reading Strategy you want to focus on for the day, and then you would model that Reading Strategy through your selection. The Read-Aloud is part of your Mini-Lesson. Reading Strategies are a great place to start with Read-Alouds! We have a FREEBIE just for YOU!
How do I Choose a Read-Aloud?
This is where a lot of teachers start to stress out. DON’T! Most books can be used to teach ANY standard! Choose a chapter book, picture book, or any type of text that meets the need of the mini-lesson. You do not need to read the whole text during one Mini-Lesson. Before you read, plan out what you want your students to notice. When you get to that part of your Read-Aloud, pause and either do a think-aloud or ask questions that will prompt students to focus on the topic you are teaching in your Mini-Lesson.
Simple Steps to Implement Read-Alouds TODAY:
Think of a concept you are teaching. Then ask yourself: Is there a book that has a passage I can read to model this concept? If not, grab a picture book, chapter book, or any type of text and give it a read. Tag sections that will work well with your book.
If you are using our Character, Setting, and Events Bundle for your mini-lessons, almost any fiction book will work for the read-aloud. For example, when focusing on Character Analysis, almost all fiction books have characters that you can analyze in depth. Choose a few picture books and skim through to see which books have the most developed characters.
Plan Ahead!
In order to make your Read-Aloud the most effective that it can be, plan ahead! The best part about planning ahead is that your plan can be used year after year! Depending on the content that you are covering, make a plan for the week or month with this FREEBIE! Click the image below!
42 Comments
I like that read-aloud are versatile and that students will become more engaged when we show them our thinking process while we read. I think that students will be eager and excited for these lessons.
Agreed! They are our favorite part of the day!
I love that Read-Aloudscan be for any age, any grade, and anyone at all! Students love read-alouds at any age in my opinion.
In our opinion too!
I like this idea! Can’t wait to try it.
I use read aloud books with math and science. I think they are very beneficial because students remember stories they hear and they remember concepts that are tied to them. Students love to be read to and that’s why I try to connect any concept I am teaching to a read aloud.
Love that! Couldn’t agree more!
I love that read alouds can connect with any age group and can be used in multiple ways to engage students in learning.
Yes! Big kids love read-alouds too!
This is very helpful! Thank you!
You’re very welcome!
As a literacy coach, this is perfect to share with my staff to get them to move from just strictly reading aloud a story to having a purpose behind it. Thanks!
Such a better use of our time!
I love read alouds because I can introduce my students to literature they may not choose on their own. Our read alouds give us shared experiences that we can refer to throughout the year.
The best! We can reference them all year long through all of the standards!
I like read alouds because you can point out in books you are reading to the students something they learned about in a literacy lesson and they can start to understand it more and apply it more ways. I think using their own papers they wrote or books they are reading and having them find the thing you’re teaching/focusing on can be useful too.
We love that! Yes, applying content to writing provides such a deep understanding of the standard!
I love the different voices I use when reading to my 3rd graders – especially Charlotte’s Web and The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
So much fun!!! It is so important that they hear fluent reading!
I love read alouds because they seem to capture the attention of even the most reluctant readers!
Agreed!
I love read alouds because It promotes student engagement in the book. Students can hear how the book should be read-with exclamations, intonations, and different speaker voices. They can be used to model critical thinking strategies, as well.
Read aloud is a time I can connect with my kids, and it is my FAVORITE time of day. Seeing their faces as the plot thickens or twists, hearing them groan at the end of the chapter when it is time to stop, getting them talking about a book…ALL PRICELESS!
I love read alouds because they instantly engage any reader at any level. Even struggling readers can participate and enjoy a read aloud. I use them in my classroom and am always looking for new ideas and helpful ways to incorporate them into our daily schedule, this blog post has been very helpful and one I will come back to again and again! Thank you!
My favorite read-alouds are the grammar books by Brian P. Cleary! They are tons of fun to read, and kids get excited listening to them. I love them all! My favorite still to this day is probably “Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely.” Such an awesome post! Thank you! 🙂
I love to read aloud to my 4th graders. I think that all readers can become engaged in a story and love reading when they hear a book read with excitement from a fluent reader.
Read aloud is the best time of the day and something that my students look forward to! I don’t do much heavy teaching during that time, but I pull in examples from our read aloud a during instructional time!
I love read aloud because they not only have a purpose connected to concept (s), but the students generally love read alouds. I love to model thinking processes. It is awesome when they don’t want you to stop reading! Then you know they are engaged.
I love the way a class will bond over a read aloud. It can create such warm, fuzzy feelings.
I like your planning ahead worksheet. I need to do that so I am not scrounging for last minutes books that don’t always work for what skill I am teaching. Thanks for sharing these great ideas!
I love read alouds, because they allow me to teach a specific skill while showing them how it can translate into their independent reading.
I use read aloud to teach reading skills.
My favorite thing about read alouds is that even striving readers can access a complex text. Thinking out loud and having conversations about the story can elevate the comprehension skills of EVERY reader!
I love Read Alouds because I can introduce my students to writers that they may enjoy and try out one of their other books. My students struggle with reading, so I also use Read Alouds to model fluency, making connections, comparing characters, comprehension, beginning/middle/end, etc. My students look forward to Read Alouds daily.
I have always done read alouds daily with my classes (for 31 years)! It’s my favorite part of the day.
Read alouds helps students enjoy reading and see that the teacher really enjoys a variety of books too! Something I always try to do.
My students LOVE read alouds. I like that it allows my “”big” fifth graders to still feel like kids.
Read alouds are literally one of my favorite parts of the day, and one of the few times when the students sit quietly (for the most part). We usually use them to make connections (text to text and text to world mostly) and for just teaching and reinforcing basic life lessons.
My students love read alouds! Some of them come from non-English speaking households or don’t have many books at home so this is a time for them to enjoy great literature that they might not have access to otherwise.
Just started with them their website looks great.
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