Read. Aloud. A lot!

Like many elementary teachers, I read aloud to my class on a daily basis.  Sometimes, if they're persistent enough, and I'm feeling giving, I'll even read a little extra.  This request usually happens when I end the day's chapters on a cliff hanger.

Which I do.  A lot.  Hey, it's fun!

Anyway, one of the things that was a tug-of-war decision for me was using our read aloud as instructional, or using it for pure enjoyment.  I know that there are schools of thought that argue for each side, and both are very valid.  I've found that we do snack time during read aloud, giving the kids a few minutes to chat at the beginning before I start reading.

Once I start reading?  They're usually hooked. X Our Daily 5 CAFE board is right by my read aloud chair, which makes a great place for modeling some of the strategies that are on the board.  This helps with instruction in a very organic, natural way.  Most, if not all of our read alouds happen this way - me reading, using the ever-growing board of strategies, and the kids munching away until a cliff hanger leaves them slack jawed.

Something I started this year, though, is a project or activity AFTER read aloud.  This is a great place to bring in some of the Thinking Routines that we use in the district- my favorite for read aloud being chalk talk.

In this case, prior to our reading unit on character study, we did a mini character study using our read aloud and a chalk talk.  The kids went from poster to poster "talking" with their "chalk."  We did this a few times with the main characters in the story.  Then each group was given a poster to analyze, and they had to create a character sketch of just that character. I think it was kind of fun, and so did the kids!