The other day I was planning with one of my grade levels and we were talking about making read aloud a little more interactive. Don’t get me wrong: read aloud is inherently awesome. You’re sitting on the carpet, reading awesome books, talking about your reading. What’s not to love?
But we have these kids….
The kids who have difficulty focusing and therefore might miss out on some of the best parts.
The kids who are so quiet that, unless you pull it out of them, they won’t share their thinking.
The kids who raise their hands every forty-seven seconds to share about, “One time when that happened to me,” and you’re like, “Really? That happened to you? The time you were at your aunt’s house for Thanksgiving and she got her head stuck in a turkey?” (True story, by the way. Or anyway, it’s a true story that one time a kid told me that happened.)
So, to continue the conversation, I decided to write about my four tips for making read alouds engaging and interactive!
1. Start with a great text.
Consider your audience. Children easy to engage if you think about their interests! If you have to teach literary nonfiction, and you can choose between a book about Derek Jeter, Yankees star, or a book about Pelé, the King of Soccer, go with the book your kids will relate to more. Look for books with…
Engaging topics
Interesting language
A good flow – easy to follow
Some vivid illustrations (you don’t have to show all of them, but you might want to choose some great ones)
Age-appropriate language
2. Set a purpose for reading.
Before you choose your book and plan your lesson, figure out why it is you’re reading at all. Are you going to focus on story elements? character analysis? emotions? traits? changes? relationships? theme? The focus of your lesson will influence your book selection and the kinds of conversations you want kids to have.
Set that purpose for reading with your kids. One great, interactive way to do this is with my brand-new Interactive Read Aloud Signs. Set a purpose for reading and provide kids with the signs. During the read aloud, students hold up their sign when they find evidence that matches their purpose!
Another easy way to set a purpose is to ask a purpose question at the beginning of the lesson and give each student a sticky note. As you read, students will think about the question and write their thinking and evidence on the sticky note. They can Think-Pair-Share about their thinking, too!
This way serves as a great formative assessment! Read the kids’ thoughts and see what they’re thinking!
3. Plan some interesting, thoughtful questions and conversation starters.
Read the book first – reading that isn’t fluent is BO-RING, and confusing as well! Figure out a few places you might like to pause and have students think about the text. Consider your purpose and find a few spots that kids can’t help but react! Don’t stop too frequently – it’ll kill the story.
4. Give them time to talk!
Once you know where you’re going to stop, make sure you have a cooperative discussion structure set up for them to talk to each other. Think-Pair-Share is the easiest one to plan, but you might experiment with others, too! Here are a few great ideas, if you’re looking to jazz it up!
5. Use it as an opportunity for writing!
Kids get ideas by connecting to books you read aloud. After the read aloud, have students respond to the book! You can do this in two ways: 1. Have students write a reading response by providing sentence frames to respond to the purpose you set at the beginning of the lesson. If you’re using my Interactive Read Aloud Signs, the sentence frames are already provided on the back!
2. Have students write a seed or an idea in their writer’s notebooks. They can make a simple connection to write about later. The more ideas in their notebooks, the better!
2. Set a purpose for reading.
If you’re looking for some fun, interactive tools to jazz up Read Aloud time, check out my Interactive Read Aloud Signs on TPT! I’ve got a brand-new set for fiction!
