One of my favorite things about reading workshop is finding and sharing picture books with students. Shared readings generate discussions (academic and personal) that are relevant to your kiddos . While ‘meeting student needs’ is one of the great benefits of shared readings, it’s also one of the great challenges. Suiting a favorite read aloud to this particular class year after year can be time consuming.
When I was creating my series of genre units, I wanted to include discussion guides for shared readings that would be versatile enough to fit a range of needs, but specific enough to make them low-prep for teachers. I ended up a creating a template that allows you to read the same book to a different group of kids each year, without having to plan the discussion from scratch. You can download the template for free. Here’s how it works:
A Versatile Template for Read Alouds/Shared Readings
Basically, you read through the book and jot down everything that comes to mind: curriculum connections, think alouds, and questions. Notice what reading standards are naturally addressed by the book and include these too (I record specific common core standards). Take a look:
Now comes the BEST part! When you record your standards (ex: common-core), number them. Then, go through your discussion questions and label them with the standards they address:
When you use this read aloud, decide which standards are most relevant to your student needs. Then, choose the discussion questions that relate to that standard. Voila–your shared reading will be relevant to your students needs, and with minor adjustments it will be relevant to NEXT YEAR’s student’s needs too!
Build a Read Aloud/Shared Reading Library
I love this template because it means you can design discussion guides around the picture books you like to use year after year, but you can also gear each discussion toward your current students.
To build a discussion guide library, fill out your template, and make several copies. When you’re ready to conduct the read aloud, highlight the standards and questions that are most relevant to your students.
I hope you enjoy this template. If you’d like to purchase a collection of ready-made discussion guides, preview these products:
You can also preview discussion guides for grades 3-6!
What do you think of this template? What titles do you hope to use it with?
