Choral Reading
1) Introduce the selection to the students by reading it aloud as they follow along.
2) Have everyone read through the selection aloud in unison at least one time.
3) Ask different groups of students to take turns reading lines, stanzas, or paragraphs of the
poem together. Group readers into boys and girls, brown eyes and blue eyes, odd number
birthdays and even number birthdays, or odd number birth month and even number birth
month.
For example, in a given poem, say, “Boys read the first two lines and girls read the
next two lines.
Variation #1: Alternately, have them read in different voices (ex. high voice, surprised voice,
whisper voice, sad voice, sleepy voice, etc.)
Variation #2:Alternate using a red, blue or green marker for different lines. Distribute red, blue
and green circles to children. Explain that children who have a red circle will read the red
lines, children with a blue circle read the blue lines.
Our Class
Poems/Songs/Chants
After you do a shared reading of a poem, chant or song, place a copy of it in a individual
poetry binders for them to read when there is extra time or they finish an activity early.
Reader’s Theater
Rewriting a familiar text into a play or using the theme you are studying as inspiration
creates an opportunity for reader’s theater. Make multiple copies of the play and have
children highlight their parts.
Variation #1 Write a play together over several lessons as shared writing.
Variation #2 As an end of the unit activity, have children write their own plays.
Shared Reading
(See Appendix C.2)
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.
Selected books must be suitable for students to join in the experience.
Interactive ChartsShared Reading
Interactive charts provide an opportunity for beginning readers to manipulate text and
interact with print.
1. Write a song, poem, chant, or finger play on sentence strips, one sentence per
strip.
2. Place the sentences in a pocket chart. Choose a part of the sentence for
children to manipulate-a name, a rhyming word, a number word, verbs, etc. The
manipulated part is placed in the pocket chart at the correct spot.
3. Write the poem on chart paper and have students use stickies to change to
chosen word.
Cut Up
Paragraphs (see
Appendix D)
Write a paragraph about a topic you are studying or to reinforce forms and functions,
and put individual sentences on sentence strips. Have students put the sentences back
together in order.
Highlight Targeted
Parts of Speech or
Grammatical Forms
Use texts as models for parts of speech or
grammatical forms. Have students highlight
targeted forms in the text (ex. past tense
verbs, adjective, irregular plural nouns, etc.)
Grammargallery.com has texts that focus on
specific structures to use as models.
Guess the Covered
Word
When learning to read, children must do two things simultaneously-think about what
would make sense and think about letters and sounds. In order to have children
cross check the meaning with sound, have them do the following with posted
sentences (for beginning readers) or paragraphs (for more advanced readers).
1. Write some sentences or a paragraph related to something the students
are studying or to reinforce or a grammatical structure.
2. Select one word per sentence which begins with a consonant and cover that
word with two post its. One note should cover all beginning letters up to the
vowel (onset). The other note should cover the rest of the word.
3. Read each sentence aloud and have students make three or four guesses
without any letters revealed. Write down those guesses.
4. Remove the note that covers all the beginning letters. Draw a line through
guesses which are no longer possible. Continue in revealing letters and
eliminating words. If there are more guesses, write them.
5. When the students cannot think of any more words that meet both criteria,
reveal the rest of the word to see if the correct word was guessed.
Word Sort (see Appendix E)
Use word cards to sort words into categories such as
parts of speech, spelling patterns or topic related.
Reading Extensions
Anticipation Guide
(See Appendix C)
An anticipation guide activates
students background knowledge by
asking them to respond to a series of
statements on a topic. Students draw
on what they already know to agree
or disagree with the statements. It
can pique students’ interest in a topic
and help set a purpose for reading.
Prediction Chart
Students record their predictions in writing before they
read a section or text. After reading, they note what
really happened. In this way, they keep track of their
predictions as they read, and you can review their
thinking. The chart should have two columns,
“Prediction” and “What Happened.” Pose prediction
questions at intervals throughout the reading of the text.
Coding Your
Reading
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A copy of the text is available to each child. Students read sentence by sentence
coding the text silently. Then, groups or partners share their codes. For example, V
= I already know this * = This is new information, !=- Wow, ?= I don’t understand. It's
fun when students make up their own codes, too. Students begin by coding every
sentence. Eventually students code naturally in their heads and mark places to
discuss with sticky notes.