Who knew a Read Aloud could be so impactful......
This module of the training was the most impactful to me.... I loved the question techniques.... and the true planning involved in CORRECTLY teaching with a read-aloud. I really look forward to seeing some of these strategies in all of our virtual classrooms!
MIDDLE SCHOOL: Please check out these resources that can be used to extend student knowledge after read-alouds:
K-3 START Read Lesson Plan Template | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Comprehension Strategy Questions | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Think-Aloud Stems | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Mini-Lesson Framework | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Learning Center Activity Ideas | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Vocabulary Formative Assessment Ideas | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Retell Rubric | Resource Library | Cox Campus
Vocabulary Teaching Strategies for Middle School | Edutopia
EVERYONE: Please share how you can incorporate read-alouds into your classroom to foster reading comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary acquisition.
I like the think aloud stems, and anything that helps students use metacognition with their reading. Often students are so focused on reading to answer a question they forget to read to understand something. Using think-aloud or metacognition stems help guide students into thinking about the reading itself. I have found that less is more- start with two or three stems to focus on using in a text. Once students are comfortable with these stems, then add a few more tho their toolbox. I am also a fan of visual vocabulary, or even using frayer models to help students link terms with images, definitions, and usage. Often we focus on teaching the definition of a word, but student without schema cannot retain or use the information. using frayers or visual vocab allows students to build a more robust vocabulary to actively use it in their learning journey. I had my kiddos do something similar with a collaborative slides- where each student got a word they had to find an image, explain the word, and use the word in context. Several students said this activity helped them see all of the vocabulary and have easier access to it.
ReplyDeleteThe collaborative slides sound very interesting. It would be a little difficult for my K/1 students to work on slides collaboratively but I think I could do something similar in Book Creator.
DeleteI love frayer models, and I did something called a vocabulary smackdown with interactive vocab slides. It went really well... and made economics alot more interesting!
DeleteI like using collaborative slides and this will be a great way to introduce this concept to my students.
DeleteI am still SO excited about this read-aloud strategy! I have already told my students that I will be amping up the Jacob's Ladders activities with my newfound knowledge and they are excited that we will have “more meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences” with them! I intend to use the resources provided to create meaningful discussions and activities that I will incorporate using Curipod. :)
ReplyDeleteIncorporating it using Curipod is an awesome idea! The students will definitely benefit from all your "new knowledge" and will enjoy doing it as they learn!
DeleteI love the idea of using Curipod for this! Have you seen they have a Frayer Model generator in there now? And they've also incorporated Eduprotocals sketch and share vocabulary method.
DeleteI absolutely LOVED this module. It was very informative and made me what to find a kid to read to:))
DeleteIn third grade, I use chapter books for read alouds to reinforce a variety of skills. As I am reading, I will stop and ask the definition of key words that might be unfamiliar to most students. This in turn, will support their comprehension of the story, as many of these words are repeated throughout the story. We discuss characters in the book and settings also. I also ask them to predict what they think a character might be feeling or thinking and what their next move might be, to deepen comprehension. The next time we read, I will ask students to summarize the pages we read the day before. Often, I will end the reading for the day on a cliff hanger and have them write their own version of the next page, using predictions for what they believe will happen next.
ReplyDeleteI loved this section! Read-Alouds have always been an essential part of my daily lessons with the students. I plan a read aloud for each day during our literacy time and I also try to include read-alouds for other times of the day in Science/Social Studies and Math. I plan on incorporating the START strategy in my lesson plans to make sure that I am including all the components which will help keep myself and my assistant teacher focused on helping the students develop reading comprehension, enhance their critical thinking skills, and increase their vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteI still use read aloud in Middle School. I think it helps students, especially with more difficult content texts to hear the vocabulary and definitions.
DeleteI was looking forward to further learning about read alouds because this is something I already incorporate in my classroom weekly! I think that read alouds are such an important part of the classroom and I loved getting to learn even more from this course! I have a book club that we choose a chapter book and have an ongoing read aloud weekly. During this time I ask questions while reading to promote critical thinking and make sure to focus on the vocabulary words that might be new for my students. I love that we can also use this as a time to ask those open ended questions that allow the students to really think and activate that background knowledge while thinking about what is happening in the story. I have really seen a positive impact since starting these read alouds in class. It is a great way to also support comprehension practice while my students are engaged in the read aloud they have shown an increase in their comprehension. I did like learning about the START strategy. This was new for me and I will be adding that into my skills classes.
ReplyDeleteI love the book club idea! I would love to have a book club during lunch!! Great idea!
DeleteLOVE your book club idea and that you are incorporating open-ended questions!
DeleteRead alouds are such a great teaching tool in so many ways! I love to use them to model thinking strategies! Using think alouds to model how to self monitor and fix mistakes is so helpful for students to observe . Read alouds are also great for making connections to the real world or to previously read text. I use read alouds each week to model reading fluency but in the second sememster I plan to use read alouds more for critical thinking through writing in response to the text.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using read alouds to model fluency, as well as prosody.
DeleteI love using read-alouds as a way for students to make connections to the real world, other texts, as well as to their own lives. It is important to choose the correct book for a real-aloud to help foster these connections.
DeleteIn addition to making connections to the the real world and to other texts, I love read-alouds because they also help to build a classroom dynamic of shared experience. Read-alouds are an equalizer for class discussions and create a shared experience.
DeleteAgree with all comments:))
DeleteEvery morning this month I am starting out the day by reading a chapter from a Magic Tree House book. I love these books because each one is full of facts about a place, animal, person, etc. The book we are currently reading takes place in the Arctic and has animals such as polar bears and seals in it. I chose this book since it is winter and we talked about Antarctica last month on the morning announcements. We are only a couple of chapters into the book, but so far they are loving it and we have already learned interesting facts about the Arctic and its animals. As I am reading, I make sure to stop and give a student friendly definition for words that may be unfamiliar and I also will stop during a chapter and at the end to have students predict what they think will happen next or what a character may do next. After we finish this book, I plan to move on to another Magic Tree House book that takes place in Australia to help build our background knowledge even more!
ReplyDeleteAnna, you have been such an inspiration for our students by establishing our book club:)
DeleteI use to love reading the Magic Tree House books to my personal kids when they were younger. It was like going on an adventure!! I like how you incorporate the books into different subject areas while building background knowledge.
DeleteI have been reading Magic Tree House with my 5 year old and he LOVES them! Right now we are reading Sunset of the Sabertooth where they are in the Ice Age. He is learning about the arctic at school right now and told me he shared with his teacher about Sabertooth tigers when they were talking about animals that live in the cold. Made my teacher heart so happy!
DeleteThis is great! I told my students that we would be doling chapter books and you must have read my mind! I am so glad they are enjoying the read alouds. It definitely helps with the background knowledge too.
DeleteBeing read to when I was in school was always my favorite part of the day. To this day, I can name the books that certain teachers read to me and needless to say those teachers were my favorite. As a teacher, I love read alouds because they provide an example for the reading standards that are being taught in any grade level and are also a great way to spiral those standards or introduce a standard that is up and coming. Reading a story such as "The Lemonade Wars" or "Wonder" is a great way to reinforce or introduce point of view. Another thing that helps with comprehension is asking students to come up with a title for each chapter you read. Often, I won't tell them the name of the chapter but ask them to name the chapter and it is amazing how exciting they get when someone comes up with the title or comes very close. Coming up with a name for a chapter helps with summarizing a chapter or a section of the text because identifying the main idea can be challenging. I enjoyed reading about many of the vocabulary activities and found a few that I want to try. I want to try the shared silly stories activity as that is something that I have not tried before. I think this will work well in break out rooms so that students can work together to write the "best" story using vocabulary words.
ReplyDeleteMy fondest memories of elementary school are read aloud times. It's so sad that we stop reading for pleasure to them as much as they get older. Personally, I'd still love it!
DeleteRead alouds were my favorite part of the day as well! Somehow the teachers always stopped at just the right place to leave you wondering what would happen next! I like how you have incorporated read alouds this year Lisa! It's interesting to see the students responses and here their take on what's going on in the book. Some days our group is quiet - but even then, there is some conversation going on in the chat box!
DeleteI love the idea of creating the title of the chapter! I also love read alouds!
DeleteAs we start Africa in 7th grade, I've thought of setting aside time daily or weekly to read A Long Walk to Water to the students. There is an excellent google earth exploration that covers the book and connects to all of our standards. I think exposure to this book might make alot of the vocabulary we look at more solid for students. It would also allow the use of many of the Tie strategies from START that I'm really anxious to try with my class!
ReplyDeleteI love A Long Walk to Water! The kids will really enjoy that and it is such a great way to tie in the things we have been learning to your content!
DeleteI think middle school can still benefit from read alouds.
ReplyDeleteOne strategy that can be easy to incorporate, it just takes some prep time, is to record you reading a book, or passage, and posting that as an assignment or on a website for the students to go in to and follow along. This allows them to start on it when they finish a different assignment or the ability to work asynchronously. They can also work a little more at their own pace with this by going back and listening to certain parts again if they need to understand what happened a little more. It's also a way you can work in higher level texts for lower level readers.
ReplyDeleteI love using CANVA for this. That was I can record myself reading on top of an picture of the page I am reading.
DeleteWhen I taught the American Revolution this year, I read "I Survived the American Revolution" and listened to the audio; and the kids loved it! They were able to hear different character voices and sound effects. I asked questions, paused, and then had the kids to identify unfamiliar vocabulary words that they read in the passage, which helped with comprehension. They also connected information from the textbook to the novel. The students also "googled" pictures that represented the terms, this really brought the story to life. Next year, I will have the kids try PAT (point to the picture, act out the word, and tell the definition)!
ReplyDeleteI love that you listened to this! The tone of voice, inflections and sound effects bring the stories alive and make the students more interested in the story itself and in turn, reading!
DeleteThe integration of reading aloud in all content areas not only supports literacy development but also strengthens students' ability to convey their thoughts about content area specifics. The "teach a word" activity discussed in the Edutopia article would be a great one to use in math or other content areas! It involves having students create a google slide or other presentation that word, the definition, synonyms, antonyms, a visual representation, the word origin, the part of speech, the word used in a sentence, and anything else they think would be helpful for their peers to learn the word. This could be a great way to review previously learned math vocabulary!
ReplyDeleteAs I have mentioned before, I think reading aloud from books in class is a great way to provide low stakes reading comprehension opportunities. It allows students to hear a fluent reader and opens topics for discussion that may not be brought up otherwise! I love hearing all of your ideas!
It does open topics of discussion that may not be brought up otherwise! You are so right. And I think we need those times with students. We need those spontaneous learning experiences that everyone is a part of.
DeleteI can say with certainty that much of my love for reading came from read alouds in elementary school. I still remember books my third grade teacher read. Some days we all sat together on the floor, other days we took the book out to the nature trail at our school. It was a built in time everyday. Lisa has done an excellent job incorporating read alouds into 7th and 8th ELA this year. Some days it sparks discussion in the chat or aloud. Connecting with the text has opened conversations with students and given us the opportunity for us to know them better. It provides a great time to teach vocabulary, different examples of literary terms, practice summarizing, etc.
ReplyDeleteI am starting PODCAST club on Fridays with my middle school students. THEY will be reading alouding for our younger students. But I greatly feel this will benefit them as well!
ReplyDeleteI use read aloud in my emotional health unit for elementary to teach about grief. The story not only incorporates tier 2 & 3 vocabulary words (like grief) it also fosters great discussion about empathy and emotions. As a group we spend time analyzing the emotions of the story and then applying it to our own lives.
ReplyDeleteIt has proven a effective way to teach the complex topic of grief but it also encourages reading comprehension.
I already incorporate read-alouds into my classroom to foster reading comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary acquisition. I found some interesting activities and strategies to add to use in my classroom. I like the simple idea of adding sticky notes with questions and notes for myself. I also like the vocabulary hats idea. I am going to try to tweak this idea for virtual instruction. I like Amanda's idea about using shared Canva slides to increase comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. I look forward to utilizing chapter books this semester for read alouds.
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