1. Interactive Read Aloud & Shared Reading
Finch Elementary

2. What is a Think Aloud?
Thinking Aloud is “eavesdropping on your thinking”
Making the process of comprehension visible to students
Think about what you do when you read. This is the type of thinking that we need to make visible to our students. Be aware of it and then make it visible.
The teacher makes the thinking audible to the students in order to allow them to hear what type of thinking “good readers” engage in when listening to literature.
As the teacher thinks aloud, she/he is modeling the comprehension process for students with the goal that they will be able to identify when they engage in this type of thinking on their own.
Teachers make skills explicit and visible that can not normally be observed.
The teacher thinks aloud about changes in the character (Winnie Foster), analyze foreshadowing and symbolism, make connections to previous information, etc.

3. Interactive Read Aloud
How is it interactive?
How is the “think aloud” incorporated?
What is the student role in the interactive read aloud or shared reading?
What strategies are used during instruction?
The interactive point comes in when the students share their thinking aloud and the teacher is able to guide them in the identification of what strategy they are using and HOW they reached that point (specifically important with inference and synthesis)
The interactive aspect allows for immediate, individualized instruction at the point of the student share. What strategy was used and how it helps the student make meaning.
The meaning making process is done together. The conversation is the instruction and the assessment.

4. Tools for the Interactive Read Aloud & Shared Reading
Motions
Post-it notes
Comfortable space for listening
Posters to make learning visible
Anchor charts

5. Before Reading Plan for success Set a focus for the new read aloud
Respond to student interaction
Question the students’ thinking
Formative assessment provides the focus for the next read aloud.
Revisit the previous lesson/discussion and look for points to use for instruction or revisiting important points.
Read the notes from the lesson/discussion before beginning a new one. This will allow you to find out what students who didn’t share were thinking and also focus on what the readers should know before you begin again (clip of chart I used at the beginning of ch 5?)

6. During Reading Teacher modeling Explicit instruction of comprehension
Guided Practice in discussing literature
Assessment of individual learning as students share
Opportunity for differentiation
Social learning
Using misconceptions as teaching points
The conversation that takes place surrounding the literature is the instruction and the assessment.
Modeling comprehension as you read and identifying the different strategies for the students as they share their thinking.
Using student responses as opportunities to instruct students in the identification of what they are doing as they read and share
Guiding the students through what a literature discussion should involve and how to share, piggyback, disagree, and back up their thinking. Pointing out what they are doing as good discussers of literature.
Social learning experience for the students to listen to one another and consider the thinking of others as they do their own thinking.

7. After Reading Opportunity for individualization
Clarification of student thinking
Posters make student thinking visible
Anchor charts for future use
Reading post its and responding to
literature is essential
Individual students who are wondering where to post their notes- opportunity to help them identify the strategy they used and where to post it. “where does this go?”
Just because a student doesn’t share, doesn’t mean the meaning-making isn’t there. Use the student notes to find out the thinking that is going on “behind the scenes”
Read the student notes to guide the next lesson.
Plan the introduction for the next lesson using the ideas from the previous lesson (formative assessment) but it’s individualized without pointing out specific students (use generalizations like “some of you wrote” and so forth)
Help students stand out/validate those who have made realizations or who are higher-level thinking by sharing what you read on the post-its. Again, the students aren’t singled out, but the student will know it was him/her. Validation of thinking

8. Goals of the Interactive Read Aloud & Shared Reading
Formative Assessment
Instruction (Explicit)
Guided Practice
Differentiation
Let’s revisit the goals for implementing this instructional strategy:
Formative assessment- you are able to guide your instruction using the conversations that take place during the read aloud. As you listen to students think aloud, you can plan for instruction that supports where they are and where they can go next.
Instruction- this activity is the perfect place to instruct specific comprehension strategies your students can use, allowing them to begin to transfer this to independent reading and small group discussion. It is explicit instruction that is still interactive.
Guided Practice- you are right there to scaffold their comprehension process and provide the prompts necessary for them to clarify their thinking. Just as you would in a guided reading lesson in first grade, you provide prompting and teaching that guides them through this process with a text that is a bit more challenging than something they will be reading on their own.
Differentiation- each child is able to learn right where he or she is working. The students that share have more visible thinking, but the post-its allow for the teacher to identify where every student is working and design instruction for all areas of discussion (literature circles, guided reading, individual conferences, etc)

9. Where Do I Go From Here?
How to bring this into your classroom tomorrow:
Select a text appropriate for your desired outcomes.
Picture books are a great place to start!
Model, model, model
Plan your instruction (but. . .)
Be ready for the students to take you in an unplanned direction
Allow for the students to guide you into a lesson as they think aloud. Plan, but don’t tell the readers what you want them to get out of your lesson. Rather, let them be the guides.

10. Lynda Swanner ELAR Coordinator McKinney ISD
Questions? Thoughts?
Lynda Swanner
ELAR Coordinator
McKinney ISD