INTRODUCTION

Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience. Children join in the reading of

a big book or other enlarged text as guided by a teacher or other experienced
reader. Shared Reading is generally accomplished using an enlarged text that all
children can see. Student interactivity is the distinguishing feature of Shared
Reading versus Reading Aloud. Selected books must be suitable for students to join
in the experience. During the reading the teacher or another reader involves the
children in reading together by pointing to or sliding below each word in the text.
This provides children the opportunity to participate and behave like a reader.
Shared reading models the reading process and strategies used by readers. The
teacher deliberately draws attention to the print and models early reading
behaviors such as moving from left to right and word-by-word matching. Shared
Reading creates a risk-free environment, allowing children to focus on the
enjoyment of the story. The selected book must have the possibility of multiple
readings for enjoyment. Many texts used in early stages of literacy have a
repeating refrain or rhyme to increase the enjoyment of reading the story over
and over. The book is initially read by the teacher to model reading strategies. In
subsequent readings, the children become more interactive.

WHAT IS SHARED READING?

Shared reading is done in a whole group setting using a big book, printed on chart
paper with the pictures pasted beside the print, sentence strips placed in a pocket
chart, on an overhead transparency or smart board. The teacher models the
reading process by touching or tracking each word as she reads. After the
children have become familiar with the text, they can join in. The teacher is
providing support during the reading process. This provides a comfortable and
supportive environment for the children to participate. The emergent readers
included in the Early Learning Solutions program are designed specifically for
preschool and kindergarten shared reading. The following methods can be used for
shared reading time:

The story Jiggle Worms (found in your free Friendship Theme) was printed on
chart paper and the pictures were glued beside each line to give the children a clue
as to what the text says. Brooke is pointing to the words and reading the
repetitive parts of the story. She has learned to this by observing the teacher
model this.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In Brenda Parkes' important text, Read It Again!, which is a guide for teachers to
do share reading in the classroom, the first chapter asks, what is Shared Reading?
She then answers the question by writing, “Shared reading is a collaborative
learning activity, based on research by Don Holdaway (1979), that emulates and
builds from the child's experience with bedtime
stories."

PURPOSE FOR SHARED READING

The main purpose of shared reading is to provide

children with an enjoyable experience, introduce
them to a variety of authors, illustrators and types of texts to entice them to
become a reader. The second and equally as important purpose is to teach children
the reading process and teach systematically and explicitly how to be readers and
writers themselves. (Parkes, 2000)

METHOD FOR SHARED READING

In primary grades, the teacher reads while the children are encouraged to read
along. The more familiar the text, the more the teachers asks of the students in
terms of reading, talking and answering questions about the reading. In upper
grades, the teacher reads the text aloud after stating a focus, and then re-reads
the text, asking questions specific to the focus of choice (and may ask students to
join). The focus may include things like: analysis, predictions, drawing inferences,
grammar and punctuation, vocabulary development, questioning, literacy elements,
critical thinking, phrasing, fluency, intonation, character and plot Development.

Initial reading (done by teacher) follows this pattern: Gather children in an area
close to the book. The book must be easily seen by the children.

 Introduce book (share theme, examine title, cover, illustrations, etc. make
predictions)
 Excite student's imagination and relate prior experience to text
 Concentrate on enjoying the text as a whole (Read with few stops)
 Encourage students to use background knowledge to make predictions
 Encourage spontaneous participation in the reading of the story
 Discuss personal responses to the book
 Be positive in accepting/encouraging children's responses
 Teacher is almost entirely responsible for the reading of the text.
 Close Reading- (Subsequent readings)
 Direct children's attention to various aspects of the text, and reading
strategies, and skills. Many of the strategies needed for independent
reading can be taught during shared reading, especially when shared reading
takes place with a small group versus the whole class.
 Identify vocabulary, ideas and facts; discuss author's style, skill, and
viewpoint. Remember to focus on the enjoyment of the story. Try not to
draw attention away from the story with too many teaching points or too
much attention to detail.
 Experiment with intonation and expression, discuss colorful phrases or
words.
 Attend to teaching points as they arise.

The children's contributions may range from reading in their heads or mouthing
some of the words to more complete renderings which may include a number of
approximations. Techniques for children participation could include:

 choral reading
 oral cloze (where the teacher pauses or drops his/her voice out of a choral
reading)
  dramatization
 recording children reading the text
 masking activities
 word work such as "Be the Words" or sorting the words

Help children become familiar with texts so they can use the book independently
for writing and reading.

The benefits of Shared Reading can be extended when teachers and children
choose to make their own "big book" in response to a story or text. This provides a
way for the teacher to model how author's ideas can be revisited and related to
one's own experiences.

Classroom Activities

 Alphabet-Frame

Students having learned about a topic begin recall and list words that
reflect their understanding. For example students studying bears might
decide that den, honey, furry, and hibernate are key concept words. They
might write:
o D is for bears. Why? Because bears live in dens.
o H is for bears. Why? Because bears love to eat honey.
o F is for bears. Why? Because bears are furry.
o The students can illustrate their sentences.

TYPES OF READING PATTERNS

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING STRATEGIES

I. ECHO READING

The teacher reads a word or sentence. The children echo what she just read. She
continues to touch each word as they read.
 II. CHORAL READING

The children read at the same time as the teacher.

III. FILL IN THE WORD

The teacher leaves out a word or phrase. The children

fill in the missing word or phrase. This is a very good
strategy to use when teaching the concept of rhyming.

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING AND

LEARNING THE ALPHABET

Introducing the alphabet in the context of using alphabet and sight word readers
gives the children a much greater understanding of why they are learning the
letters (to read) rather than in isolation. The readers also provide a powerful tool
in modeling the reading process to the children. The program includes alphabet
readers. For example, the reader “Cool Clouds" found in the Weather theme unit
introduces the letter of sound of "Cc". The story line is a follows:

Clouds that look like an ice cream cone.

Clouds that look like a cake.

Clouds that look like a candy cane.

Clouds that look like a castle.

Clouds that look like a car.

Clouds that look like a cat

Cool clouds are everywhere.

Sample Page from the Reader - Cool Clouds

Sample Page from the Reader’s book - Cool Clouds

Sample Page from the Big Book color - Cool Clouds

 PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING VIDEO

The video to the left demonstrates how to use the

interactive readers for preschool and kindergarten
reading. These provide an engaging reading experience for
young learners. Many similar readers found on the
member site make use of this interactive component within
the different theme units. The video also demonstrates
how games can be created for alphabet recognition. These
are great to use as an alternative to worksheets.

CONNECTION TO LITERATURE

"It Looked like Spilt Milk" by Charles G. Shaw is a favorite book to read
to young children. The simple story line and pictures are very appealing
to this age group. The emergent reader "Cool Clouds" would be used as a
follow-up shared reading experience.

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING AND

PICTURE MNEMONICS

Letter "Cc" Recognition - Picture Mnemonic

The craft activity displayed on the right involves

children actively participating in associating the picture
to the letter sound. Research has shown that children
have a better recollection of sound and symbol
relationship when the alphabet letters are introduced
with this association. The purpose is to have them associate the letter "c" to the
initial sound heard in "cloud". This is a great activity to use in conjunction with the
emergent reader "Cool Clouds" and the song "Cool
Clouds" from the Alpha Tunes CD. The children would be
introduced to the letter and the corresponding sound
within the context of the reader and singing the song.
After they would complete the activity displayed above.
The children would paint or use another method to color
the "c" blue for the sky. After, cotton balls would be added to represent clouds.

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING RELATED TO THE ALPHABET

PICTURE CARDS

In the member's area you will find alphabet picture cards that are great to use for
phonemic awareness activities. Each day display alphabet pictures beginning with
the review sounds (found in the member's area). These can be displayed on a
flannel board or white board. Discuss what pictures begin with the focus sound
and those that do not. After discussing, have the children close their eyes while
you remove one of the pictures. The children guess what picture is missing. The
person that guesses the correct picture will have an opportunity to remove the
picture for the next round. This game could continue in the Literacy Center. In
the link below you will find a link to a video on phonemic awareness. The alphabet
picture cards could be used for similar activities shown in the video.

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN READING REALTED TO THE ALPHABET

PROGRAM

The "Alphabet Program" is a sequential theme program that teaches the alphabet
and their related sounds, printing of the letters and sight words (if you are a
kindergarten teacher). In the link below you will find more information about the
program.

Alphabet Program

PREDICTABLE CHARTS

These are generated by the teacher or

the children. The teacher uses these
charts to model reading and writing
experiences. A repetitive phrase is
chosen and the teacher prints what she
has generated or what a child has
dictated and this is printed on a chart
paper or sentence strips. The chart at
the right was taken from the emergent
reader found in the Community Helpers theme unit. The children must find, cut and
paste the correct vehicle each helper uses. This is the interactive component
part of the reader. Some of the text lines read as follows:

I could be a firefighter. I would drive a fire truck. I could be a police officer. I

would drive a police car.

PREDICTABLE CHART - VISUAL and AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION

A predictable chart could also be employed by children dictating the sentences.

For example: John says, "I want to be a paramedic". The teacher prints this on
the predictable chart with John's name beside it. John would be responsible for
reading this sentence.

Predictable chart experiences can be easily transferred to the writing center.

Children represent the repetitive words in the predictable chart. Place the
repetitive words on an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper. One child holds the word I,
another child holds the word would and another one holds the word like and so on.
John dictates 'I would like to be a Firefighter.' The teacher prints the word on
the last piece of paper. She might model stretching the sounds F-i-r-e-f-i-g-h-t-
e-r-s as she prints it. She might also discuss capitals and periods used in
completing the sentence. She is indirectly teaching writing skills. John holds his
own word which is Firefighter. The children now can read John's completed
sentence. The children are learning how words are separated by spaces and what
makes a sentence. This is an excellent visual and auditory discrimination activity.

WRITING CENTER - MAKING

SENTENCES

The teacher has cut the words I would

like to be a in an envelope. She will now
add the word firefighter. The sentence I
would like to be a firefighter has been
scrambled. John now goes to the writing
center and unscrambles the words and
then he glues them on a piece of paper.
He will then illustrate what the text says.
All the children in the class can do this activity. The completed sheets could be
compiled and made into a class book. This can be incorporated using any repetitive
or predictable story. Younger children can use a model to complete the project.

KINDERGARTEN AND PRESCHOOL READING AND REPETITION

The stories within the theme units are intended to be

read in a shared reading experience each day for the
duration of a week. The more times the children read
the story with teacher support the more comfortable
they will become in attempting to read it on their own,
which we will call pretend reading (because they are not
actually reading it on their own yet). This is building a
foundation for future reading success by helping
children gain confidence in it and the process involved.
Even though the story is read each day for a week, the
follow-up activities can vary bringing more meaning to
the story. I have used the story Dogs, Dogs which is in
the Family and Pets theme unit as an example of extended follow-up activities that
can be used. The newsletter provides more ideas.

1. The children act out different parts of the story. The story is about how to
look after a dog. The children can choose one of these to act out to the rest of
the class. Other classmates can guess what part of the story they are acting out.

2. The interactive component in the story requires the children to draw or cut out
a dog. Present drawing lessons on how to do this (an artistic child is a valuable
resource for this).

3. Children bring in pictures or their real pet to share with the class. Discuss
what they do to look after them.

4. Visit a Pet Store

5. Discuss pets and have the children

predict what pet is the most common
within the classroom. A picture graph
could be made to confirm their predictions.

6. Complete a craft like the one shown above depicting how to look after a dog.

Note: Templates to complete the craft are found in the members' area.

TEACH CHILDREN GUIDED READING

Guided reading is different from shared reading because it is done in a small group
setting. The teacher works with a small group of children, focusing on specific
skills. The teacher may focus on the children tracking words, identifying sight
words or blending sounds. Books used for this purpose are called emergent
readers because they have predictable text. The photograph shown above was
taken from the "Community Helpers" theme unit. The text is predictable and
repetitive making it easy for younger learners to be successful in their first
reading experiences. There are over 80 printable theme-related emergent readers
found in the member's area. These are great for guided reading as they can be
copied and used for each member of the group.

Specification for texts

When selecting texts for reading, teachers typically look for text that is
appropriate for the reading level of the students that is also cross-curricular and
relevant in its nature. The text should be of an appropriate length for study and be
adequately complex. The text should also have an impact.

During Shared Reading students are learning to....

 track print from left to right and word by word

 predict and infer
 enjoy and participate in reading with a high level of support
  build a sense of story
 expand their vocabulary
 find letters and sounds in context
 attend to concepts of print (spacing, capitalization, punctuation)
 sequence the events of a story
 Focus on story elements (characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end).

The processes of learning to read:

Models of reading acquisition and skilled reading: Snow part-I

Milestone in learning to read

 Emergent literacy (kindergarten)

 Becoming real readers: learning to identify words in print (Grade 1-3)
 Reading acquisition model
 Spelling acquisition
 Skilled reading (from grade-4)
 Good word identification skills
 Good text comprehension skills

Emerging literacy

 “Real reading” begins at 5-7yrs

- Print awareness
 Can name some book titles and authors
 Knows the part of a book and their functions
 Begins to track print when listening to a familiar text being
read.

 “Real reading” begins at 5-7yrs

-Letter knowledge

 Recognizes and can name all the letters

 Independently writes many letters

-Letters knowledge is one of the best predictors for reading

achievement.
Emerging literacy

 “Real reading” begins at 5-7yrs

 Reading: Recognizes some words by sight- a few very common ones

 Example- a, the, I, may, you, is, are

- Writing: - Writes own name first and last and first name of some
friends.

Becoming real readers: - learning to identify some words in print

(Grade 1-3)

 Stages of reading acquisition

Stage-1: Logographic reading

Stage-2: Phonetic cue reading

Stage-3: True alphabetic reading

Stage-4: Orthographic reading

Stage-1: Logographic reading

 Read whole words

 Learned selective visual paired association
e.g., dog, a tail on “g”; donkey, a tail on “Y”; camel, humps on “m”
Sometimes it can be a particular letter paired “oo” in moon and “oo” in look.
 Children use visual cues in learning to their 40-50 words
 Children at this stage are often called cue readers.

Stage-2: Phonetic cue reading

-An intermediate stage

- Use phonetic values of the names of letters

For e.g. - Jail- “J” & “L”

 - Usually 1st and final letters are salient so they are used as cue.
- A primitive form of decoding.

Stage-3: True alphabetic reading

- Use complete letter-sound correspondences

- The ability to pronounce pseudo words as a good measures

For e.g. - zot. Spiv

Stage-4: Orthographic reading

-Learn multi letter units: rimes (nest, chest, test, west)

-Attend to word specific orthographic information

E.g. - Silent letter in words “t” in listen

Irregular words- Have, said, where…