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Shared reading is an essential component of the literacy programme in years 5 to 8. It allows for a high degree of interaction and is a great way for teachers to help students extend their understanding of themselves as effective text users. During shared reading, teachers and students can participate in collaborative reasoning to solve literacy-related problems.

Through this approach, teachers can deliberately extend their students':

understanding of themes and ideas;

use of reading strategies;

appreciation of literary devices, such as imagery;

vocabulary;

knowledge of the purposes and characteristic features of different text forms.

Shared reading can enable students to make meaning of texts that are too challenging for guided or independent reading. Teachers can also use this approach to enable a class or group to enjoy a rich text that is especially suitable for sharing. Shared reading can be used with both large and small groups. Sitting together as a group enables the readers to discuss the meaning and features of a shared text in a collaborative way and develops a sense of community.

Shared reading is a more explicitly instructional approach to reading than reading to students. Teachers select and use many instructional strategies - maybe all of them - as they lead a shared reading session. To meet their instructional objectives, they will question, prompt, model, tell, explain, direct, and/or give feedback to the students.

When teachers read to students, the students participate as active listeners. In shared reading, the teacher and the students read a text together. The teacher takes the greater responsibility for the reading and reads the text aloud, with expression, modelling the behaviour of a fluent, accurate reader. The teacher has an instructional objective, which is shared with students as their learning goal (refer to page 123). As the teacher reads, the students follow the text with their eyes and actively participate in making meaning. They can all see the text, whether as a computer-generated data show, a big book, an enlarged chart, an overhead transparency, or their own printed copy.

The teacher's support enables the students to behave like proficient readers and to understand even complex texts that they could not yet read silently to themselves.

Choral reading or reading in chorus is not shared reading. It may be appropriate at times when students read a poetic text aloud together. It may even, occasionally, be appropriate as a confidence-builder for some struggling readers. But it is primarily for presentation or performance.

Shared reading generally includes a conversation about the text. The teacher and students access information from the text to help them make meaning, identify relevant language features, discuss unfamiliar vocabulary, and think critically about the text. The teacher models how good readers process texts by "thinking aloud" from time to time. These "think-alouds" relate to the shared learning goal.

Shared reading provides a setting in which teachers can systematically, purposefully, and explicitly teach specific strategies for reading, especially (in years 5 to 8) for making meaning and thinking critically. They can then provide opportunities (for example, in guided reading or reciprocal teaching sessions) for their students to practise them and apply them to a range of other texts, including the increasingly complex literary texts that older students need to learn to read.

Shared reading can help students learn to process and comprehend the new kinds of texts that they need to master, for example, in science, social studies, mathematics, and technology. Used across the curriculum, the approach helps students learn to understand the words and structures of unfamiliar transactional texts and to think critically about their content. A shared reading of a text segment can show students how they can make meaning of and think critically about the rest of the text.

The shared reading approach enables the teacher to provide explicit instruction in reading strategies and to discuss these strategies with their students. This fosters the students' development of metacognition. When students can distinguish the reading strategies and their different uses, they begin to select and use them purposefully to understand and respond to any text that they may want or need to read.

Students who are new learners of English can participate confidently in shared reading. It enables them to attend to the text, illustrations, diagrams, and photographs while hearing the language used in an authentic context.

After a series of planned observations, I decided that my students needed focused teaching to help them make meaning of instructions, especially by using visual features of texts. We were studying measurement in maths, so I decided to use shared reading and discussion of a two-page article about measurement - "How High Is That Tree?", by Brian Birchall.

I put the article on OHT and explained the reading purpose ("to read and make meaning of a set of measurement instructions") and the learning goal ("to interpret the directions by linking them closely to visual features of the text"). Our criteria related to whether we could follow the instructions in practice. Before reading, the students predicted (rather randomly) how you might estimate the height of a tree without measuring it. We looked at the visual information on the OHT and then tried again to work out how to estimate the height of a tree. I questioned them about the diagrams ("What is the boy with glasses doing?" "What might the relationship be between his eyes, the stick, and the height of the tree?" "What might his friend be doing?" "What might be the relationship between the two diagrams?"). Their predictions were more successful this time. One boy also pointed out the visual links between the design of the title and the subject of the text.

I led a shared reading of the text to test the students' predictions and find out how useful the visual features had been. I modelled how I would make meaning of the instructions by rereading aloud the first two sentences of instruction 1, putting them into my own words, acting them out, and indicating what part of the first diagram they related to. Then the students worked in pairs, explaining the rest of the instructions to their partner and discussing how each related to the diagrams. I monitored my target students by listening closely to their explanations.

The whole group discussed what they had learned as readers and talked about how they could apply this to reading other instructional texts.
Teacher, year 6 class
Choosing texts

A wide range of fiction and non-fiction (transactional) texts from across the curriculum, in both print and electronic form, should be selected. Some big books and charts are produced commercially especially for shared reading. Each text should be chosen carefully to suit one or more specific learning goals. For example, if the learning goal is to develop the comprehension strategy of making connections, the teacher should select a text with content that both they and the students can easily connect to so that they can make the strategy explicit to the students. Teachers should be aware of the challenges and supports for their students in any text selected for shared reading (see page 138).

Shared reading sessions

A shared reading session takes up to twenty minutes, depending on the purpose, the time of day, and the students' engagement in the text.

Introducing the text

The text should be introduced in a way that builds students' curiosity. Keeping the introduction brief helps the students to relate the text to their experience and to make some predictions about its content, structure, and features.

The learning goal for the session, which will be based on the students' identified learning needs, should be shared with the students. The students can be given reading tasks that help them achieve their learning goal - for example, the goal might be "to identify comprehension strategies that help us to determine the mood of a text" and the initial task might be "to work out the mood of the text as we read the first two paragraphs together".

Reading the text

The shared reading should enable the students to:

engage purposefully with the text;

make meaning from the text and think critically about it (the teacher may question, prompt, and probe to facilitate this);

focus on meeting their learning goal, perhaps through a related task, for example, by identifying the words that indicate a particular character's point of view.

The same text can be shared once, twice, or several times, depending on the students' needs and learning goals, the content-related purpose for reading, and the length and complexity of the text.

Whatever the learning goals, the teacher can promote them by modelling the behaviour to be learned (for example, by "thinking aloud" while modelling the use of an appropriate graphic organiser and explaining it to the students or by questioning the students and discussing their understanding of what they are learning).

Concluding the session

At the end of a shared reading session, teacher and students review their learning goals and decide how far they have achieved their objectives. This may involve discussing the theme or overall meaning of the text, its effectiveness as a piece of writing, or the strategies the students used in reading the text. Effective teachers ensure that their students understand exactly which strategies they used to process and comprehend the text and encourage them to think about how they can apply this knowledge and awareness when reading other texts.

I use shared reading to introduce my students to a literacy strategy or skill that we haven't focused on before or one that needs revisiting. It's the approach I use to teach the strategy or skill explicitly before we look at it more closely in guided reading or writing.

Many of my students were finding it hard to work out the meaning of technical vocabulary in reports and explanations. They needed to know how to identify such vocabulary in a text and how to work out the meaning of words from surrounding textual evidence. These were skills they would need increasingly as they moved up through the school.

The text I selected was an enlarged chart on survival in the rainforest. I asked the students to note any unfamiliar words, and they found the word "predators" in the first paragraph. Together, we searched for surrounding phrases and sentences that gave clues about what "predators" might mean. For example, we read that animals "protect themselves from predators by using poison or stinging hairs". I questioned them closely about possible links between "predators" and "protect", "poison", and "stinging hairs", asking "What mental image does this give you?" They decided, "If you have to protect yourself by using poison or stinging hairs, predators must be pretty bad - they must be enemies that can attack."

So I encouraged the students to infer, make connections, and visualise in order to make meaning of unfamiliar terms. We discussed how the visualisation strategy had helped them deepen their understanding of the text.
Teacher, year 5 class
Shared reading should be enjoyable for both teacher and students. The end of the session can be a good time to savour a subtle use of humour or a fascinating piece of information in the text.

Following up

The follow-up to any shared reading session will depend on the instructional objective(s) for the session. Follow-up activities may include:

the teacher rereading the text with a small group of students (as a shared reading mini-lesson or as part of a guided reading session);

students rereading the text individually or in small groups to practise making meaning or using the new strategies they have learned;

students applying the strategies they have learned to another text and explaining what they have done;

students engaging in shared, guided, or independent writing modelled on the shared reading text;

further exploration of the content or features of the text. For example, students might engage in further research on the topic for a cross-curricular purpose or analyse the text features independently.

Shared reading need not always be followed by a related activity. Often the teacher will build on the learning simply by referring back to it in subsequent literacy learning sessions.

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Shared reading is an essential component of the literacy programme in years 5 to 8. It allows for a high degree of interaction and is a great way for teachers to help students extend their understanding of themselves as effective text users.

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In a guided reading session, the teacher works with a small group of students who have similar instructional needs so that they are supported in reading a text successfully by themselves. Each student has a copy of the text. It should contain some challenges at a level that the students can manage as they individually read the text in the supportive situation. It would generally contain fewer challenges than a shared reading text for that group.

taken from:
http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Planning-for-my-students-needs/Effective-literacy-practice-years-5-8/Approaches-to-teaching-reading

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Provides discussion for students to share their interpretation of the text.
This approach is guided by students response to what's been read.
Roles:
Narrator
Discussion Director
Investigator
Literacy Luminary
Summarizer
Connector
Illustrator

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This lesson provides a basic introduction to literature circles, a collaborative and student-centered reading strategy. Students begin by selecting a book together then are introduced to the four jobs in the Literature Circles: Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Vocabulary Enricher, and Checker.

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade
Research Basis Strategy in Practice Related Resources
Readers Theatre is a highly motivational reading strategy that provides a context for authentic reading. Students read to convey meaning using their voice, facial expressions, and gestures. They also analyze and respond to literature and increase reading fluency. The only requirement is the script; costumes, props, and make-up are not necessary.

Readers Theatre taps the multiple intelligences of a reader and allows for multiple ways of understanding (Gardner, 1985). Support for the comprehensive nature of Readers Theatre is found in several reading theories and educational paradigms including those of Samuels (1979), Rosenblatt (1979), Schreiber (1980), and Slavin (1987). More recent studies by Griffith and Rasinski (2004) and Young and Rasinski (2009) indicate that Readers Theatre also promotes fluency and interest in reading. Through repeated readings of the text, students increase sight word vocabulary and the ability to decode words quickly and accurately (Carrick 2006 & 2009). The repeated readings allow the students to phrase sentences appropriately, read punctuation markers, and read with greater ease. This fluent reading enables students to spend less time on decoding and increase comprehension (Pikulsi & Chard, 2005).

The Readers Theatre script acts as an incentive to elicit thoughts, ideas, and past experiences from the reader. This allows the reader to read the script through an interpretive process and use both the cognitive and affective domains (Carrick 2001 & 2006).

Carrick, L. (2001). Internet resources for conducting Readers Theatre. Reading Online, 5(1). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/carrick/

Carrick, L.U. (2006). Readers Theatre across the curriculum. In T. Rasinski, C. Blachowicz, & K. Lems (Eds.), Fluency instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 209–230). New York: Guilford Press.

Carrick, L.U. (2009). The effects of Readers Theatre on fluency and comprehension: A study on fifth-grade students in a regular classroom. Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM.

Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: HarperCollins.

Griffith, L.W., & Rasinski, T. (2004). A focus on fluency: How one teacher incorporated fluency with her reading curriculum. The Reading Teacher, 58(2), 126–133.

Pikulski, J.J., & Chard, D.J. (2005). Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 510–519.

Rosenblatt, L. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Samuels, S.J. (1979). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 32(4), 403–408.

Schreiber, P.A. (1980). On the acquisition of reading fluency. Journal of Reading, 12(3), 177–186.

Slavin, R.E. (1987). Cooperative learning and the cooperative school. Educational Leadership, 45(3), 7–13.

Young, C., & Rasinski, T. (2009). Implementing Readers Theatre as an approach to classroom fluency instruction. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 4–13.

Distribute and introduce the script to the students and have them make predictions about the story or characters. Ask students to follow along as you read the script aloud, modeling the appropriate intonation, volume, and pitch as well as varied voice inflections for different characters. After you finish, discuss the story and ask feedback questions such as "Were our predictions correct?" "What do you like about the story?" "What can you say about the characters? The setting?"

Create a list of vocabulary words found in the script. Write the words on the board or large sheet of paper and refer to this list while reading. Students are encouraged to refer to these words and use them in their writing activities.

Divide the class into pairs. Assign a specific number of pagers to be read, keeping in mind that a longer script can be divided into several sections. Paired students should take turns reading every other entry in the script, giving all students an opportunity to read the same amount of material. The students can reread the script and read the alternate entries. Specific parts of the script are not assigned at this time. This eliminates the practice of assigning the stronger readers the larger roles and the poorer readers the minimal roles.

Circulate and offer assistance with the pronunciation of words and model fluent reading by reading with expression, using the appropriate rate, pitch, tone, and volume. At the close of the session, do a group read-around of the script, giving each student an opportunity to read one entry of the script or assign roles and have students perform a portion of the script.

Depending on the length of the script, students may eventually work in small groups of three to five students with assigned roles. Everyone should be given an opportunity to read equal parts of the text. Therefore, a reader can read more than one part.

As a final activity, let the students perform informally for their class or other classes. You can also transform the classroom into a theater and invite other classes, family, and friends to a more formal presentation.

Integrating Literacy Into the Study of the Earth's Surface
Water covers 71% of the earth's surface—does it get the instructional time it deserves in your busy curriculum? Students wade right in to the study of bodies of water as they read and discuss science trade books and work together to develop Readers Theater scripts based on selected titles.
Readers Theatre
Students develop scripts, perform, and use their voices to depict characters from texts, giving them the opportunity to develop fluency and further enhance comprehension of what they are reading.
Readers Theatre With Jan Brett
Students in grades 1-2 use Jan Brett's Hedgie's Surprise for a Readers Theatre experience.
Get the Reel Scoop: Comparing Books to Movies
Students compare a book to its film adaptation, and then perform readers theater of a scene from the book that they feel was not well represented in the movie version.
Reading Idol! Bringing Readers Theatre Center Stage in Your Classroom
Students produce a Readers Theatre performance to compete to be named the Reading Idol. Students vote on the final performances and record them as podcasts.
Improving Fluency through Group Literary Performance
Students participate in shared reading, choral reading, and readers theater, using books by Bill Martin, Jr. Repeated readings and literary performances help students with their reading accuracy, expression, and rate.

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Shared reading is when the teachers leads the reading (reads aloud) - children have access to the text & follow along. It enables participation through active listening & discussions. The teacher focuses on a learning goal eg. comprehension strategies, vocab, word recognition. Benefits of this = children have access to texts at a higher level & texts of unfamiliar genre. Teacher models throughout.

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It is done small groups, Purpose of this is to help develop and focus on four comprehension strategies (Asking questions, Clarifying what was read, Summarising information, and predicting what might follow).  When the teacher is comfortable with the students own ability in these strategies and discussion format, they assign specific roles adapted from these strategies. These are Questioner, Clarifier, Summariser, Predictor and a group leader.

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Readers Theater is a dramatic presentation of a written work in a script form.  Readers read from a "script" and reading parts are divided among the readers. No memorization, costumes, blocking, or special lighting is needed

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Readers Theatre is a highly motivational reading strategy that provides a context for authentic reading. Students read to convey meaning using their voice, facial expressions, and gestures. They also analyze and respond to literature and increase reading fluency. The only requirement is the script; costumes, props, and make-up are not necessary.
Through repeated readings of the text, students increase sight word vocabulary and the ability to decode words quickly and accurately (Carrick 2006 & 2009). The repeated readings allow the students to phrase sentences appropriately, read punctuation markers, and read with greater ease. This fluent reading enables students to spend less time on decoding and increase comprehension (Pikulsi & Chard, 2005).

Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/readers-theatre-a-30703.html#research-basis

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Where students are in small groups and are working in 'roles' that are in fact reading strategies. Eg. The questioner, the clarifier, the summariser and the predictor. As a group they read a piece of text and in their role they respond to the text - for example they might write their predictions or questions in a shared google doc.
Eventually when the students are familiar and comfortable in the roles, a leader will be introduced to facilitate the students within their roles and promote communication etc.