Preparing for a Read-A-Loud
- Jun 27
- 3 min read
Picture books are a great way to expose children to different ideas, different places, different animals, as well as different people. I've always appreciated read-a-louds because they allow me to reach all of my student's learning needs. There are so many good things to say about read-a-louds, but there's one thing that I realized about 6 months into teaching.
Imagine you're a baby teacher and you decide that you're doing a read a loud. You've read the book before, so you know it well, and you're sure you know what questions to answer when. You get to the day of the read-a-loud and you are ready. You get the kids ready, open your book, start reading...and then you freeze. It was easy reading the book on your own, but reading it and asking questions/comments are you read take time, experience, and planning, at first.
Preparing for a Read a Loud
To prepare for a read-a-loud, you first need to look at the skill you're covering, as well as the unit you're in. If you didn't know, read-a-louds can be used in all subjects and all areas, so pick a book that you have either read before or are willing to read and ties to your subject/area.
From there, flip through the pages one by one by asking yourself:
Is there anything interesting on this page?
Does the page content to the title?
What are the text features?
Who are the characters?
What is the setting?
What is the plot?
What is the conflict in the book?
You, essentially, want to go through the book so that you have a working understanding of how the book falls into what you're already teaching.
The Planning Sheet
A way to plan for a read-a-loud is to use a planning sheet. A planning sheet keeps track of the book you read, the questions and their pages, as well as when you read the book. You can easily make a chart in Google Docs, Google Sheets or Canva, or you can use this free read-a-loud planning sheet.
Objective
Objectives are what the read-a-loud will teach, as well as what the students should walk away from the lesson knowing. Objectives are an essential part of planning for read-a-louds because read-a-louds serve a specific purpose; without having a goal in mind, you aren't maximizing the potential of read-a-louds.
Genre
Genre is the category or type of a book. Common genres include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and literary nonfiction. Genres are important to consider when planning a read-a-loud because every genre will not have the same questions. For example, I won't ask about them if I'm reading a nonfiction book; I won't usually ask about text features in fiction. Most questions can be tailored to the book that will be read.
Skill
A skill is what the students should actually learn. Common skills include being able to inference, prediction, synthesize, summary, and so many more. Skills are important because they drive the types of questions that you will use in your read-a-loud. If I want to teach text structure, I won't use fiction. If I want to teach lines and stanzas, I will not use a drama. Identifying the specific skill makes a read-a-loud even more powerful.
Page and Question
Pages and questions are the meat and butter of read-a-louds. You need the page number for each question, because you want to stay on track and ask the right questions at the right time. The questions are important because if you have a baseline, you can either scaffold up or down. Without having the questions before, you may not be able to think of a scaffolded question in the moment.
Day 1 and Day 2
Splitting a read-a-loud into two days can be beneficial in many ways. First, you don't hve to rush through what you're reading. One of the downfalls of read-a-louds is that reading the book, plus turning to talk, as well as answering questions can take quite a while. By splitting a book into two days, you're allowing your students to delve deeper into the concept. To divide a read-a-loud into two days, find the mid-section of the book and check for a "clean break." The clean break could be a change of scenery or even the introduction of a new character. Whatever the clean break is, split the book into a second day there.
In essence, read-a-louds are so much fun, but planning for read-a-louds can also be just as enjoyable. Snag a free copy of my small group planning sheets below.
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