Kristin Roddy- Blog #5 Routman Chapter 9 Emphaszie Shared Reading

I really enjoyed reading this chapter. It was nice to know that others share my same feeling about shared reading time in the classroom. This chapter had me thinking about a day my sophomore year in college that my professor chose to begin the day with a picture book story. It was Roald Dhal's interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood. I remember thinking...Wow! I love Roald Dhal! I love Little Red Riding Hood. Then I remember thinking...Man I have had a teacher read to me like this since elementary school, well at least not a picture book. The particular course was a creative writing course, but that just goes to show that a lot of teachers avoid reading the "cutesy" picture books to students past a certain age-usually early elementary. They are trying to avoid the puzzling looks or the "we are too cool for this" attitudes. I love the read aloud to my students and I am constantly choosing books to help introduce that days topics. I think that is an important aspect of shared reading. Shared reading should follow instruction and should be beneficial for students. I have found that shared reading in the classroom is beneficial in more than one way. Yes, it's a fun way to introduce content, it's an easy way to get kids excited about reading, it helps students who lack confidence in reading to see that even the teacher can mess up when reading, and it helps model the idea of thinking about what we are reading. Sure we tell the students to think about the story, but unless we are showing them can we expect them to know how that type of "thinking" works? I liked the checklist Routman included on page 134. It is a tool I will be using in the future. The checklist confirms that some of the practices in my classroom are being done correctly, and it also allows me to learn how I can make that shared reading time even more beneficial.