Jan/Feb blog-Ferguson

Blog Post: Jan/Feb

Emphasize Shared Reading

Below I have used a table that I saw on Dawn Mitchell’s post for a previous chapter. When I saw this I immediately showed my SRA reading group because I had them complete this same table for one of the chapters in our novel study.

Author’s Words	My thoughts
“Shared Reading is an important missing piece in many reading programs, especially in grade 2 and above.”  P.130	This first thought in the chapter really caught my attention. This statement is so true. I tend to stay away from shared reading because I want to give them all the time to read. I need to spend more time in my classroom reading to them and modeling good reading!
“In shared reading, a learner---or group of learners—sees the text, observes an expert (useullay the teacher) reading it with fluency and expression, and is invited to read along. P.130	(Before reading I thought) *What is shared reading???? Then I found this quote (see left).
“Shared reading is also powerful because it helps teacher and students bond” p. 130	I think trust and a relationship is so important between teachers and students. Rotuman states that  shared reading helps form bonds. I can totally see how this could help form relationships. You can learn a lot about students as they make text to self connections. As I think back I can recall several times when I have learned something new from student when reading with them.
“…we see that shared reading is not just a pleasant frill but a critical learning context for demonstrating and scaffolding learning”  p.131	Scaffolding is such an important thing even in the second grade. The more I model and scaffold learning the more success I see in my students. Shared reading would help me scaffold a larger group (or small group) and provide me more time for them to read during our small group instruction time.
“Shared reading is ideal for showing how any text works…” p. 132	Shared reading would be a great idea for introducing students to new text. I will be adding shared reading  to my lessons when introducing new text.
*Checklist on page 133	Great list to keep handy for trying to incorporate shared reading into a lesson.

The next section of the chapter provided a framework for shared reading. This framework will help me to make sure my shared reading is meaningful. I have done shared reading several times but never knew if what I was doing was meaningful and help students become better readers. I believe so much in scaffolding and modeling, that I am very interested in completing shared reading as a way to model and teach students.

The next section provided example lessons. I really learned a lot from the informational book shared read aloud lesson. I loved the way the teacher got very excited about the book. I liked the pace the teacher took with reading/thinking. I like that towards the end she got the students involved in the thinking/talking.

I am eager to get started using shared reading in my classroom!