SR K-3

What is Shared Reading?

During shared reading, you and your students read aloud an enlarged version of an engaging text that provides opportunities for your students to expand their reading competencies. The goals of the first reading are to ensure that students enjoy the text and think about the meaning. After the first reading, students take part in multiple, subsequent readings to notice more about the text. They discuss the text, and you select teaching points based on their needs.

What Shared Reading Looks Like

Students sit together as a whole group and, following your first reading, engage in an oral reading of a common text. They use their voices to interpret the meaning of a text as they read in unison with others. Alternatively, students are assigned parts to read.

Why Shared Reading is Important

As an instructional context, shared reading:

▸Provides enjoyable, successful experiences with print for all students

▸Promotes the development of all aspects of the reading process

▸Builds langauge skills and enhances vocabulary

▸Provides opportunities to engage in expressive, meaningful, fluent reading

▸Builds understanding of various types of texts, formats, and language structures

▸Builds a community of readers

Planning for Shared Reading

▸Select a text with print large enough that all students can see it, or use a document camera to enlarge a text. Choose from a variety of texts, including stories, nonfiction, poems, chants, and song lyrics.

▸Create a very brief but engaging introduction to the book

▸Identify a few points during the first reading to invite thinking or noticing

Structure of a Shared Lesson

▸Introduce the text – Engage students' interest in the text with a few opening words.

▸Model reading of the text – Read the text to students at a good pace with a focus on enjoyment and understanding. Have a brief discussion.

▸Read the text together – Have students read the whole text or selected parts with you.

▸Teaching points – Select a specific part or parts of the text to revisit to make teaching points. This can be accomplished over a number of subsequent readings.

▸Repeated Readings – Revisit the text again on subsequent days, making additional teaching points and supporting students in gaining independence in processing the text.