Read Aloud

Excellence in Education: Read Aloud

While virtual teaching provides many challenges, read-aloud is one strategy that does not require significant changes to be effective. Read aloud is a strategy that should be used in all classes and all grades. 

The first, and most important, step to read aloud is to pre-read and plan where and when you will stop, what questions you will ask and how will ask students to participate and respond. Questions should be open-ended. In content-area classes, questions should also encourage our scholars to think like historians, scientists or mathematicians. 

Student responses can come in many forms. For all but our youngest children, students should be encouraged to write their responses and reactions during the reading and before sharing.
 
Encouraging our scholars to participate is where online learning is different than in-person learning. Some possibilities: 
  • Have scholars use the raise hand feature in Zoom. For teachers this is easier to notice than emojis and other tools. 
  • Have scholars share their thinking with someone or something else in their house. Yes, having them share with a pet or a stuffed animal is fine and fun! 
  • Get up, move around, and quickly act something out. 
  • Move into breakout rooms for conversations with partners. Once we've established norms, breakout rooms offer lots of uses. Here they can be quickly used allowing for younger scholars to use them as well. 
  • Chat box responses. 
  • Write something on a whiteboard and hold it up to the camera. 
  • Google Forms where responses can be shared from the teacher screen
  • Nearpod collaborate boards and Jamboards 

 Some tips

  • Work with students to establish norms and expectations. "When I'm reading, how will you stay engaged?" 
  • Keep stopping lean and quick and get back to the book/reading. 
  • Vary the length. Read alouds can be pretty short (think about a math problem) or can be longer. 
  • Be strategic in where you stop. Suspenseful moments are great places to stop. 
  • Make sure your reading choices consider your students' identities and offer them opportunities to see themselves (mirrors) and better understand others (windows).  
  • E-books, like Epic books and Kindle (take advantage of your local libraries) allow for screen sharing.  

Next Level

  • For younger scholars or anyone using a picture book, you can take pictures of the book, upload them to a Google folder and you can scroll through the pictures as you read. Alternatively, you could also do this for stopping points. 
  • Use Seesaw and breakout rooms to create collaborative read aloud where kids have each read a page aloud and then all the pages are blended and read together. 
  • Pre-record using Seesaw or Screencastify 
  • Author read alouds on YouTube and  KidLit 

Information

I put together a little cheat sheet for some of the Zoom features we learned about on Thursday. This included Focus Mode, Attendance Reports and a couple of more tidbits about backgrounds and hiding self view. Linked here.  

The growth assessment letter was sent to families last week. Here it is.  

Here's a poster to share with students regarding Zoom and classroom expectations. Secondary school students, please share with your students during 1st period. 

Family Newsletter

 

Tasks, Reminders, Upcoming Events

  • If you have not completed the Have You Seen Me, please do so https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LgwIgsAKoYpNejTFDo8ioNR4ys-By52lWT7LkhAdByg/edit#gid=478180405)Tabs 1 and 2 are for attendance, Tab 3 is for Nearpod, Tab 4 is for students needing help with supplies. 
  • Next week's family newsletter is going to encourage families to share about their cultures, backgrounds, traditions and celebrations. Please let me know your ideas about who families can join class meetings, share their experiences, etc. Here's the jamboard to share ideas.
  • I'm also going to ask for each of you to create a space in SeeSaw or Schoology where we can celebrate each other as a community. Students and families will be encouraged to send photos, videos, etc. of milestones and events (losing a tooth, riding a bike, winning a game). The idea is to communicate, celebrate and show compassion for the whole child. 

 

Elementary School Daily Announcements

https://youtu.be/roMIZok08Qs  Monday

https://youtu.be/WFtxnKZwd7Y  Tuesday

https://youtu.be/HSEm0S7__AY Wednesday

https://youtu.be/LqmfTbCgrmU  Thursday

https://youtu.be/w5_FrU24nRE Friday

 

Weekly Check

I hope to do a better job of being visible in your classrooms and checking in with each of you. But I will also be including this form every week for you to complete.  It's much like what you are probably doing with your students. Please take a second to check in with me by completing this form. 

I also encourage you to reach out to Mark Green and Dama Schneider for instructional coach support and Lucy Spencer and John Mitchem for tech help.  

Finally, every Wednesday at 7:45, I'll have open office hours to meet individually or in groups with you. This is optional. 



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