An “interactive read aloud” is a powerful teaching strategy that brings a book to life in the classroom. Unlike traditional read alouds where students are passive listeners, interactive read alouds are purposeful and planned to build fluency and comprehension while teaching specific reading skills.
These planned reading sessions include strategic stopping points with guided questions that connect to the skill you are teaching. These stopping points are the perfect chance to involve your students in the conversation. To promote a more thoughtful discussion, you can use a responsive approach (Revitalizing Read Alouds, Price & Bradley, 2016).
A responsive approach means you continue the conversation with your students instead of ending it. For example, instead of asking a question, getting a single answer, and moving on, you can ask deeper questions with no single “right” answer and build on your students’ responses. This type of questioning takes practice for teachers, but it is an effective way to have meaningful discussions with even your youngest learners.
Why Use Interactive Read Alouds?
Interactive read alouds benefit students by giving them access to rich, complex texts they might not be able to read independently. In a first-grade classroom, for instance, a teacher can read a high-level book aloud, providing access to a deeper text comprehension and vocabulary than students could get on their own.
By modeling what a good reader does, you can teach students to ask questions as they read and engage in a deeper discussion about the text. Interactive read alouds also provide an opportunity for students to practice their speaking and listening skills through respectful academic discussions. Using sentence stems, like the ones shown above, is a great way to remind students how to interact with one another.
How to Plan an Interactive Read Aloud
The first step in planning an interactive read aloud is to look at your students and your curriculum standards. What skills do your students need to learn? Where do they still struggle? What reading strategies can you dive deeper into?
Personally, I use a yearly scope and sequence to guide my read alouds. I start with the skills students need to learn and then find picture books that perfectly illustrate those skills and will be engaging for my students.
Once you have a picture book and a skill in mind, you can start preparing! Read and re-read the book, making notes of key parts to point out to the class.
- Does a certain page perfectly exemplify the skill you’re teaching?
- Are there text-dependent questions you can ask?
- Do you see great points for a guided discussion?
I used to write my questions on sticky notes, but I would often lose them. Instead, I created a one-page read aloud lesson plan template to complete for each book. You can download a copy of this template here!
You can use this template to jot down your plans by hand or type them directly into the computer.
I mentioned that I use a scope and sequence to guide my first grade interactive read alouds. Below is an example of my personal scope and sequence, along with the book recommendations I use for each skill throughout the year.
I’ve created one-page interactive read aloud lessons for all the books listed above. If you would like to download a free lesson to try out in your own classroom, just use the form below! This includes a printable version of the Scope & Sequence above.
Free Interactive Read Aloud Lesson
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If you want read aloud lessons for every book listed, check out this resource:
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Hi, I love your interactive reading ideas. Would you mind giving me a small idea into how you would plan this out throughout the week? For example, if your reading aloud a book and focusing on cause and effect do you split up the book and read one book throughout the week, do you only do one interactive read aloud on one day for the whole week, or do you read multiple books focusing on the same skill throughout the week? How do you prevent it from being too repetitive so that the kids don’t get tired of focusing on the same skill?
thank you