3321 MON. NIGHT CHAPTER 11

Shared reading is one of my favorite things to do as a teacher. I feel it gives the teacher and students that one-on-one opportunity to develop a closer relationship. I particularly like to do the voices of the characters in the story. I feel this makes the characters come alive and the students enjoy the story more and pay attention even more so. I never had someone read to me as child at home, nor do I recall being read to at school in my early years in elementary, but I'm so glad I can read to my students and that is why I want to make it memorable to them.

Shared reading is a great asset to a curriculum; it gives the students opportunity to develop their language skills by reading and re-reading along with a the teacher. Using the Big books (I think) is the best way to do this because the students can see the letters and words better and can be stimulated to participate as they see the huge pictures in relation to the story. They also wont get frustrated so quickly as with smaller books because the visuals are larger and easier to see.

I believe shared reading is great for the special needs students since they need a routine of repetition; reading and re-reading a story will help them remember the characters, places, what happened, who did what, and the conclusion. The teacher decides how much to read and where to stop and ask questions to see if they are really catching on to the story. Activities relating to the story helps them to repeat the story format and re-tell it to themselves. Having the students work in small groups would be great because a lot of autistic children live in their own world and need this contact with their peers. This also gives those with speech difficulty an opportunity to develop their language skills.

There are different ways the shared reading can be brought forth. A teacher could us the computer and screen, big books, as well as small books, and the overhead projector. I would say whatever works best for your class use it. There are so many features a teacher can use to get the students involved in shared reading. The section on Focusing on Text Features and Reading Strategies is great; this section alone has given me ideas I want to implement in my future class. The Typical Shared Reading Lessons and the Critical Components of Typical Shared Reading Lesson Series sections are a great help in planning lessons to fit the needs of students.