The Benefits Of Interactive Reading Strategies In The Classroom

Our readings reference many previously researched benefits of Interactive Reading which include (but certainly are not limited to) developing children's joy of learning, art of listening, vocabulary, concepts of print, patterns and structures of written language, understanding of different genres, oral language expression, and understanding of the components, structure, and function of narrative discourse, connection with others and the world. (Fisher et all, 2006, p. 8-16).

The authenticity of Interactive Reading is clear and therefore leads us to explore HOW we, as teachers, incorporate this strategy in our teaching most effectively. Fisher, Flood, Lapp, and Frey's study on "read-aloud practices" provides an excellent, research based framework for the implementation of Interactive Reading based on their observations of teachers in classrooms. Their 7 "essential components of an interactive read-aloud" is a practical guide of using this strategy and can be implimented with all children. These components provide a structure that allows us to teach ALL children (inherently allowing differentiation) while attending to common core state standards. Use of this strategy attends to the understanding of language and literacy development while providing for specific skill instruction in reading and writing.

In the K class that I will be using Interactive Read Aloud, I will be specifically instructing those children (6 children - 2 boys, 4 girls - ages 5-7) with literacy skills in letter identification, alphabetic principle and sight word recognition and production. Given their needs (as a group), my instructional goals in reading instruction will include identifying letter names, identifying consonant and short vowel sounds, and in...

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...ild in school. I remember...I remember the teachers that read to us...that read with a palpable love of reading and enthusiasm for stories...and as I recall, there were 3...yes, just three teachers I remember in 13 years of schooling. As Fisher et all (2004) quote Eaton (1913)... "This ability to read aloud so that literature shall be lifted from the dead page of print into complete expression should be far more than it is at present a prerequisite for the teaching of English. Teachers too often fail to appreciate that all real literature is addressed to the mind through the ear, not through the eye word-symbols that are merely convenient for transmission and that since this is so, the ear must be appealed to if the student is to understand literature...or to appreciate all the sensuous beauty which is latent in it." (Fisher et all, 2004, p. 12) Connection made.