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Scholastic is counting down the 100 Best Read-Aloud Books

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A Read Aloud is when a teacher reads a story out loud to the whole class. These stories usually contain a theme or subject matter that connects with what the class is learning at the time or is a subject the teacher feels the students need to learn more about. Read alouds are very beneficial for younger students but can be used for a classroom of any age. Younger students can benefit from this though learning by example. They are able to pick up good reading habits and expression by listening to other readers read.

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Fluency is fast and expressive reading that good readers use to read out loud. Fluency is all about how readers put words together so that they are presented with good pacing and proper expression for the text being read.

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What is phonics and why is it important?

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What is phonics and why is it important?

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Phonics is the process of decoding words by letter sound.  Phonics deals with written words composed of individual letters and sounds when combined together make a word. Phonics is an important building block to reading and comprehension. Many students start from a bottom up approach with starts with understanding letter sounds then grows to connect those sounds into words and eventually into sentences and stories. Phonics is also important when a student encounters a word they may have hear before but not read. Once the student is able to sound out the word they are able to comprehend its meaning.

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Scholastic Phonics and Phonemic Awareness information:

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Scholastic Phonics and Phonemic Awareness information:

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As an educator, you have probably already heard of phonics. But chances are that no one has ever sat down with you to explain exactly what phonics instruction is. That's where we come in - with the help of phonics expert Wiley Blevins, we have compiled the basic information that you need to know before teaching phonics.

What is phonics?

Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and their spellings. The goal of phonics instruction is to teach students the most common sound-spelling relationships so that they can decode, or sound out, words. This decoding ability is a crucial element in reading success.

Why is phonics instruction important?

Most poor readers tend to rely so heavily on one reading strategy, such as the use of context and picture clues, that they exclude other strategies that might be more appropriate. To become skilled, fluent readers, children need to have a repertoire of strategies to draw on. These strategies include using a knowledge of sound-spelling relationships - in other words, an understanding of phonics. In addition, research has shown that skilled readers attend to almost every word in a sentence and process the letters that compose each of these words.

Therefore, phonics instruction plays a key role in helping students comprehend text. It helps the student map sounds onto spellings, thus enabling them to decode words. Decoding words aids in the development of word recognition, which in turn increases reading fluency. Reading fluency improves reading comprehension because as students are no longer struggling with decoding words, they can concentrate on making meaning from the text.

In addition, phonics instruction improves spelling ability because it emphasizes spelling patterns that become familiar from reading. Studies show that half of all English words can be spelled with phonics rules that relate to one letter to one sound.

How should you structure phonics instruction?

Phonics instruction should be explicit rather than implicit. Implicit instruction relies on readers "discovering" clues about sound-spelling relationships; good readers can do this, but poor readers are not likely to do so. Explicit instruction is the most effective type of phonics instruction, especially for children at risk for reading difficulties.

A good phonics lesson begins with an explicit explanation of the sound-spelling being taught along with guided opportunities for students to blend, or sound out, words using the new sound-spelling. These exercises should be followed by guided and independent reading practice in text that contains words with the new sound-spelling. This portion of phonics instruction is key. Therefore, phonics instruction should focus on applying learned sound-spelling relationships to actual reading, with smaller amounts of time spent on the initial task of learning phonics rules. That way, you can plan phonics lessons that are appropriate for all students, even if some have higher levels of phonics mastery than others.

How is phonics different from phonemic awareness?

Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols, whereas phonemic awareness involves sounds in spoken words. Therefore, phonics instruction focuses on teaching sound-spelling relationships and is associated with print. Most phonemic awareness tasks are oral.

Despite these different focuses, phonics instruction and phonemic awareness instruction are connected. In fact, phonemic awareness is necessary for phonics instruction to be effective. Before students can use a knowledge of sound-spelling relationships to decode written words, they must understand that words (whether written or spoken) are made up of sounds. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that a word is made up of a series of discrete sounds. Without this insight, phonics instruction will not make sense to students.

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As an educator, you have probably already heard of phonics. But chances are that no one has ever sat down with you to explain exactly what phonics instruction is. That's where we come in - with the help of phonics expert Wiley Blevins, we have compiled the basic information that you need to know before teaching phonics.

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Phonemic awareness is the process of recognizing the individual sounds in a word. Phonemic awareness is similar to phonics but refers to the process and ability to differentiate the sounds.  Although they are different, phonics and phonemic awareness are connected.   They both help to connect the words that are spoken to the words that are read and vice versa.

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Phonemic awareness and phonics are not the same thing. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. Phonics is the understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds through written language.Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words.

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Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom

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Activities that stimulate phonemic awareness in preschool and elementary school children are one sure way to get a child ready for reading! Here are eight of them from expert Marilyn Jager Adams.

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We love learning phonics with hands-on activities and games! Click on each image to get to the blog post, where you can download the activity for FREE. This page contains affiliate links. Related post: How to teach the alphabet to preschoolers Related post: What are phonological and phonemic awareness?

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For those days when you can't read out loud or for down time to promote literary, check out this site that is sponsored by the screen actors guild.  This is also popular to play for snack time!

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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For a read aloud and for your classroom in general, it is important to have rich literature in your classroom. This includes books that cover a variety of topics; fiction and non-fiction, award winning books, multicultural, books on emotions and how to deal with them, and the list goes on and on. it is important for students to be exposed to all kinds of literature that they can connect with and/or learn something new. When picking books consider the age of your students. Books read out loud should be about one grade level ahead of the age you are teaching. as a teacher you should be able to gauge what kind of books your students can handle and what fits best with your curriculum.

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Fluency is an incredibly important skill, especially for comprehension. All readers need fluency because it allows the reader to spend less time laboring over the text, giving more time for understanding. once a student is able to read fluently they will be able to go beyond just reading the word to understanding what the words mean and even understanding sub-context.

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A great activity to promote fluency in readers is Reader's Theater. Reader's theater is a story that is presented in a script like format where students can be assigned parts to read and act out. True readers theater is done with out any props or costumes which make it the perfect activity for students to do in the classroom or preform any time. By reading the same text over and over, the students are able to build fluency and add expression though acting. By turning the reading into a fun opportunity, it will be hard for any student not to enjoy. on the flip side, if a student is struggling or embarrassed, this activity can be adjusted to accommodate any student.

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Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays

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. Presentations can easily be done in a k-3 classroom. Scripts are held by the readers. Lines are not memorized. The focus is on reading the text with expressive voices and gestures. Making comprehending the text meaningful and fun for the student! Once you start Reader's Theater in your classroom you and your students will be loving it!!!

"Reader's Theater proved to be almost a magic solution for Griffith: In just 10 weeks of using RT, every child in her class had gained a full grade level in reading. After a year, the children's gains had jumped to three years of growth. Griffith calls the transformation in their reading fluency totally remarkable." Quote taken from The Power of Reader's Theater, Scholastic Instructor

Update - July 08

Plays and Scripts To Print and Read

Reader's Theater Resources!!

Click the books to learn more...

Look what THOUSANDS of Teachers Use and Love!!!
Teaching Heart - 2001-2008

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Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays for the Classroom

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Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays 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. Presentations can easily be done in a k-3 classroom.

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Guided reading is small group instruction that teaches and supports students with reading skills and strategies. Guided reading is very important especially for young readers.  During guided reading time, students are working in small groups directly with the teacher to manage reading strategies or skills.  Students can be grouped by either reading level or a skill such as comprehension.

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Scholastic Guided Reading Tips for Success

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Scholastic Guided Reading Tips for Success

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First gather as much information as you can about your students reading. Information such as instructional land independent level, decoding strategies, fluency, comprehension etc. can be found by assessing the student with an IRI. This can be very helpful when planning your groups. it is also important to consider when you will have guided reading. many schools will provide you with a schedule but its important to also consider what the other students will be doing while you are meeting with a small group. Literacy centers are a popular choice for students that can work independently and quietly while you instruct the small group.

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Tips and tools from an elementary school Literacy Coach

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Using whole group instruction read alouds help your students by introducing new topics that may be hard for your students to read abut on their own, model skills and strategies, open up pathways for class discussion, and show students good reading habits by example. Read alouds can also be engaging and inspiring for students. they can also help students connect to the world around them. Read alouds also foster a love of literacy and learning.

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This readers theater is funny, cute, and creative. It also has a multilingual Spanish component. Spanish vocabulary is used and defined though in-context usage and jokes. this makes for a great companion to the stories. This reader's theater does work best in conjunction with the original book- Skippyjon Jones: Lost in Spice.