HOW IT WORKS
“When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.”- Mem Fox
SHARED READING
There are lots of different opinions on what makes an effective, Shared Reading programme.
This Shared Reading programme is a series of short-burst (15 mins max) lessons, every day. The ONLY goal is to have fun. It’s meant to make your children feel good about reading so they’re encouraged to seek it out for themselves. Remember …
"The more you read, the better you get at it; the better you get at it, the more you like it; and the more you like it, the more you do it." -Jim Trelease, The Read Aloud Handbook, pg. 4
I’m always looking to improve on the practice. Please let me know if you think I have excluded some vitally important elements — it’s great to hear new ideas!
WHY DO WE IMPLEMENT A SHARED READING PROGRAMME?
To give our children a purpose for reading.
Think about it from an emerging reader’s perspective; learning to decode (read) can be hard, repetitive and frustrating. This is especially true for any child who struggles with a learning disability like dyslexia. Children don’t and can’t understand the soul-destroying repercussions that a dislike — or worse, a fear — of reading will have on their school careers and the rest of their lives. They need age-appropriate, positive and relevant incentives to persevere. It is our responsibility as educators and caregivers to provide a meaningful purpose for reading.
The purpose of implementing a Shared Reading programme is to show our kids how much fun reading can be. It is designed to engage even the reluctant reader. If a child thinks that reading is exciting or rewarding, they will actively seek it out for themselves.
We won’t ever need to force an inspired child to read because they’ll want to do it themselves.
When we’ve made the reading experience as engaging and meaningful for them as we possibly can, we give children a real purpose for reading.
HOW DO WE IMPLEMENT A SHARED READING PROGRAMME?
If you want the short version of a weekly programme:
Day 1 (15 mins)
Day 2 (10 mins)
Day 3 (10 mins)
Day 4 (10 mins)
Day 5 (45-60 mins)
If you want to roll in completely prepared:
PREPARATION
I’ve completed all the preparation steps for you if you use any of my resources from the POEMS section of this website. The Prep section is a little dry — worthwhile, but dry. Fly ahead to the DAILY BREAKDOWNS if you can’t make it through this bit! I know I probably couldn’t…
LOCK IT INTO YOUR TIMETABLE
CHOOSE A WEEKLY POEM
To implement an effective Shared Reading programme you’ll first need to pick a good feature poem for the week.
Make sure it’s a poem that you love.
If you don’t believe in the words, your children won’t either. I try to pick an author who’s written a few good pieces so my students can get excited about a new feature poem from a writer they know and like.
It’s my personal goal to compile a list of contemporary Australian children’s poets and poems but for now a great resource is The Works Key Stage 1 (and 2) chosen by Pie Corbet. Pie Corbet is a genius and has organised hundreds of poems into appropriate year levels and themes.
Obviously feel free to use any of my poems from the POEMS section of this website.
Your poem must contain the following elements:
CREATE A COVER PAGE FOR YOUR POEM
Whether it’s on a screen or printed; drop a cover page on the front that includes a title, author and a picture that has some relevance to the content. Grab a Google image if your poem doesn’t come with pictures.
TYPESET YOUR POEM
This means re-type your poem using exciting and appropriate font types, colours and sizes. Ensure you give your words plenty of white (negative) space around them to give your reader’s eye a chance to relax and focus. Here’s an example of one of my poems, The Crooked Crocodile, typeset in a traditional format:
SHARED READING
There are lots of different opinions on what makes an effective, Shared Reading programme.
This Shared Reading programme is a series of short-burst (15 mins max) lessons, every day. The ONLY goal is to have fun. It’s meant to make your children feel good about reading so they’re encouraged to seek it out for themselves. Remember …
"The more you read, the better you get at it; the better you get at it, the more you like it; and the more you like it, the more you do it." -Jim Trelease, The Read Aloud Handbook, pg. 4
I’m always looking to improve on the practice. Please let me know if you think I have excluded some vitally important elements — it’s great to hear new ideas!
WHY DO WE IMPLEMENT A SHARED READING PROGRAMME?
To give our children a purpose for reading.
Think about it from an emerging reader’s perspective; learning to decode (read) can be hard, repetitive and frustrating. This is especially true for any child who struggles with a learning disability like dyslexia. Children don’t and can’t understand the soul-destroying repercussions that a dislike — or worse, a fear — of reading will have on their school careers and the rest of their lives. They need age-appropriate, positive and relevant incentives to persevere. It is our responsibility as educators and caregivers to provide a meaningful purpose for reading.
The purpose of implementing a Shared Reading programme is to show our kids how much fun reading can be. It is designed to engage even the reluctant reader. If a child thinks that reading is exciting or rewarding, they will actively seek it out for themselves.
We won’t ever need to force an inspired child to read because they’ll want to do it themselves.
When we’ve made the reading experience as engaging and meaningful for them as we possibly can, we give children a real purpose for reading.
HOW DO WE IMPLEMENT A SHARED READING PROGRAMME?
- By reading aloud a good, age-appropriate, Weekly Poem featuring rhythm, rhyme, repetition, new vocabulary and humour.
- It must be read together with joy and enthusiasm.
- We celebrate success from our children for every single positive response they give to what’s being read and encourage more.
If you want the short version of a weekly programme:
Day 1 (15 mins)
- Poem Predictions (4 mins)
- Modeled Reading (2 mins)
- Discussion (2 mins)
- Shared Reading (4 mins)
- Vocabulary (3 mins)
Day 2 (10 mins)
- What do we Remember? (2 mins)
- Modeled Reading (2 mins)
- Shared Reading (4 mins)
- Inferential Questions (2 mins)
Day 3 (10 mins)
- What do we Remember? (2 mins)
- Shared Reading (4 mins)
- Inferential Questions (2 mins)
Day 4 (10 mins)
- What do we Remember? (2 mins)
- Shared Reading (4 mins)
- Inferential Questions (2 mins)
Day 5 (45-60 mins)
- CELEBRATE!
If you want to roll in completely prepared:
PREPARATION
I’ve completed all the preparation steps for you if you use any of my resources from the POEMS section of this website. The Prep section is a little dry — worthwhile, but dry. Fly ahead to the DAILY BREAKDOWNS if you can’t make it through this bit! I know I probably couldn’t…
LOCK IT INTO YOUR TIMETABLE
- Aim for 3 to 5 Shared Reading sessions a week. Any less and the programme won’t have the effect you want.
- Each session goes for about 10-15 minutes when your children are familiar with the routines
- Shared Reading is great to place it in your writing block as a writing warm-up or in your reading block as a reading warm-up
- For caregivers at home, a shared reading session would be great for story time before bed
- Make your Shared Reading time consistent so your students can look forward to it everyday (they will)
CHOOSE A WEEKLY POEM
To implement an effective Shared Reading programme you’ll first need to pick a good feature poem for the week.
Make sure it’s a poem that you love.
If you don’t believe in the words, your children won’t either. I try to pick an author who’s written a few good pieces so my students can get excited about a new feature poem from a writer they know and like.
It’s my personal goal to compile a list of contemporary Australian children’s poets and poems but for now a great resource is The Works Key Stage 1 (and 2) chosen by Pie Corbet. Pie Corbet is a genius and has organised hundreds of poems into appropriate year levels and themes.
Obviously feel free to use any of my poems from the POEMS section of this website.
Your poem must contain the following elements:
- Rhythm — so children can join in like they would with a song
- Rhyme — because it’s delightful and satisfying to hear words fit together like jigsaw pieces
- Repetition — so children learn the words quickly and can join in ASAP
- New Vocabulary — age-appropriate and challenging so we can explore and discover new words
- Humour — to relax your children, engage their long-term memories and to associate reading with having fun
CREATE A COVER PAGE FOR YOUR POEM
Whether it’s on a screen or printed; drop a cover page on the front that includes a title, author and a picture that has some relevance to the content. Grab a Google image if your poem doesn’t come with pictures.
TYPESET YOUR POEM
This means re-type your poem using exciting and appropriate font types, colours and sizes. Ensure you give your words plenty of white (negative) space around them to give your reader’s eye a chance to relax and focus. Here’s an example of one of my poems, The Crooked Crocodile, typeset in a traditional format:
A talented and experienced storyteller might perform this poem with great expression and enthusiasm, but the average reader will not. Every typeface (font) has it’s own unique personality that we can use as a decoding aid or visual cue to change our voice or put special emphasis on certain words. Look at the difference dynamic typesetting makes in this version of The Crooked Crocodile which can be found in the POEMS section of this website:
- We know that The Crooked Crocodile is mean and loud when his dialogue is typeset in all capitals with a grungy, distressed font. That ‘crocodile font’ is the reader’s visual cue to put on their meanest, crocodile voice when they get to those words.
- The word BIG is in bold and towers over the other words to cue the reader to emphasize it with their voice (and gestures) when they read. It makes it more dramatic.
- CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! is set in ‘crocodile font’ to emphasis the repetition and to relate back to The Crooked Crocodile who’s doing the crunching. The reader is cued to ‘crunch’ in their meanest, crocodile voice.
- The red words in the crocodile’s dialogue are made to look even more sinister so the reader knows to make their meanest, crocodile voice even meaner when they get to them.
- Each paragraph is given appropriate space so the amount of words on any given page is not overwhelming. It gives the reader’s eye a break. Space it the way you want it performed — more about performing later.
Don’t go overboard with the typesetting. If there’s too many fonts, sizes, colours, etc going on then it will have the opposite effect and your poem will become harder to read. Just pick what you want to focus on (like the meanest, crocodile voice in the above example) and set the rest in something easy to read like Century Gothic, Helvetica, Arial etc. Put lots of space between the lines.
If you happen to know a graphic designer, get them to typeset your poems for you. Also, make sure you tell them that you can’t pay them for the job, but there’ll be plenty of exposure in it for them. They love it when people pay them in exposure instead of money.
I will work on a separate blog post to explain more about typesetting.
CREATE INFERENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR YOUR POEM
Inferential questions are ‘think and search’ questions. They require children to look for clues in the text and pictures and draw on their personal experiences to answer them.
Talking, thinking and answering inferential questions about the feature poem helps us explore the work and entertain interesting possibilities. There is more information on how to structure your Shared Reading question time further down this page.
We don’t bother with literal questions in Shared Reading because it takes time to scan texts for answers that we don’t have. There are also wrong answers to literal questions, which stops the creativity you’re trying to encourage.
Set between 6 and 10 inferential questions about your feature poem.
- Write the beginning of an ideal answer below your questions to scaffold their responses.
- Remove the scaffolding depending on ability level.
- Competent writers will give full-sentence, verbal and written responses and non-writers will only give verbal answers.
Here is an example of some inferential questions I have set for my poem, Hairy and Mary Fairy, which can be found in the POEMS section of this website:
CREATE ART CHALLENGES FOR YOUR POEM
Make something simple like giving them a space to illustrate verses from the Weekly Poem. Drawing on blank paper might be quite an advanced task for children if they’re not comfortable with drawing. An example of scaffolding for lower artistic abilities might be a colouring or maze activity. There’s important information about how to use art challenges appropriately in the DAILY BREAKDOWNS.
GET SOME ROLE PLAY PROPS
Grab some props you can use for performing your Weekly Poem. Even big kids like to play pretend.
CREATE ART CHALLENGES FOR YOUR POEM
Make something simple like giving them a space to illustrate verses from the Weekly Poem. Drawing on blank paper might be quite an advanced task for children if they’re not comfortable with drawing. An example of scaffolding for lower artistic abilities might be a colouring or maze activity. There’s important information about how to use art challenges appropriately in the DAILY BREAKDOWNS.
GET SOME ROLE PLAY PROPS
Grab some props you can use for performing your Weekly Poem. Even big kids like to play pretend.
CREATE SCREEN SLIDES OR PRINT YOUR POEMS
This is a personal preference. I do my Shared Reading sessions on my mat with my Year One students, so I use slides on my Smart Board. I would probably print poems for older students who are more accomplished readers and have better attention spans (ha!). If you do print your Weekly Poem it’s important that every student gets their own copy.
DAILY BREAKDOWNS
OK!
YOU’RE READY TO GO!
You are PUMPED!
You are BURSTING with energy!
You are not just a reader — you are a PERFORMER!
You LOVE reading and you’re ready to help your children DISCOVER that they love it too!
DAY 1 (15 min)
Poem Predictions (4 mins)
You’re excited because you’ve found the most splendid, hilarious poem you’ve ever read! You can’t wait to share it as your class! Your kids will mirror your excitement if it’s genuine.
Tell your kids that the poem we’re going to be looking at this week was written and illustrated by the amazingly ridiculous, Sean E Avery!
(Wait for murmurs of excited approval and move on when all you get are stony stares. Better pick a more exciting writer next week…)
Tell your kids that our Weekly Poem will be Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong. Tell them to look at the two fellas on the cover of this poem:
Ask them to predict what they think it’s about — give them 5 seconds of think time, then get them to turn to their shoulder partner and tell them their thoughts for 10 seconds. This is called a ‘pair-share’ and we use it as part of good teaching practice to ensure every student is engaged and answering every question. Pick a few volunteers and a non-volunteer to share their ideas with the class. These are the responses you might get and the positive tone (adjust depending on children’s age) you use to respond with:
Student 1: It’s about pirates!
You: IT IS about pirates! That’s great that you knew that straight away! Do they look happy or sad? What’s the poem about, Student 2?
Student 2: It’s about old pirates that are angry!
You: Another fantastic observation! I love how you added some extra details to Student 1’s answer. Yes, they do look angry and old! Why are they angry? What’s the poem about Student 3?
Student 3: The skinny pirate and the fat pirate are angry that their ship sank!
You: Wow! You gave me some extra adjectives to describe them! I’m sure they would be angry if their ship sank! How old are these pirates? What’s the poem about, student 4?
Student 4: My uncle dressed as a pirate once.
You: He did?! Wow! Did he look as old and angry as the pirates in this poem?
You love ALL these responses and you praise their original thinking — It doesn’t matter if it’s slightly self-serving and off-topic. Ms My-Uncle-Was-A-Pirate is already making connections to her personal experiences, so you can cut her some slack. As the famous human behavior specialist, Dale Carnegie, wrote:
“Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
You win hearts when you value all opinions given to you — people work will work hard for you if you believe in them. Give extra praise to anyone trying really hard to improve on the ideas that have already been floated. Your children are onside and happy before you’ve even started reading.
Note about positive feedback:
Make sure that your positive feedback is specific to their response. “That’s so good, what do you think, student 2?” isn’t good feedback. They need to know what is good about their answer. Be specific or it’ll sound like you’re humouring them and they’ll switch off.
Modeled Read (2 mins)
You tell your superstar kids to sit back and relax; they don’t have to anything. You’re going to do ALL the work for them.
You begin model-reading Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong with joy and enthusiasm. You use your best pirate voice when the dialogue calls for it and you use a pointer to track the words you’re reading. Be animated — pull a pirate face; stoop like an old pirate might; wave your fist like the scallywags in the poem might.
Your children might join in without you asking them too. Don’t encourage it on the first read, but don’t stop it either. This process is fun all the way through.
After you’ve finished reading you wait for your round of applause — you’ve taught your children to clap for anyone who is brave enough to read in front of lots of people, further cementing the idea that readers are special.
Discussion (2 mins)
You get your children to pair-share their thoughts and feelings about the poem. Pick a few volunteers and some non-volunteers to share their ideas with the class. You LOVE all the responses and give back specific, positive feeback.
Shared Reading (4 mins)
Time for a second read and this time your children are going to read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong’s dialogue only. You model-read their part one more time — point out that it’s really easy to know when Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong are talking because the words are set in an ‘angry pirate’ font. You’ve just given them a 5 second design lesson that will help them read expressively anytime they come across a text with dynamic typesetting.
Warm up with some practice AAAARGH!’s and YAAAAARGH!’s and go through it again leaving the fun parts to them. Finish the poem and applaud yourselves.
Vocabulary (3 min)
Go through the poem and pick out the interesting vocabulary. Don’t do it earlier because stopping and starting gets in the way of the flow and enjoyment of a text. Discuss the new words, define them, use them in a sentence etc. If your classroom doesn’t have a Magpie Wall, I suggest you get one:
This is where all of my interesting, new words go. The words are individually Blu-Tacked to a wall my children can interact with. They can retrieve any words they want from this wall when they need some inspiration for their writing. I’ll write a separate blog about Magpie Walls.
CREATE SCREEN SLIDES OR PRINT YOUR POEMS
This is a personal preference. I do my Shared Reading sessions on my mat with my Year One students, so I use slides on my Smart Board. I would probably print poems for older students who are more accomplished readers and have better attention spans (ha!). If you do print your Weekly Poem it’s important that every student gets their own copy.
DAILY BREAKDOWNS
OK!
YOU’RE READY TO GO!
You are PUMPED!
You are BURSTING with energy!
You are not just a reader — you are a PERFORMER!
You LOVE reading and you’re ready to help your children DISCOVER that they love it too!
DAY 1 (15 min)
Poem Predictions (4 mins)
You’re excited because you’ve found the most splendid, hilarious poem you’ve ever read! You can’t wait to share it as your class! Your kids will mirror your excitement if it’s genuine.
Tell your kids that the poem we’re going to be looking at this week was written and illustrated by the amazingly ridiculous, Sean E Avery!
(Wait for murmurs of excited approval and move on when all you get are stony stares. Better pick a more exciting writer next week…)
Tell your kids that our Weekly Poem will be Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong. Tell them to look at the two fellas on the cover of this poem:
Ask them to predict what they think it’s about — give them 5 seconds of think time, then get them to turn to their shoulder partner and tell them their thoughts for 10 seconds. This is called a ‘pair-share’ and we use it as part of good teaching practice to ensure every student is engaged and answering every question. Pick a few volunteers and a non-volunteer to share their ideas with the class. These are the responses you might get and the positive tone (adjust depending on children’s age) you use to respond with:
Student 1: It’s about pirates!
You: IT IS about pirates! That’s great that you knew that straight away! Do they look happy or sad? What’s the poem about, Student 2?
Student 2: It’s about old pirates that are angry!
You: Another fantastic observation! I love how you added some extra details to Student 1’s answer. Yes, they do look angry and old! Why are they angry? What’s the poem about Student 3?
Student 3: The skinny pirate and the fat pirate are angry that their ship sank!
You: Wow! You gave me some extra adjectives to describe them! I’m sure they would be angry if their ship sank! How old are these pirates? What’s the poem about, student 4?
Student 4: My uncle dressed as a pirate once.
You: He did?! Wow! Did he look as old and angry as the pirates in this poem?
You love ALL these responses and you praise their original thinking — It doesn’t matter if it’s slightly self-serving and off-topic. Ms My-Uncle-Was-A-Pirate is already making connections to her personal experiences, so you can cut her some slack. As the famous human behavior specialist, Dale Carnegie, wrote:
“Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
You win hearts when you value all opinions given to you — people work will work hard for you if you believe in them. Give extra praise to anyone trying really hard to improve on the ideas that have already been floated. Your children are onside and happy before you’ve even started reading.
Note about positive feedback:
Make sure that your positive feedback is specific to their response. “That’s so good, what do you think, student 2?” isn’t good feedback. They need to know what is good about their answer. Be specific or it’ll sound like you’re humouring them and they’ll switch off.
Modeled Read (2 mins)
You tell your superstar kids to sit back and relax; they don’t have to anything. You’re going to do ALL the work for them.
You begin model-reading Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong with joy and enthusiasm. You use your best pirate voice when the dialogue calls for it and you use a pointer to track the words you’re reading. Be animated — pull a pirate face; stoop like an old pirate might; wave your fist like the scallywags in the poem might.
Your children might join in without you asking them too. Don’t encourage it on the first read, but don’t stop it either. This process is fun all the way through.
After you’ve finished reading you wait for your round of applause — you’ve taught your children to clap for anyone who is brave enough to read in front of lots of people, further cementing the idea that readers are special.
Discussion (2 mins)
You get your children to pair-share their thoughts and feelings about the poem. Pick a few volunteers and some non-volunteers to share their ideas with the class. You LOVE all the responses and give back specific, positive feeback.
Shared Reading (4 mins)
Time for a second read and this time your children are going to read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong’s dialogue only. You model-read their part one more time — point out that it’s really easy to know when Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong are talking because the words are set in an ‘angry pirate’ font. You’ve just given them a 5 second design lesson that will help them read expressively anytime they come across a text with dynamic typesetting.
Warm up with some practice AAAARGH!’s and YAAAAARGH!’s and go through it again leaving the fun parts to them. Finish the poem and applaud yourselves.
Vocabulary (3 min)
Go through the poem and pick out the interesting vocabulary. Don’t do it earlier because stopping and starting gets in the way of the flow and enjoyment of a text. Discuss the new words, define them, use them in a sentence etc. If your classroom doesn’t have a Magpie Wall, I suggest you get one:
This is where all of my interesting, new words go. The words are individually Blu-Tacked to a wall my children can interact with. They can retrieve any words they want from this wall when they need some inspiration for their writing. I’ll write a separate blog about Magpie Walls.
Don’t read it again no matter how excited they are. You want them keen for it tomorrow. Move onto the serious part of your block.
DAY 2 (10 mins)
You’re back and you’re absolutely stoked that it’s time for Poem of the Week again!
What do we remember? (2 mins)
Start at your cover page and kick off with a question about what they remember about the poem; 5 seconds think time; 10 seconds pair-share; pick volunteers and non volunteers to share thoughts; you LOVE everyone’s thoughts; you provide specific, positive feedback. Extra bonus points to any children who remember and use the interesting vocabulary you identified in the poem the day before.
Modeled Reading (2 mins)
You tell you tell your students to relax! You’re going to do all the work now…
Read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong to your students modeling expression, enthusiasm and your ability to alter the inflection of your voice based on the design of the type. Don’t stop them from joining in, but don’t encourage it either.
Finish reading and accept your applause graciously (I take a bow like Victorian gentleman).
Shared Reading (4 mins)
Model-read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong’s dialogue parts. The whole class will read the dialogue (repetitive chorus) together, BUT NOW… it’s a competition! The verses will be alternately read by the boys then the girls/one group then another group/half the class the the other half, etc. You will be scoring points when you hear fantastic, expressive reading. At the end, the team with the most points wins. Turning reading into a competitive game hooks children in; especially boys who statistically (and unfortunately) take longer to engage with reading.
A round of applause for the scurviest pirates in the school!
The games need to be changed frequently to keep them fresh. There are lots of exciting competitions and games to play with a Shared Reading text and I will work on a blog post that gives more examples.
Inferential Questions (2 mins)
You will have time after the second read to ask one or two inferential question that you prepared earlier. You will make it explicitly clear that there are NO wrong answers to these inferential questions. Encourage imagination and over-the-top imagaination. Be flexible with silly answers to silly questions about silly poems.
Your children will obviously get quicker at answering these questions after a few weeks and you’ll be able to get through two questions every session. Ask the question; 5 second think time; 10 second pair-share; pick volunteers and non-volunteers to share their thoughts. You LOVE every answer and give positive, specific feedback. Move onto your serious part of your block.
Your accomplished writers can write written responses to the inferential question you asked during independent work time.
A very important sidetrack from Shared Reading:
If you do ask them to write responses, make sure you give them quick and effective feedback about what they’ve written. This is good teaching practice and absolutely essential to this process. I give this feedback by moving quickly around the room with my green and pink highlighters. Tickled Pink and Green for Growth. More info about this fabulous feedback system can be found at Mr P’s ICT blog. You’re a legend, Mr P!
DAY 2 (10 mins)
You’re back and you’re absolutely stoked that it’s time for Poem of the Week again!
What do we remember? (2 mins)
Start at your cover page and kick off with a question about what they remember about the poem; 5 seconds think time; 10 seconds pair-share; pick volunteers and non volunteers to share thoughts; you LOVE everyone’s thoughts; you provide specific, positive feedback. Extra bonus points to any children who remember and use the interesting vocabulary you identified in the poem the day before.
Modeled Reading (2 mins)
You tell you tell your students to relax! You’re going to do all the work now…
Read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong to your students modeling expression, enthusiasm and your ability to alter the inflection of your voice based on the design of the type. Don’t stop them from joining in, but don’t encourage it either.
Finish reading and accept your applause graciously (I take a bow like Victorian gentleman).
Shared Reading (4 mins)
Model-read Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong’s dialogue parts. The whole class will read the dialogue (repetitive chorus) together, BUT NOW… it’s a competition! The verses will be alternately read by the boys then the girls/one group then another group/half the class the the other half, etc. You will be scoring points when you hear fantastic, expressive reading. At the end, the team with the most points wins. Turning reading into a competitive game hooks children in; especially boys who statistically (and unfortunately) take longer to engage with reading.
A round of applause for the scurviest pirates in the school!
The games need to be changed frequently to keep them fresh. There are lots of exciting competitions and games to play with a Shared Reading text and I will work on a blog post that gives more examples.
Inferential Questions (2 mins)
You will have time after the second read to ask one or two inferential question that you prepared earlier. You will make it explicitly clear that there are NO wrong answers to these inferential questions. Encourage imagination and over-the-top imagaination. Be flexible with silly answers to silly questions about silly poems.
Your children will obviously get quicker at answering these questions after a few weeks and you’ll be able to get through two questions every session. Ask the question; 5 second think time; 10 second pair-share; pick volunteers and non-volunteers to share their thoughts. You LOVE every answer and give positive, specific feedback. Move onto your serious part of your block.
Your accomplished writers can write written responses to the inferential question you asked during independent work time.
A very important sidetrack from Shared Reading:
If you do ask them to write responses, make sure you give them quick and effective feedback about what they’ve written. This is good teaching practice and absolutely essential to this process. I give this feedback by moving quickly around the room with my green and pink highlighters. Tickled Pink and Green for Growth. More info about this fabulous feedback system can be found at Mr P’s ICT blog. You’re a legend, Mr P!
They get pink highlights on their writing when they’ve remembered to use print conventions correctly (full stops, capital letters, conjuctions, etc.) and they get green highlights when they have things to improve (forgotten adjectives, fragmented sentences, etc). When they get green they grab a purple ‘polishing’ pen and fix what they need to. This visual feedback is fast and effective.
DAY 3 (10 mins)
You didn’t think it possible, but you’re EVEN MORE excited about today’s Shared Reading session than you were about the first two! Keep that positive energy up and your kids will give it back tenfold.
The only thing different about today is that you’ll be dropping the modeled read — if the poem is appropriate, they won’t need you to model it anymore. Spend the extra few minutes on taking more responses to the inferential questions.
Session run points:
DAY 4 (10 mins)
You aren’t feeling as perky as you’ve been feeling for the last three Shared Reading sessions. Heart definitely isn’t in it today…
But then you remember that you are trying to set your children up for academic success for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES and you put on your biggest smile and charge in with all the love for reading you can muster!
Session run points:
DAY 5 (40 – 60 mins)
Wheeeeew! What a week! You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned a little break from the rigour of the Shared Reading structure. On the last day that your children examine your Poem of the Week (it could be on Day 3 or 4 for you) you will dedicate the time to wrapping it up.
You’re not going to read the poem as a whole class today. I suggest small group rotations with about 10 – 15 minutes at each station:
Rotation 1: Prop station (10-15 mins)
Put some props out relating to the poem, eg. Pirate hats, swords, pistols and treasure map for Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong. Students in this rotation take turns reading the verses while the others act it out. Remember: big kids like this too… no matter what they say…
Rotation 2: Reading corner (10-15 mins)
Make sure that your reading corner has it’s own separate poetry section or poetry box that your children can enjoy. This poetry box should contain all the feature poems you’ve studied this year. More information about this later.
Rotation 3: Art (20-30 mins)
This is where you use your art challenges that you created. You get the students to illustrate the verses of your poem. Try to encourage them to put some extra meaning in their drawings that can’t be found in the words. An example of this might be a drawing of Ping and Pong’s ship made up entirely of human bones. This gets them thinking more deeply about the possibilities of the story. I’m working on a blog post about this idea.
If they hate drawing, don’t make them do it — drawing makes some people tense. This tense feeling is ok when WE’RE pushing kids to achieve, but the whole point of shared reading is to encourage children to push THEMSELVES to achieve. Bargain that if they don’t want to illustrate, they can colour in. The carrot on the end of the stick for the art challenges is that the best work will be published, with a golden star, at the front of the poem, which will go in the poetry box for everyone who visits our class to see. More about publishing later.
Walk around the room and enjoy the sounds of children you’ve inspired to read with enthusiasm and expression all week doing exactly what you’ve taught them and having fun doing it. You’ve done an amazing job and you should be proud, but the important process isn’t over…
AFTER
You’ve got some homework! It’s not suggested extras; it’s an ESSENTIAL step in the process. It’s a little time consuming but it cements the attitude you’re trying to create about reading.
DAY 3 (10 mins)
You didn’t think it possible, but you’re EVEN MORE excited about today’s Shared Reading session than you were about the first two! Keep that positive energy up and your kids will give it back tenfold.
The only thing different about today is that you’ll be dropping the modeled read — if the poem is appropriate, they won’t need you to model it anymore. Spend the extra few minutes on taking more responses to the inferential questions.
Session run points:
- What do we remember? 2 mins: 5 second think; 10 second pair-share; volunteers and non-volunteers thoughts; you LOVE all opinions; recap vocab.
- Shared read. 4 mins: Whole class reads the chorus; play games reading the verses; round of applause for us!
- Inferential questions. 4 mins: Ask an inferential question; 5 second think; 10 second pair-share; volunteers’ and non-volunteers’ answers; you LOVE all answers; accomplished writers write written responses during independent blocks and quick, effective feedback is always given.
DAY 4 (10 mins)
You aren’t feeling as perky as you’ve been feeling for the last three Shared Reading sessions. Heart definitely isn’t in it today…
But then you remember that you are trying to set your children up for academic success for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES and you put on your biggest smile and charge in with all the love for reading you can muster!
Session run points:
- What do we remember? 2 mins: 5 second think; 10 second pair-share; volunteers and non-volunteers; you LOVE all opinions; recap vocab.
- Shared read. 4 mins: Whole class reads the chorus; play games reading the verses; round of applause for us!
- Inferential questions. 4 mins: Ask an inferential question; 5 second think; 10 second pair-share; volunteers’ and non-volunteers’ answers; you LOVE all answers; accomplished writers write written responses during independent blocks and quick, effective feedback is always given.
DAY 5 (40 – 60 mins)
Wheeeeew! What a week! You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned a little break from the rigour of the Shared Reading structure. On the last day that your children examine your Poem of the Week (it could be on Day 3 or 4 for you) you will dedicate the time to wrapping it up.
You’re not going to read the poem as a whole class today. I suggest small group rotations with about 10 – 15 minutes at each station:
Rotation 1: Prop station (10-15 mins)
Put some props out relating to the poem, eg. Pirate hats, swords, pistols and treasure map for Pirate Ping and Pirate Pong. Students in this rotation take turns reading the verses while the others act it out. Remember: big kids like this too… no matter what they say…
Rotation 2: Reading corner (10-15 mins)
Make sure that your reading corner has it’s own separate poetry section or poetry box that your children can enjoy. This poetry box should contain all the feature poems you’ve studied this year. More information about this later.
Rotation 3: Art (20-30 mins)
This is where you use your art challenges that you created. You get the students to illustrate the verses of your poem. Try to encourage them to put some extra meaning in their drawings that can’t be found in the words. An example of this might be a drawing of Ping and Pong’s ship made up entirely of human bones. This gets them thinking more deeply about the possibilities of the story. I’m working on a blog post about this idea.
If they hate drawing, don’t make them do it — drawing makes some people tense. This tense feeling is ok when WE’RE pushing kids to achieve, but the whole point of shared reading is to encourage children to push THEMSELVES to achieve. Bargain that if they don’t want to illustrate, they can colour in. The carrot on the end of the stick for the art challenges is that the best work will be published, with a golden star, at the front of the poem, which will go in the poetry box for everyone who visits our class to see. More about publishing later.
Walk around the room and enjoy the sounds of children you’ve inspired to read with enthusiasm and expression all week doing exactly what you’ve taught them and having fun doing it. You’ve done an amazing job and you should be proud, but the important process isn’t over…
AFTER
You’ve got some homework! It’s not suggested extras; it’s an ESSENTIAL step in the process. It’s a little time consuming but it cements the attitude you’re trying to create about reading.
- You need to collect all the responses — written responses and art responses.
- You need to sit down at a computer and type out the responses. Fix all spelling and grammatical errors but leave the writer’s voice intact. This means: don’t make the responses less violent or ridiculous because you think parents might be offended — if it reads like Mein Kampf, you probably need to schedule a parent meeting anyway. We don’t want to squash creativity because it doesn’t gel with our perfect idea of who our children are meant to be.
- Print copies of the poem complete with:
i) The edited student responses.
ii) A letter to parents explaining the goal of the shared reading programme, asking them to read this poem with their child, and to praise their child for their efforts.
iii) Inferential questions to ask their children after they’ve read.
Your children will be EXCITED to perform the poem for their caregivers and that extra dose of positive reinforcement they receive will help cement the hard work in class. - Print and laminate another copy of the poem, responses and art generated to go in your poetry box. It doesn’t matter how terrible or rushed the artwork is because children will have a sense of pride that their work is on display and that’s all you want.
Children will bring you their own writing or art that they’ve made at home inspired by the Shared Reading sessions — laminate and display it straight away! The minute they give it to you if it’s possible. A laminated piece of work sends the message that it is meaningful and important, which will inspire them to make more.
Celebrate the work!
Demand more!
Again, Dale Carnegie describes it best when you’re trying to inspire people:
“Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
and
“Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.”
Admire enthusiastic writers and artists in front of parents, other teachers and their peers. Identify their talents, comment on them whenever you can. Encourage collaboration between children who’ve found identities as writers or artists. When MORE work arrives as a result of the praise you’ve been giving, laminate that too (no matter what it looks like). Always celebrate enthusiasm. Call parents and caregivers to celebrate reading success, because they also need inspiration to love reading too — you never know, your call might be the first kind word that parent or caregiver has received all week. I’m working on a blog post for this subject.
Celebrate success!
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!
Life is exciting when reading is exciting.
Sean E Avery
Teacher, Writer-Illustrator, Sculptor, Designer
Celebrate the work!
Demand more!
Again, Dale Carnegie describes it best when you’re trying to inspire people:
“Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
and
“Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.”
Admire enthusiastic writers and artists in front of parents, other teachers and their peers. Identify their talents, comment on them whenever you can. Encourage collaboration between children who’ve found identities as writers or artists. When MORE work arrives as a result of the praise you’ve been giving, laminate that too (no matter what it looks like). Always celebrate enthusiasm. Call parents and caregivers to celebrate reading success, because they also need inspiration to love reading too — you never know, your call might be the first kind word that parent or caregiver has received all week. I’m working on a blog post for this subject.
Celebrate success!
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!
Life is exciting when reading is exciting.
Sean E Avery
Teacher, Writer-Illustrator, Sculptor, Designer
