Guide to the Reading Workshop: Primary - Chapter 13 Reading Aloud

A Guide to the Reading Workshop: Primary Grades by Lucy Calkins
        *This review includes content from the chapter and content from the discussion

Our last Primary Book Study session was led by 2nd grade teacher Christy Constande.  What a perfect choice to lead a session about Read-alouds!  Christy is a lover of books and exemplifies the type of teacher that Lucy Calkins writes about. This beautiful poster above is taken from Christy's Chets Creek Teacher of the Year celebration.  She was also a finalist for the Duval County Teacher of the Year.

 BIG ideas in Chapter 13

Reading Aloud



"Together with our children - we gulp down stories..."

"Read to them. Take their breath away."





Choosing texts - choose carefully to read aloud several times a day

Use the read-aloud to teach the skills of proficient reading -  20 minutes, several days a week is specified read-aloud time

• Choose the skills to teach - spy on yourself as you read and select the sequence of skills to teach

Reading aloud across the curriculum - read fiction and nonfiction

Making read-alouds more interactive

• Use your hands, eyes, posture, voices and heart
• Let the students take the wheel -"stop and think" and then leave a pool of silence or "turn and talk," "stop and jot,"  "stop and sketch," "stop and retell."
• Some day "be quiet" and "don't talk the experience to death."

Supporting a whole-class conversation

• At Chets Creek, we call this accountable talk  where the students talk to each other without raising their hands and  without the teacher facilitating the entire conversation