Marsha Ross-March/April Blog Chapter 9- Emphasize Shared Reading

I really enjoyed reading this chapter.  Routman emphasizes the importance of building a community in the classroom where there is no fear.  A place where there is nothing but comfort and safety to enjoy a book.  A place where there is no round robin reading.  A place where children are encouraged and guided.
  .For many years now, I have included Shared Reading in my classroom.  It is a great time in my room and I greatly enjoy it.  It is a time where I pull all my kids to the carpet and we share a text.  We read together and learn together through thoughtful conversation and a sharing of skills.  When I first started, I used big books and the reading book.  Both ways work!  All that matters is that everyone is able to share the same text together.
   When doing Shared Reading, I start out similar to a guided reading lesson.  I start with important vocabulary that the children need to know.  We picture walk the story and find the important words on the different pages through the story.  When finished, we go back to the beginning of the story.  Sometimes I read to my children.  Sometimes they echo me. Other times, I read a page and they read the next.  Each day, we do something different with the story.  We read it together several days throughout the week.  As we read each day we discuss different spelling patterns that we see. We discuss what good readers do like finger track or blend unknown words by using little chunks that we know.  I try to tie as many skills into the story as I can.  We discuss everything that we can.
   This chapter was a great reminder to me of what I really enjoy in my classroom.  It helped me to see that I am doing great things!  It also showed me some ways that I can improve.  As I was reading I saw where Routman kept referring to the shared transparency that you could use to make sure everyone could see a book that they didn't have a hard copy of.  That same day I was introduced to Epic.  I now saw how I could incorporate technology into my classroom. instead of the transparency.  It made me realize I could use Epic and we could share real literature together without having to take pictures or scan a copy into the computer.  It also helped my see how I could incorporate more turn and talks into my lessons.  It was a great read.