More about reading aloud and interactive reading

Last week, I posted the reasons, as well as strategies, for reading aloud.  As suggested last week, reading aloud includes modeling and thinking aloud.  This is an opportunity for students to observe what efficient readers do when reading. According to Fountas and Pinnell, there are ten text characteristics to consider for choosing books and making decisions about teaching through the read aloud/interactive reading.

1. Genre- Use a variety of genres at every grade level. 
2. Text Structure- Interactive reading provide a setting to teach students to not only know the structures but to identify them within a text.
3. Content- The subject matter should be interesting and engaging to students.  Students can acquire a great deal of content knowledge through the read aloud but remember to build background knowledge, if needed, before reading. 
4. Themes and Ideas- Students need to be able to connect to the reading to understand the themes and ideas.  This understanding is developed as they discuss with other students and their viewpoints.
5. Sentence Complexity- Reading aloud allows students to be exposed to more complex sentence structures when not required to decode them. Again, discussions can build this understanding even more. 
6. Vocabulary- Reading aloud continues to expose students and build their vocabulary.  Some vocabulary may need to be explicitly taught but understanding of words may occur naturally within the reading and discussion. 
7. Words- While teachers need to consider the complexity of the words (length, syllables, etc) when choosing books for students to read, this is not an issue when reading aloud.  Vocabulary, at the word level, is the only consideration for reading aloud.   
8. Language and Literary Features- The read aloud provides opportunities to expand students' abilities to process literary language, such as dialogue or figurative language. It is also a time to develop the story elements, such as characters, plot, setting, etc.
9. Illustrations- Picture books or everybody books are for everyone, not just the very young. Illustrations, at the early reading level, provides a great deal of information.  However, students of all ages can enjoy, as well as discuss, the illustrations of a book. 
10. Book and print features- Consider the the physical aspects such as length, size, and layout.  It is also an opportunity to explicitly teach print features and tools, such as table of contents, glossary, etc.