Great questions here! I think that there are times when an interactive read aloud is a lesson and it's not usually a mini-lesson if you have students sharing with each other.
I'd love to share what one of our fourth grade teachers in my building is doing with an interactive read aloud. She does the interactive read aloud during one reading block with a focus question/objective in mind. The focus question lines up with our CMT strands (state test). She clearly states what the objective/focus is and explicitly models through think aloud and then let's the students share their thinking. She then will follow with daily mini-lessons that are related to the focus question. When she used the book "Stripes" it was the beginning of a unit on character development. She focused on what were the character's feelings, how did they change, at what event did they change etc. Then she furthered their thinking by having them practice this in guided groups and finally apply it to their independent reading books. She has set her purpose and purposefully planned how to transfer this information and learning to independent learning. It has transformed her teaching and her students can clearly see the connections. It's brilliant. Kelly AB I think the only answer to your dilemma are some other questions. What is your purpose? What do you need to transfer? Is there something to be gained by reading an entire read-aloud at that time which couldn't be gained another way? > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
