Shared Reading Goes High Tech

Child, P. “Shared reading.” Reading Rockets.  Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org /strategies/sharedreading

Gill, S. & Chhanda Islam, R. (2011).  “Shared reading goes high tech.”  Reading Teacher, 65 (3),   224-227. 

     According to an article from Reading Rockets, shared reading  is “an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression. The shared reading model often uses oversized books (referred to as big books) with enlarged print and illustrations (Child).”   In a primary classroom, shared reading is a critical component of daily literacy instruction.  Shared reading benefits students by increasing and enhancing students’ literacy skills.  The article, “Shared Reading Goes High Tech” by Sharon Gill and Ruth Chhanda Islam, discusses ways to incorporate interactive whiteboards into shared reading instruction.  The authors note using interactive whiteboards for shared reading experience is convenient for teachers and engaging for students (Gill &Islam, 2011).

     Shared reading is often taught using large text or a big book.  This allows students to follow along with the text during choral reading to improve students’ fluency and understanding of print.  According to Gill and Chhanda, rather than spending money on big books and posters, and/or taking the time to write out text, teachers can conveniently enlarge text using a document camera and projector making the text large enough for all students to see (2011).  Teachers also have the option of creating visually appealing PowerPoint slides to display the text and an option to include images (Gill &Chhanda, 2011).

     Post reading, teachers use the text to practice reading skills and strategies with their students.  The teacher may ask students to locate sight words, find word patterns, identify phonic skills, or sequence sentences.  Interactive whiteboards have multiple, engaging tools that are readily available for student to interact with the text.  Students can engage with print by magnifying word, highlighting, using colored pens, or moving text by dragging (Gill and Islam, 2011).  Gill and Islam provide sample lesson incorporating these tools into lessons- touching and dragging lines of a poem to sequence and put the poem in order, using the highlighting tool to highlight sight word, or using the drawing tool to cover a word and have students try to figure out the word using context clues (2011).   “IWBs get students' attention because the board incorporates the sights, sounds, and stimulation that different types of learners thrive on.  Many teachers feel that the bright, colorful print, especially if it moves and makes a sound, captures students' attention, maintains their concentration, and motivates them to learn (Gill & Islam, 2011).”

     I think that interactive whiteboards would be a beneficial tool for carrying out shared reading instruction.   It provides another format for students to view and interact with text in a format other than a book or a pocket chart.  Students are motivated by technology, and I feel lessons using the interactive whiteboards engage students in learning and increase participation in the lessons.  Once a week my class gets to use a SMARTboard during LMC.  All of my students want to be called to participate therefore, they are motivated to focus and pay increase attention to on the lesson or activity at hand.