Beth Sullivan-Blog Post #5-Routman Chapter 9 Emphasize Shared Reading

I enjoyed reading this chapter!  Shared Reading is a huge part of reading in kindergarten.  I love reading with and to my students!  It was great having the many benefits of shared reading affirmed as well as also gaining some new ideas to use with it.  Routman shares that shared reading can be used to demonstrate and help students practice all parts of the reading process.  She also points out that it is quick and time efficient.  How true!  I find that all students love to participate in shared readings and it is a great way to model and teach so many skills.  Kindergarten students love predictable texts and love reading the same thing over and over again.  Not only can many skills such as print concepts, inferring, comprehension strategies, vocabulary and other skills be taught through shared reading many of the books used during shared reading can also be used to teach science skills, writing and many other skills. For example, during the month of October I always read Joy Cowley’s book The Pumpkin with my students.  Not only are many reading skills taught during this shared reading but so are many science skills including the life cycle of a pumpkin and the needs of plants. My students even act out the story and write their own versions of the book.

This chapter contained many fantastic ideas and strategies on ways to use shared readings to teach concepts and help students become independent readers.  One of the areas that I have been working on this year is modeling thinking aloud to my students and having my students share their thinking with the class.  I found the ideas and suggestions of the language to use when modeling thinking aloud and the language of partner work to be very helpful.  I have used the strategy of turn and talk with my students in the past but have to admit this has always been a little scary for me.  I worry that students may not be on-task or may not be on the right track with their answers.  I think that modeling the language of partner work is an important step in helping students gain the most from turn and talk.  I needed the reminder that it is important for students to be able to talk about texts and their thinking with their peers.  This chapter has given me a fresh perspective on shared reading and it was packed with many great ideas!