Shared Readings: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers

Shared reading has many benefits for students. Through modeling, teachers are able to show students the way that they think about reading and the strategies they use to help them with reading. By modeling comprehension by taking the time to talk through parts of reading the teacher is providing the students with an example of how they think about what they are reading. Talking aloud about what is happening in the story, or relating aloud the relationship of the story with some type of background knowledge gives students a great model of how they can think to themselves and make connections with what they are reading.

Modeling strategies to decipher confusing vocabulary also helps students realize that they have options when they aren’t sure of words. Modeling the use of context clues aloud, using the outside-the-word and the inside-the-word strategies aloud, and if those fail then modeling how to use other resources to learn vocabulary helps students see the options they have to help them when they come across a word they don’t know.

The examples and the advice from the 25 teachers used in this research makes so much sense that it is hard to understand why some people feel that shared reading is only for younger grades. I think that it is difficult to model thinking but I think that it is very beneficial for students to see how to think about what they are reading. We give students examples for how to do math problems, science experiments, and how to play games. It makes sense that they would benefit from being given an example for how to develop their reading skills.