Hi everyone! I’m really excited because today we’re diving into a special series in the Read Aloud Classroom. Jim Trelease once said the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. Yet so many teachers tell me they struggle with finding time for meaningful read alouds or they worry they’re not doing them right.
So over the next five episodes, we’re going to dive deep into interactive read alouds. We’re going to break down exactly how to plan them, how to choose the perfect book, how to deliver your lesson confidently. how to engage every student and extend the learning beyond the actual read aloud time. So whether you have 10 minutes or 30, these strategies will help you make the most of every moment with a picture book.
And to kick things off, I have a special gift for you. It’s called 50 Picture Books Every Classroom Needs. This is a free guide complete with discussion questions and thinking prompts for 10 different reading strategies, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about it at the end of the episode.
But let’s jump in. You know that feeling when you grab a picture book off your shelf with the best intentions, start reading it to your class, and then realize halfway through that you completely forgot to make it meaningful? Or maybe you’ve had that moment when you get to the end of a beautiful story and think, wait, what was I even trying to teach here?
Trust me, I’ve been there too. In fact, you’ve probably heard my story of the time. that I read the book You Matter by Christian Robinson, grabbed it off my shelf thinking it would be perfect for teaching story elements, only to realize partway through that there weren’t any story elements to teach.
Great book, wrong lesson. But here’s the thing. With some intentional planning that doesn’t take hours, we can make every Read Aloud count. So today we’re going to break down exactly how to plan an interactive Read Aloud that engages your students and meets your teaching goals. I recently surveyed over 8, 000 teachers about their biggest read aloud struggles, and you know what came up again and again?
Planning. Teachers told me things like, I never have enough time to plan a meaningful lesson. Or I get to the end of the book and realize I forgot to actually teach anything. Or I’m always scrambling to come up with questions as I read. Sometimes I have a great lesson plan, but completely forget what I wanted to teach.
These are such real struggles, and I want you to know that if you’re feeling this way, you’re definitely not alone. But here’s the good news. Planning ahead is a game changer, and it’s crucial for three main reasons. One, it helps us stay focused on what our students actually need. Two, it freezes up to enjoy the text with our students instead of thinking on our feet.
And three, it ensures we don’t forget those important teaching moments in the heat of reading. Now, I know what you’re thinking. But Sarah, I barely have time to use the bathroom during the day, let alone plan elaborate read aloud lessons. I hear you. That’s why I’m going to share my simple planning framework that you can use over and over again.
So here’s what we’re going to cover today. Starting with your end goal in mind. The three essential parts of every interactive read aloud. My sticky note trick that will save you tons of time. If you’ve been around for a while, you probably know what it is. And how to plan for meaningful student engagement.
So let’s dive in with the most important question. What do you want your students to learn? This might seem obvious, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten excited about a book and jumped right in without really thinking about my teaching goal. So pick one focus for your lesson, just one. I know it’s tempting to try to cover character traits and theme and vocabulary all at once, but trust me, when we try to teach everything, we often end up teaching nothing well.
So once you have your focus, it’s time to plan for the three crucial parts of your read aloud. Before reading, during reading, and after reading. Let’s break each of these down. Let’s start with before reading. This is where so many of us struggle. I hear from teachers all the time who say they feel overwhelmed just trying to figure out how to introduce a book.
One teacher recently told me, I never know if I’m giving away too much or not enough before we start reading. Balance is really tricky. So here’s what you want to plan before reading. A quick introduction of the title, author, and illustrator, keep it brief, but maybe connect it with other books that you’ve read if you’ve read other books by that same author or similar books.
One or two questions to activate their background knowledge, and then your purpose for reading. Now, when I say purpose for reading, I don’t mean anything fancy. It’s as simple as saying something like, Today, as we read, we’re going to pay special attention to how the main character’s feelings change throughout the story.
That’s it. Just let your students know what to focus on.
During reading is another area where I see teachers struggle. I had a second grade teacher email me last week saying, I either ask too many questions and lose the flow of the story, or I get so caught up in reading that I forget to ask any questions at all. Sound familiar? Here’s my framework for during reading.
Choose two to three strategic stopping points and stick to them. These should be your natural pauses in the story where you can focus on your teaching point. Plan one strong question for each stopping point. And consider what vocabulary you might need to clarify, but don’t overwhelm them. Just pick two to three keywords, ones that are important to understanding the story or to the lesson.
Let me give you a real example. Let’s say you’re reading the name Jar by Yang Sook Choi to teach about character change. Your stopping points might be after Eun hye decides not to share her name. This is where you could discuss her feelings, when she finds the empty name jar, to discuss how others actions affect her, and at the end, when she shares her real name, to talk about how she’s changed.
After reading is where we often run into that time crunch, right? You get to the end of the book and, oh no, there are only three minutes left before lunch. This is why planning your after reading piece is so crucial. So, a few things to plan for. A strong closing question that ties back to your teaching point, a quick way for students to share their thinking, like a turn and talk or stop and jot, and an optional extension activity if time allows.
Now over the next few weeks, we’re going to be deep diving into each one of these things in the subsequent podcast episodes, but let’s go through them quickly.
So here is a real example for a Read Aloud with The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson. So first you would identify your focus, helping students understand character feelings and how they change. Then, I would use my sticky note method. On my first sticky note, I write my opening question. Have you ever been somewhere where you felt different from everyone else?
Then, during reading, I’m going to place sticky notes on three different pages. Page 8. What are you noticing about how our character is feeling? What makes you think that? Page 15. How have her feelings changed since the beginning? Why? Page 24. What’s causing the shift in how she feels? And then on my final sticky note for after reading, I would write, How did our character’s feelings about being different change from the beginning to the end of the story?
Here’s what I love about this system. It takes me maybe 10 to 15 minutes to plan, but it makes such a difference in the quality of our class discussion. And a bonus, those sticky notes are still in my book for next year. Now, my favorite time saving trick, I call it the sticky note method, instead of trying to remember everything you want to say or ask, write your key questions and teaching points on the bright sticky notes and put them right in the book where you want to stop.
Kind of what I just explained with the Jacqueline Woodson example. Putting those sticky notes right in your book ensures that you’re not fumbling with lesson plans while trying to hold a book and manage your class. And again, the best part, you can keep the sticky notes in the book for next year. Talk about working smarter and not harder.
And before we wrap up, let’s address one more common question I hear from teachers. How do I know if I’m planning too much or too little? So here’s my rule of thumb. For a typical picture book, aim for one to two before reading questions, two to three strategic stopping points during the reading, and then one to two after reading discussion points.
Remember, less is often more when it comes to interactive read alouds. We want to maintain the flow and joy of the story while still making it meaningful. And before you head back into your classroom, I mentioned that I had a free gift for you. This is definitely going to transform your read aloud planning time.
So I’ve created a free guide called 50 Picture Books Every Classroom Needs.
And it’s so much more than just a book list.
As a former teacher, I know how precious your planning time is, which is why I’ve included ready to use discussion questions for 10 different reading strategies, as well as thinking prompts for your students, and practical tips for teaching those strategies with any book in your classroom library.
Whether you’re teaching theme, main idea, point of view, or other essential reading strategies, you’ll have everything you need right at your fingertips. No more late night searching for the right questions to ask or wondering if you’re making the most of your read aloud time. So to grab your free guide, visit thecolorfulapple.
com forward slash 50 books to sign up. That’s thecolorfulapple. com forward slash 5 0 books. It’ll be delivered straight to your inbox, ready to help you plan meaningful, engaging read alouds that you can feel confident about. Think of it as your read aloud cheat sheet because we all know that teaching is challenging enough without having to reinvent the wheel every time we pick up a picture book.
And don’t forget to join me next week when we’ll talk about how to choose a book for your interactive read aloud. And speaking of books, you know I like to end every episode with a collection of books that you can use in your classroom.
And since we’re doing this series on interactive read alouds, I thought it would be great to share picture books to teach different strategies in the classroom. So today I’m going to talk about books for teaching theme. First, we have Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beatty. In this book, we, the theme that you can focus on is never giving up in the face of failure and curiosity helps us understand how things work.
Another book would be After the Fall by Dan Santat. In this one, we know that the theme is resilience triumphs with persistence and courage, and life begins when you get back up.
A third book you could use to teach theme is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. Some themes you might address in this book are change for yourself and not others, and don’t let peer pressure influence your choices and behavior. Another one is Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andre. In this book, themes that you could teach would be it’s okay to be different and do things your own way, or have the courage to do what at first seems impossible.
The last book that I would use to teach theme is Thank You, Amu by Oge Mora. In this book, you might address putting the needs of others before your own or small acts of kindness can make a difference. Thank you for joining me today in the Read Aloud Classroom. If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you’d subscribe and leave a positive five star review.
This helps spread the word to other teachers just like you. And come connect with me on Instagram at The Colorful Apple and find all the links and resources mentioned today at TheColorfulApple. com. Can’t wait to see you next week in the Read Aloud Classroom.
