Interactive Read Alouds: Teachers and Students Constructing Knowledge and Literacy Together

Abstract

Interactive read alouds are important learning opportunities for emergent readers because teachers and peers can actively model and scaffold comprehension strategies, engage readers, and cultivate a community of learners. Using data from a 9 month ethnographic study in an urban kindergarten classroom, this article describes how the teacher's approach facilitated rich interaction in the classroom as students read and made sense of stories together. Findings of this study demonstrate how interactive read alouds were important learning opportunities for emergent readers because they provided opportunities for open-ended responses combined with specific reading instruction. The interactive read alouds created a space where meaning was constructed through dialogue and classroom interaction, providing an opportunity for children to respond to literature in a way that builds on their strengths and extends their knowledge.

Metasynthesis of Factors Contributing to Children’s Communication Development: Influence on Reading and Mathematics

“…During shared storybook reading, a storybook is read by an "other" (parent, guardian, and teacher) who also facilitates reciprocal conversation with the child as the storybook is being read [24,25]. Practicing complementary conversation patterns during shared storybook reading, the child is able to practice good listening skills, good thinking skills, and good speaking skills to communicate about what they understand from the story [18,[26][27][28][29].…”

“…Talking about stories not only helps enhance mathematical understanding but also cultivates relationships by facilitating communication between a child and the facilitating adult "other." Children are also able to use these conversations to help make sense of the world around them [31] through processing and utilizing new vocabulary [25,32]. Previous studies have highlighted the need for preschool students to engage in constructive dialogue with adult "others" and their peers in order to practice sense-making, a skill that may help specifically with mathematics metacognitive development [33,34].…”

Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud: Enhancing Literacy Using Story Props

“…In a recent review of literature on "interactive read-alouds," Lenox (2013) stated that interactive read-aloud is used in a broad sense to describe contexts where teachers create and use opportunities for dialogic strategies to promote active engagement of children with reciprocal sharing of information. Wiseman (2011) posited that read-alouds foster an exchange between teachers and students based on a transactional approach, which is ''interrelationship between the knower and what is to be known" (p. 431). A transaction between the text, reader, and the social context creates a social and cultural context of literacy, which Wiseman indicates is central to how and why students learn.…”

“…Various studies over almost two decades (Beck & McKeown, 2007;Gettinger & Stoiber, 2007;Justice, Kaderavek, Fan, Sofka, & Hunt, 2009;May, 2011;McGee, 2007; McGee & Schickedanz, 2007; Morgan, 2009;Morrison & Wlodarcyzk, 2009;Pentimonti, Zucker, Justice, & Kaderavek, 2010;Richards, 2010;Schickedanz & Collins, 2012;Silverman & Crandel, 2010;Wiseman, 2011;Zucker, Justice, & Piasta, 2009;Zucker, Ward, & Justice , 2009) discussed various aspects of read-aloud sessions in preschool and kindergarten classrooms and their contribution to literacy development, specifically emergent literacy, in young children. When introducing the repeated interactive readalouds in 2007, McGee and Schickedanz suggested creating opportunities for children to ask and answer questions, engage in analytic thinking and talk, dramatize and retell, and play with objects related to concepts and characters; defining words and asking children to use the definitions; and using a "point-act-tell" technique in which the teacher points to vocabulary words, acts out the word if possible, and then explains the meaning of the new vocabulary word.…”

Éveil à la lecture et à l’écriture dans les services de garde en milieu scolaire : engagement et ouverture face aux livres

“…En effet, l'enfant d'âge préscolaire développe des habiletés relatives à l'entrée dans l'écrit, développement qui s'inscrit dans ce qu'on nomme l'éveil à la lecture et à l'écriture (Thériault et Lavoie, 2004). Fisher et Medvic, 2003;Gibson, Gold et Sgouros, 2007;Gold et Gibson, 2001;Hudson et Test, 2011;Swanson, Wanzek, Petscher, Vaughn, Heckert, Cavanaugh, Kraft et Tackett, 2011;Wiseman, 2010) Éveil à la lecture et à l'écriture dans les services de garde...…”