Teaching Reading

I know this is not a teaching class, but I learned something very cool I wanted to share that I learned in one of my classes. We are learning the Workshop approach to teaching reading. This is a sample schedule of readers workshops:


8:00-8:15 Readers' Workshop: Short read aloud with a mini lesson

8:15-8:25 Independent Reading/ Teacher Confers with students one on one

8:25-9:05 Independent Reading with Independent Work/ Teacher meets with three different guided reading groups.

One group goes from 8:25-8:40
Second from 8:40-8:55
Third from 8:55-9:10

9:10-9:15 Share Out with the whole class


The cool part comes at the very beginning. It is called "INTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD". What happens is the teacher opens the class with a book. As she reads she makes "connections" and encourages the students to as well. When students make these connections it helps them to remember the book better.

For example: If the page says "Sally walked her dog as she ate a popsicle. Rusty, the dog, kept trying to lick her popsicle." Then I could make the connection when I used to eat popsicles with my siblings on hot, summer days. My dog would always try to eat mine and I would get really mad at him.

See, this would help me with comprehending the book more, because I could remember this specific part of the book, but also the book as a whole.

This thought just popped in my mind because we will start reading picture books soon, and I now read them totally different after hearing this method!