Shared Reading

CharacteristicsGrouping Options: One-on-One, small

group, large groupHeterogeneous—mixed levels Materials: Picture Books, Big BooksMajor focus areas:

Reading for enjoyment, Modeling concepts about print, Reinforcing language conventions, Reinforcing word patterns, sentence

patterns, and story patterns.Repeated reading of a text

Benefits Children are active participants in the

reading. The shared reading experience helps

students see reading as pleasurable and meaningful (Butler & Turbill, 1987).

It helps students develop concepts about reading and language: including about story and narrative, rhythm and rhyme, the relationship between print and speech, conventions such as punctuation, and it helps them with specific letter–sound

correspondences and word recognition. The use of big books also gives students

opportunities to learn about language together as a classroom community (Davidson, 1989).

Big Books

Big books that are most useful for shared reading are those where:

the amount and location of text on a page is controlled, and

where the language is repetitive and/or otherwise predictable.

Such books encourage: students’ participation, facilitate their learning about books,

stories and story structures, facilitate their knowledge of

language patterns and structures, and

scaffold their later attempts to read the story independently. 

Types of Predictable Big Books

Rhyme and rhythm—the sentences have a strong rhythm, or beat, and rhyme may be used at the end of sentences. Seuss, Dr. (1963). Hop on Pop. New York: Random House. Guarino, Deborah (1989). Is Your Mama a Llama? New York, NY: Scholastic,

Inc. Repetitive sentences—these books have phrases or

sentences that will repeat throughout the book. Carle, Eric. From Head to Toe. New York, NY: Philomel. Martin, Bill, Jr. (1983). Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? New York,

NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Cumulative pattern—phrases or sentences are repeated

with each page and new phrases are added as the story unfolds. Galdone, P. (1979). The Little Red Hen. New York, NY: Clarion. Simms, T. (2002). The House that Jack Built. New York, NY: Putnam.

Sequential pattern—these books use colors, numbers, alphabet, or other patterns to move through the book. Numeroff, L. J. (1985). If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. New York, NY:

HarperCollins. Wood, A. (1984). The Napping House. San Diego, CA: HarperCollins.

Begin by introducing the book. Discuss the author and illustrator.Give a brief overview of what the book will be

about.When reading the book, make sure that all

children can easily see the book (Ruddell, 1999). As you read the book, track the print using a

pointer or your finger, so that students can follow and in order to reinforce such concepts as left-to-right and top-to-bottom directionality and the one-to-one correspondence between the spoken word and the written word.

Where relevant, make and ask for predictions about the story (e.g., by saying “I’ll bet this is a story about…, I wonder what will happen next…”).

Explore key vocabulary.Invite children to repeat key words or phrases of

the story and thereby to join in the reading.

Guidelines

Things to Remember Usually, you will share a book at least

a few times, with the students increasingly being able to join in.

Remember each time to track the print as you read. After one or two readings, encourage the children to join in with you by echoing what you read.

On subsequent rereadings of the book, cover up word or word parts with sticky notes, then focus students’ attention on: word structure (letter-sounds,

onset-rime patterns, inflections, syllables), and

language patterns (repetition, rhyme, unique words).

Extending the Shared Reading

Write the story, or a portion of the story, on sentence strips so that students can retell or build the story in a pocket chart (McCracken & McCracken, 1995).

Have the students write their own big book pages that extend the story, showing what would happen next.

Encourage the students to act out the story as a creative drama activity. You might assign each student a character and have the students wear index cards with their characters’ names (Fisher & Medvic, 2000).

Have the students dramatize the story but with puppets as the characters (Fisher & Medvic, 2000).

Print Concepts- Foundational

Standards 

Phonics and Word

Recognition Foundational

Standards

Fluency(Scaffolded) Foundational Standards 

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Language Standards

K 1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

a.Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

b.Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

c.Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

d.Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

2. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.a. Read common

high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to you, she, my, are, do, does).

 Could also do more phonic related skill—depends on skill that could be targeted in book

4. Read emergent-reader text with purpose and understanding.

 

4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.a. Identify new meanings for

familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).

b. Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, -es, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meanings of words.

Print Concepts- Foundational

Standards 

Phonics and Word

Recognition Foundational

Standards

Fluency(Scaffolded) Foundational Standards 

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Language Standards

1 1.Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

a.Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).

Depends on skill reflected in book

4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.a. Read grade-level

text with purpose and understanding.

b. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

4.Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 1 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.a. Use sentence-level context

as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

b. Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meanings of words.

c. Identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms (look, looked, looking)

GrPrint Concepts- Foundational

Standards 

Phonics and Word

Recognition Foundational

Standards 

Fluency(Scaffolded) Foundational

Standards 

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Language Standards

2 NA for 2nd Grade Could also do more phonic related skill—depends on skill that could be targeted in book

4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.a. Read grade-level

text with purpose and understanding.

b. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

4.Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.

a. Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

b. Determine the meaning of a new word formed when a known prefix is added.

c. Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of unknown words with the same root.

d. Use knowledge of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, housefly, lighthouse)