Shared reading is an enjoyable, cooperative activity based on bedtime story experiences. It creates a relaxed environment where teachers can model reading strategies to support all students. Shared reading involves predictable, repetitive texts and uses techniques like pointing, cloze procedure, and musical elements. It follows stages of pre-reading preparation, the shared reading, and post-reading activities like retelling, sequencing, independent reading and writing.
8. Working my Robot When I press this button, my robot starts to talk. When I press this button, my robot starts to walk. When I pull this lever, he starts to turn around When I pull this lever, he makes a bleeping sound When I click this little switch, his lights begin to flash. Oh! Heâs falling overâŠâŠ. Clink! Clank! Crash!
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13. Working my Robot When I press this button, my robot starts to talk. When I press this button, my robot starts to walk. When I pull this lever, he starts to turn around When I pull this lever, he makes a bleeping sound When I click this little switch, his lights begin to flash. Oh! Heâs falling overâŠâŠ. Clink! Clank! Crash!
Overhead 1. John Clare of the Daily Telegraph reveals evidence that childrenâs academic success will be determined largerly by one factor â the ability to read. However âThe desire to read is not born in a child. It is planted by parents and teachersâ. Planting that desire can be born in one way - through shared reading! The aim of this presentation is to underly the general principles of good shared reading practise and planning in a second language environment. My name is Fiodhna Hyland and I lecture at the H.C.T., Education Department. I am from Ireland.
The presentation will last for two hour and will take the following format ( overhead 2) Please ask as we go along if you donât follow something, otherwise questions and comments will be taken at the end of the talk. In addition, everyone will be provided with a shared reading resource pack, including the main points highlighted here today â as the Irish t.v. presenter Gay Byrne says, thereâs one for everyone in the audience! Presentation; Planning a shared reading lesson; resources.
A balanced literacy programme will include reading to, with and by children. Today, we are concerned with reading with children â or shared reading.What is shared reading ?(Overhead 3) Shared reading is an enjoyable, cooperative, interactive reading activity based on the bedtime story experience. By greatly enlarging the size of a storybook, you can create a comfortable atmosphere of bedtime story reading with an entire class. Research by the Russian linguist Vygotsky, has proven that learning is most effective when it is collaborative. Shared reading enables children, especially second language children to engage in genuine reading at a level beyond which they might do independently. Holdaway says that âfrom the childâs point of view, the situation is among the happiest and most secure in his experienceâ. Shared reading was advocated by a New Zelander â Don Holdaway in the late 60s. He is a highly practical contributor to the teaching of reading, as a result of working with children who were considered âfailuresâ. He was aware that teachers used the power of story reading as an important yet separate part of their language programme.But, this had little instructional value because of the print size not been able to be seen, shared or discussed. He said to himself, âhow can we create visual intimacy in the classroom?âAs a result, teachers and developers began to trial and research the value of using an enlarged text as a method of teaching reading â co-operative reading which later became known as shared reading.
(Overhead 4) Why does shared reading work? Why does it have potential to work in an EFL context? Why is it successful? ( Multi-sensory) It is a step between reading to children and independent reading by children.It supports and respects children as co-readers who feel their âmistakesâ go unnoticed. It eliminates failure and gives success in the early stages of reading.The relaxed, supportive atmosphere allows children to experiment as they develop strategies for predicting, self-correcting. It helps children build bridges between the abstract and the concrete. By this I mean âŠChildren like to figure out how things work. From their earliest days they are pushing and poking to find out what makes things go. They also try to make sense of reading. It stimulates language development, especially for EFL children who have not had a rich literacy experience in their second language at home.Skills and strategies previously taught in isolation can be practised in a meaningful context. Their eyes are hearing what their ears are hearing what their tongues are saying. Through voice, eye and gesture, the children are drawn into the story. Children begin to recognise through shared reading that language works in chunks of meaning not only while speaking but on the printed page. Serving as a model, the teacher is able to illustrate âskills in actionâ by directing attention to letters, word patterns and elements/conventions of print. The focus is upon modelling reading strategies.There is visual intimacy with print.The teacherâs enthusiasm demonstrates the joys of reading and what a skilled reader does with the text. Although, there are a range of abilities, all children can learn at their own level. Some may be at the âlisteningâ level while others may be at the âparticipationâ level. Remember, all are aiming to be at the independent level. Shared reading is fun.Iâm sure youâll all agree that learning thatâs fun is worthwhile. Getting children to pick up a book is one thing, but helping them to discover the pleasure learning to read can bring is another story altogether. There are improved levels of concentration being sustained by children who are usually on permanent classroom safari! At least, they can be on the shared reading safari.It is more involved and it is fun, which in turn develops better concentration.
(20 minutes) Now that we know what shared reading is â weâve arrived at the second and biggest section â shared reading practiseâ This is divided into three stages: pre-shared reading, the shared reading stage and post-shared reading stage .(Overhead 7) In the pre-shared reading stage, there are three key points. The physical environment:( display and give examples ) In order to employ shared reading effectively, you need a conducive physical environment. Firstly, you need a suitable easel or bookstand/chair so that the print is visible to all the children.Alternatives include charts or overheads. A pointer. A masker. Seat the children comfortably on a mat, in a position to see all the text.The teacher should sit or stand by the side of the easel. Have a welcome activity/song/rhyme/retell favourite story. Supply basket,with story props that grasp the key elements of the story, pointers, post-it notes, pens, highlighters, stuffed toys, puppets, cut-outs and magnet board/velcro, markers â to enhance the shared reading. Then you are ready to set the scene. Setting the scene: Setting the scene is probably the most important part of the pre-shared reading stage because it is the first contact children have with the book. This ârehearsalâ will help to familiarize children with vocabulary and structures theyâll meet in the story. It consolidates their meaning as you are carrying out the rest of the shared reading process. Keep the introduction brief and lively. The idea is to encourage the children to want to share.Begin by talking and sharing ideas about the cover and such things as the title, author, illustrator, probable theme. Ask open ended questions such as âwhat do you think the story is going to be about?â.(dialogue) By discussing the story and illustrations prior to shared reading, you are building anticipation.(show the book upside down)
(Overhead 8) There are lots of desirable features of a shared reading text, but from my research, these six seem to be the most important for a second language situation. Read from overhead.) Mabe you could consider these points when ordering stock for next year. (Start with a big book in my hand and discuss points on overhead. The literature must be âon the side of the second language childâ. Decontextualised texts should be predictable, patterned, simple sentence structure which means children can use contextual clues and read for meaning right from the start. The text should be in the same position on the page, with one word changes and possible change in the pattern on the last page of the text. Direct speech.Children delight in rhythm and rhyme, it creates intrigue and magic and they experience immediate success. Repetition can take many forms: repetitive sequence,rhyme rhyme sequence, cumulative rhyme where each new line adds a new thought before repeating everything that went before, e.g. the house that Jack built (p.32 sounds of lanugage) Interlocking sequence, where the episodes in a story interlock rather than simply repeat themselves, chronological sequence, the repetition of action or vocabulary from episode to episode. If a text is visually attractive, it will help children make a mental picture of the book.The picture is easy to see, exaggerated, typographical effects,therefore, it will add to the story in the childrenâs heads and colour their understanding. Strong pictorial support is important. You may be wondering what type of texts are not suitable. Find a big book that isnât visually attractive or too involved, weak storyline/characters and compare with one that is. When I say short, I mean five to ten minutes in length. Reception should have one to two lines per page, Year One â three to four, Year Two â five to seven. Keeping in mind the short concentration span of children. Will the book stand up to re-reading? You donât want to stop to break the flow of the story and break the childrenâs attention for too long and too often. No more than seven words per line. Vocabulary to be restricted. Clear layout is important fro emergent second language learners, e.g. the writing in the ârainbow fishâ is too small. Match the length of the text to the childrenâs reading stamina. Activity: In groups of five, audience analysis three texts under the above headings.
In the pre-shared reading stage, we covered the physical environment, setting the scene and the type of text. Now we shift gears to the shared reading stage. (Overhead 9) From my research, Don Holdawayâs natural learning classroom model is most suitable for second language children.There are essentially four parts to teaching shared reading. Demonstration:/Modelling At the first reading, the pace should be lively with a few stops so as not to interrupt the flow of language. The teacher points clearly to each word, modelling print concepts such as directionality, focusing on meta-language and displaying of reading through scaffolding procedures. The teacher directs, demonstrates, models, explains, questions, initiating and guides exploration, discusses. Demonstration is not enough on itâs own to complete the shared reading process. Participation: Participation and prediction should be encourage but not to the detriment of the storyline. The learners participate, negotiate meaning cooperatively, questionning and discussing. The teacher induces active involvement . Practice: Through role-play and reading to gain personal competence. During the rereading, there should be opportunities for children to participate in the reading, recall vocabulary, ideas and information, observe and demonstrate reading strategies and language conventions. The teacher should gradually lower his voice to allow the children to dominate. Occasionally the teacher should disengage completely and rejoin as soon as the children begins to struggle or lose confidence. Learners practice being a reader, approximating, gaining personal competence in gaining the skills of literacy. Self-regulating, taking personal responsibility for application, correction and confirmation. Teachers enable, support, arrange the environment, instruct especially on request. Performance: There are many ways in which children can perform or respond to shared reading. Learner share, perform, display new increments of competence, experience the real outcomes, power and joys of literacy. The teacher validates, rewards, accepts, enjoys, publicly acknowledges and commends new increments of skill, monitors and record, e.g. read on KTV, perform in groups, individually. This will be highlighted more in the post-shared reading stage. If you want to find out more about this, youâll find the detail of Holdawayâs book called âthe foundations of literacyâ in the resource pack.
(Overhead 10 ) In the shared reading stage, there are seven essential techniques for the implementation of shared reading in a second language. Big book technique: Big books can play an important role in helping children take on book language and develop an awareness of language patterns because the book is big, the pictures are big, the words are big. The big book technique models skills and strategies, verbalises and makes evident the choices a reader makes, encourages and sustains discussion about the text. Big books cover a wide range of reading repertoire including outstanding picture books, information texts and poetry anthologies. However,Thomas, (1999) claims that big books have an important place but wear thin in time. The type of texts used should in the NLS is not narrowed to big books. Use overhead projector, enlarge to A1 size â Zerox shops. 2 . Pointing ( demonstrate techniques) Read the story, tracking each word with a pointer as you read. You are matching the spoken with the written word by drawing childrenâs attention to print and show that books contain messages. To aid directionality of print, from left to right, top to bottom. For emergent EFL readers(reception), pointing to each word is necessary. When one to one correspondence between the words on the page and the words we read are known, pointing to each word is no longer necessary. Point to each line of text instead. Marie Clayâs studies show conclusively that pointing is a crucial strategy during the early stages of reading. 3. Masking/blocking (Demonstrate) The emphasis is on attending to print detail, e.g. key words, initial sounds. It encourages children to use other cues like picture and contextual cues to predict what the covered word might be. We are teaching that eye-voice-ear link which makes print intelligible in the earliest stages. 4. Innovation on structure: (Example â next slide) This technique involves children borrowing or changing the structure slightly and coming up with their own innovations on simple structures orally or written. It develops more understandings of childrenâs knowledge of how English language works. There is vocabulary enrichment. Spot my mistake. You are in the story. Put childrenâs names. Compose a different ending/beginning. Change a noun, e.g. I saw a cow â dog etc. Change the adjectives. e.g. Brown Bear Brown Bear, what do you see? After changing the adjectives of colour to adjectives of size, it became, Huge Bear, Huge Bear, what do you hear? I hearâŠ. Opposites (the bear went up stairs, the bear went down stairs, inside/outside) Expanding simple sentences makes children aware of the shape of the sentences, e.g.âThis is Susiâ could be âThis is funny Susi.â Reducing sentences eliminates all unnecessary words, phrazes and clauses. Rearranging sentences.This technique is tested in the SATs. 5. Cloze procedure:or gap-filling. (Example â Beans Poem) It induces prediction and creative involvement using a predictable text. It can be oral or written. It gives EFL children the opportunity to predict missing words/phrazes/sentences/storyline. It reinforces and develops the different cues children use whilst reading, e.g. picture cues, initial letters, visual cues, print detail,rhyming cues,contextual clues, self correction. There is more attention to print detail. It develops comprehension in a meaningful context. 6. Musical techniques: (demonstrate â clap on colour words) Children who have access to rhymes and jingles prior to starting school are more likely to become better readers (Bryant, 1993) Children take naturally to rhythm and rhyme from the early stages. It helps to unlock the the meaning of printed language. They can depend on rhyming words by its repetitive language patterns, e.g. Humpty Dumpty. They will read new words by recognizing where they fall in a certain rhyming slots, then the complete pattern. Read a passage expressionless, in a monotone, high pitched, low pitched. Letâs try now. Audience read one sentence in a monotone, another high pitched. Children clap on a âfocusedâ word, e.g. âonâ.Come and circle the word. Everywhere they come across this word, they clap,e.g. Sing a rainbow, the word, âandâ. Chanting and clapping: By clapping and tapping the rhythm of a sentence/story, the children will be getting the language into their muscles as well as their minds. Syllabic rhyme is taught and word endings, I.e. rimes. As children gain skill in using their ears to guide their eyes in readingâ they increase in confidence and expectation (e.g. Ten Little Indians) Create different ways of keeping the rhythm of the story, e.g. it can be sung, using percussion instruments, drum beat, the class divided into groups, one group singing the story, the others tapping the beat on their laps. Part of the reason this approach works well with such a broad range of children is that it makes use of abilities that nearly all children share â auditory memories. They are able to learn songs, rhymes and jingles after hearing them only two or three times. This same ability can help them âmemorizeâ text during the shared reading experience.EFL children who have less exposure to sounds in their second language, rhymes are very important. Very often they donât relate to our contemporary life, yet the rhythm and rhyme of the sentences, the simple storylines, humorous innuendo and wordplay all make good fun. Resource Techniques: (demonstrate) Using a story bag as a stimulus, objects are revealed from the bag, based on the story. The character is introduced so that when they meet him in the story, they already know him. Objects can be added throughout the story to maintain interest. Overhead technique Make a transparency of a story. Cut little strips of cardboard to cover the text and as we read, we slide the top one along exposing letter detail progressively.There is so much fun working out the words in the story. In this way you can teach the strategy of prediction focusing on letter/word/sentence information. Surprises technique: Your spontaneous use of poetry and rhymes as âtucked-in teacher surprisesâ can ease the tensions that naturally build up in children.Try integrating shared reading into the rest of your day be creating a surprises technique. On a chart, write down the surprises that will happen. Have a chairperson. All the techniques mentioned in their own different ways emphasis particular aspects of text: letters, words, phrazes, word, sentence and text levels. Research has shown that learning is maximized with lots of beginnings.
.âIt is a fact of our psychological make-up that we cannot read anything without experiencing some kind of response.â (Aidan Chambers, 1991)The literacy hour aims to turn children into ârealâ readers who respond, are empathetic and critical. Rosenblatt (1938) coined the phraze, âreader responseâ theory, i.e. reader and literacy text transact. In the Literacy Hour, the post-shared reading stage is the next 15 minutes of whole class work.This stage enables the teacher to spread ideas, re-emphasise teaching points and clarify misconceptions. This is the consolidation stage.There are many ways children can respond to shared reading, through DARTs, I.e. directed activities related to text (Lunzer and Gardner)They are aminly oral, aural or written. (Overhead 12) Retelling: Based on a phraze/sentence from shared reading, the teacher and children compose a new story. Children can add some âorganic vocabularyâ. Children can retell the story in pairs. After a minute, the teacher shouts âchangeâ and the listener becomes the speaker to continue the tale. Questions and answers: From a questions box, one child picks and asks a question about the storye.g. investigat the fox who ate the gingerbread man. The other children respond. A variation of this is where one child can be a t.v. reporter asking questions based on an incident in the story. Other children are in the audience. Rereading: (audience â Working my Robot) Shared rereadings build confidence, reinforce meaning, maximize memory capacity and allow approximations to the text Each time it can be changed, embellished, elaborated or simplified. Performing as a chorus â different groups of children can be assigned different parts or characters to read. A variation of rereading is partnered reading ( Audience interaction on âSing a rainbowâ, where the teacher highlights the repetitive words or phrazes with a coloured pen. Reread the story and have the children read the highlighted words, phrazes while the teacher reads the other words. The teacher and children then take every second word/phraze/sentence. Sequencing technique: Children sequence picture cards, words, sentences.Put the story in order. In oral response, children recall the story in sequence, each adding on one sentence. This develops memory,comprehension. Choose a series of actions/incidents from the story and ask the children to chart them on a timeline as a way of retelling the story in order, e.g. the chores for the yellow chicken to get ready for the party. Phraze strip dialogue : Many predictable stories repeat phrazes of dialogue many times over. (Example from âthe gingerbread manâ.This can be put to great advantage while rereading the story to help children focus on print. Each child is given a phraze strip. As the teacher rereads the story, he or she pauses when a dialogue phraze is reached and points to the child holding the strip. Cue the child to say the phraze. This continues throughout the story. Audio-tapes: Aural Response. Tapes are enjoyable, they reinforce story structures and encourages independence. If published tapes are not available, teachers make audiotapes of predictable stories. Children can go to the listening centre and listen for pleasure. Some big book packages contain one enlarged copy of a predictable book, several small copies and a tape. The teacher can record the children reading fro KTV2 â using a microphone and T.V. box. Shared writing: Shared writing links reading and writing. It can follow shared reading, where the teacher acts as a scribe based on the story. Introduce the puppet penpal who wants to correspond with the class.( bring a letter written on a chart, written by Mr. Penpal). Choose a repeated phraze or sentence from the book and model a variation of that phraze for the children. Children can make a class big book based on the repeated phraze. Thought tracking, imagine what various characters are thinking or feeling at different times in the story. Write their thoughts in boxes or bubbles. Scribe alternate openings and endings to a story. A new poem based on the previous form. An alternate contents list for a text. A character portrait based on shared reading of a novel or reading scheme. Practise making rhymes with words in context, e.g. run run as fast as you can. Cloze procedure. Write on small black boards. Performance: Performance increases confidence in the children. Reading to others, movement, art, role play, drama. Create an authorâs chair, where the other children ask you questions. Dramatize a scene from the story. Children become the demonstrators. Have a court room scenario where particular characters are put in the dock and have to explain their actions (a form of hot-seating) At G.E.S. timetable constraints prevent this stage from being maximized. Therefore, any of the activities mentioned can be developed over a week, month or even term. The next section, planning will outline possibilities for incorporating more shared reading into your restricted timetables.
.âIt is a fact of our psychological make-up that we cannot read anything without experiencing some kind of response.â (Aidan Chambers, 1991)The literacy hour aims to turn children into ârealâ readers who respond, are empathetic and critical. Rosenblatt (1938) coined the phraze, âreader responseâ theory, i.e. reader and literacy text transact. In the Literacy Hour, the post-shared reading stage is the next 15 minutes of whole class work.This stage enables the teacher to spread ideas, re-emphasise teaching points and clarify misconceptions. This is the consolidation stage.There are many ways children can respond to shared reading, through DARTs, I.e. directed activities related to text (Lunzer and Gardner)They are aminly oral, aural or written. (Overhead 12) Retelling: Based on a phraze/sentence from shared reading, the teacher and children compose a new story. Children can add some âorganic vocabularyâ. Children can retell the story in pairs. After a minute, the teacher shouts âchangeâ and the listener becomes the speaker to continue the tale. Questions and answers: From a questions box, one child picks and asks a question about the storye.g. investigat the fox who ate the gingerbread man. The other children respond. A variation of this is where one child can be a t.v. reporter asking questions based on an incident in the story. Other children are in the audience. Rereading: (audience â Working my Robot) Shared rereadings build confidence, reinforce meaning, maximize memory capacity and allow approximations to the text Each time it can be changed, embellished, elaborated or simplified. Performing as a chorus â different groups of children can be assigned different parts or characters to read. A variation of rereading is partnered reading ( Audience interaction on âSing a rainbowâ, where the teacher highlights the repetitive words or phrazes with a coloured pen. Reread the story and have the children read the highlighted words, phrazes while the teacher reads the other words. The teacher and children then take every second word/phraze/sentence. Sequencing technique: Children sequence picture cards, words, sentences.Put the story in order. In oral response, children recall the story in sequence, each adding on one sentence. This develops memory,comprehension. Choose a series of actions/incidents from the story and ask the children to chart them on a timeline as a way of retelling the story in order, e.g. the chores for the yellow chicken to get ready for the party. Phraze strip dialogue : Many predictable stories repeat phrazes of dialogue many times over. (Example from âthe gingerbread manâ.This can be put to great advantage while rereading the story to help children focus on print. Each child is given a phraze strip. As the teacher rereads the story, he or she pauses when a dialogue phraze is reached and points to the child holding the strip. Cue the child to say the phraze. This continues throughout the story. Audio-tapes: Aural Response. Tapes are enjoyable, they reinforce story structures and encourages independence. If published tapes are not available, teachers make audiotapes of predictable stories. Children can go to the listening centre and listen for pleasure. Some big book packages contain one enlarged copy of a predictable book, several small copies and a tape. The teacher can record the children reading fro KTV2 â using a microphone and T.V. box. Shared writing: Shared writing links reading and writing. It can follow shared reading, where the teacher acts as a scribe based on the story. Introduce the puppet penpal who wants to correspond with the class.( bring a letter written on a chart, written by Mr. Penpal). Choose a repeated phraze or sentence from the book and model a variation of that phraze for the children. Children can make a class big book based on the repeated phraze. Thought tracking, imagine what various characters are thinking or feeling at different times in the story. Write their thoughts in boxes or bubbles. Scribe alternate openings and endings to a story. A new poem based on the previous form. An alternate contents list for a text. A character portrait based on shared reading of a novel or reading scheme. Practise making rhymes with words in context, e.g. run run as fast as you can. Cloze procedure. Write on small black boards. Performance: Performance increases confidence in the children. Reading to others, movement, art, role play, drama. Create an authorâs chair, where the other children ask you questions. Dramatize a scene from the story. Children become the demonstrators. Have a court room scenario where particular characters are put in the dock and have to explain their actions (a form of hot-seating) At G.E.S. timetable constraints prevent this stage from being maximized. Therefore, any of the activities mentioned can be developed over a week, month or even term. The next section, planning will outline possibilities for incorporating more shared reading into your restricted timetables.
(Overhead 13) We have completed the second and longest section - shared reading practice.
(Overhead 12) 10 minutes once a week reading a book that has a similar topic to New Parade. Customize plans that are simple, with a clear focus,with one main objective per week so that it will be clear what you are trying to target, a variety of post-shared reading activities, alternate old and new stories, suitable texts for second language learners. Pick a literacy focus using a text that fits in with the New Parade books. Decide on a focus whether it is to: Have fun with language/a predictable story Focus on vocabulary/tense/questions/prediction Reading together Introduce a new or familiar author. Introduce or develop a topic or theme. Model an innovation on a text. Explore word/sentence or text levels. Developing responses Responding to a text over a week is the norm in the UK.
First conclusion: (Overhead 18) In conclusion, the aim of this presentation â to underly the general principles of good shared reading practise and planning. There were three main sections in this presentation: what is shared reading?, shared reading practice and working to a plan. Let me leave you with this final thought - Learning to read is the job of a lifetime. Children who share books begin their reading career early. They find joy and power in the pages of a book, knowing subconsciously, if not consciously, that he can make a go of print. Shared reading has proved to be successful in other countries. You need to prove that it works in a second language setting. Reading should be for meaning and understanding, so what better way is there to teach it than through shared reading texts. Long live the daily shared book experience! Thank you for listening. Questions and comments will now be taken. Story: A mother mouse was trying to teach here offspring the ways of the world when she found herself, and her family, face-to-face with a great big cat. Her children were terrified. But the mother remained calm and started barking like a dog. The cat heard the barking, turned tail, and took off. The mother mouse turned to her little ones and said, âNow you see, thatâs the importance of a second language.â Explain the resource pack; NS Arnold/Hope catelogues; student examples of âMy Familyâ activities; brochure.
