Shared Reading

What is it?

teacher chooses a chart, big book, or other large-print text and reads with students; students are encouraged to join in when they feel comfortable

How does it work?

allows students to see themselves as readers

they will feel comfortable and experience fluency when joining in the reading of familiar, repetitive text

provides students with a safe, non-threatening environment in which to practice new and familiar reading strategies

What does the teacher need to do?

Read large-print text with students

work on decoding unknown words as a class

model reading strategies

Why use it?

allows the teacher to model reading strategies

provides students with essential demonstrations of how reading works and what readers do to construct meaning

teaches students strategies for decoding unknown words and for constructing meaning from the text