Read Alouds

In my classroom, I have done read alouds in different ways, since I have taught three different grade levels.  This year, I started out the year with a fun read aloud called The Chocolate Touch.  I always try to start out the year with an entertaining chapter book that gets students motivated to read books that do not have a lot of pictures so that I can teach them how to visulaize and create images for the stories in their minds.

Throughout the year, I incorporate read alouds that go along with the theme of stories we are reading in class.  Our first Unit in reading was about friendship, so  I read the book Stuart Little to my class to tie in the theme of friendship and how it relates to other stories we have read about friendship.

I also like to give the students choices in read aloud books for the class.  If we are learning about a certain topic such as explorers, fractions, or habitats, I give the students choices in what kind of book they would prefer to listen to about that topic.  When students are provided with choices, they start to feel more involved in the read aloud process.

Creating Choices for Students in Reading Centers

Here are some helpful ways to provide choices to your students during centers, so that the routine of centers does not become monotonous:

1. When students read to self, allow them to choose books from a certain genre or books within their reading level.
2. When reading a DRA level book with the teacher, have students choose from a set of 5 different choices of books for the week.
3. In a writing center, provide choices such as journal writing, writing a story, or practicing handwriting (cursive).
4. Every week, my students focus on a Florida Center Reading Research skill such as vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.  Each week students can choose between 2 vocabulary skills that they want to focus on.
5. Game boards that go with the reading series of SRA in my classroom provide a workshop kit with different skills for the students to practice on.  Giving the students a choice of 3 different game cards such as homophones, vocabulary, and sentences allows for choice, but still focuses on the skills that we are learning for the week.

My Recommended List of Classroom Sets of Books

Based on the books that I read for my annotated bibliography and author study, I would recommend class sets of the following books:
      - The Tale of Despereaux
      - Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride
      - Crispin

The Tale of Despereaux and Mercy Watson goes for a ride are both written by the creative children's fiction writer, Kate DiCamillo.  I think these stories would appeal to kids because they contain an adventurous plot with themes that relate to adventure and belonging.  Kids could easily relate to a character in the story and make connections, as well as work on creative writing assignments about how they would react if in the character's shoes.  Adventure is also a common theme in Crispin, and I think that children would enjoy learning about the history of England in the book as well.  This book kept me engaged to find out the fate of Crispin and this would help motivate students to keep reading to solve the mystery.

Giving Students Choices in Reading

With the mandated stresses of FCAT and Common Core Standards, when is there time to provide choices in reading to our students?

Actually, the choices are out there!  As educators, it is how we differentiate to provide choices in our day to day teaching. 

Here is a list of ways to provide choices to your students in reading
 - DEAR (Provide weekly choices in what students read for enjoyment)
 - Reading Centers (Allow students to choose from a list of journal writing prompts  
    that interests them to write about)
- Students can have choices in their weekly spelling homework such as writing spelling words in sentences, in a story, ladders, ABC order, reverse ABC order, typing them on the computer, or in fancy letters.

           

A great tale about a young mountain girl who attends an Academy to become a future princess in the country of Danland.  Learning proper etiquette, mannerisms, and history of the country are just part of Miri's day to day routine at the Academy with her mentor, Olana.  There are so many unexpected turns in this book to keep you reading to find out who the prince chooses as his princess.

The following website can be viewed for literature circle discussion questions about the book: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/princess-academy-discussion-guide.

This is a great early primary book that can be used with counting in math, finding rhyming words, phrases that repeat, and making predictions.  I found this book to be very entertaining and would relate to multiple curriculum areas such as math, reading, and holidays.