Share the Magic

This week I’ve been reading and writing about shared reading for students in grades 3 and up. I admit I did not realize shared reading would be a part of the reading curriculum for older students, however I am now convinced that it should be. Although I have never led a shared reading lesson, I have led a book club and I believe that the students got more out of the stories because they got to hear my thoughts about the story—so they understood the kid and the adult perspectives. Shared reading would be even better for reading instruction for many reasons:
1) Students would get to hear a fluent reader (the teacher) read.
2) The teacher introduces the text, giving information about the setting, time period, and the characters.
3) The writing style would be discussed and difficult vocabulary words would be defined with context cues being pointed out by the instructor.
4) The students would get voice support as they followed along with the reading without having to decipher the text, which would help with comprehension.

I have been disappointed to see that more and more teachers are not reading aloud to their students. Shared reading is another wonderful method for reading instruction. My job as a media specialist will be to implement shared reading as a teacher and to also inform teachers as to why it is a good strategy and how to conduct a shared reading lesson. The author of our text Janet Allen remarked that one of her students referred to the books they have read as, “magic.” That is what books and reading are all about and what better way to encourage reading, but to share the magic.