Helen Reed - Blog Post 5 (Dec.) - Routman Ch. 9: Emphasize Shared Reading

I purposefully selected this chapter to read because I was unsure of if I was incorporating a shared reading component into my literacy instruction. I also wondered, that if I was (as I thought I might be), was I doing it correctly?  As it turns out, after reading and reflecting on the chapter, I do indeed incorporate shared reading, but not during my ‘Literacy’ time in the day.

I realized that I do shared reading in regards to social studies and science.  I will distribute an article about the topic we are learning about to each student and then we will read it together.  I normally start by reading the beginning and throughout we will pause and talk about the article.  The students will also have the opportunity to read and we discuss and annotate alongside the article.  Until now, I did not realize how many literacy strategies I do incorporate when we are reading an article as a class.  When I ask students questions, I always have them go back into the text and underline or circle where they found the answer. (I tell them that they have to prove it to me). When they do this they are rereading the text, finding the answer, and/or inferring the answer.  When we pause while reading, I will have the students turn and talk with their partner and summarize the sections we just read, ask the students what questions they have, or name some unknown words that we need to figure out.  Each student has their own article and can follow along while we read and mark up the text.  While I’ve been teaching this social studies or science content, I’ve really just been thinking about social studies or science.  But honestly, it is like an additional 30 plus minutes of literacy instruction, with a focus on non-fiction texts! 

I would like to incorporate more shared reading with fiction texts, as I have not included that at all. (I’ve really only done read alouds.)  I’m thinking since we are working on poetry right now, I could easily give everyone a copy of a poem that we could share read.  I hope to incorporate more of the strategies Routman suggested such as reading aloud with a partner to practice fluency, summarize what they read, and then respond in writing to questions discussed.