Glossary · Comprehension and language
What is an interactive read-aloud?
Definition
An interactive read-aloud is reading a book aloud to students and pausing at planned points to talk about words, ideas and what might happen next.
Read-alouds let students meet books well above their own reading level. That's where they hear rich vocabulary, complex sentences and new knowledge, all of which build language comprehension.
The interactive part is planned. Before reading, the teacher picks two or three words to explain and a few stopping points with a question. During reading, the stops are short, a minute or less, so the story keeps moving. After reading, a brief discussion ties it together.
Read-alouds should continue well past the early grades. A fourth grader who decodes well still benefits from hearing a book that's too hard to read alone. For students with decoding difficulty, read-alouds keep their language and knowledge growing while the code catches up.
In a lesson
Reading a picture book about a lighthouse keeper, the teacher stops after “the waves battered the rocks” and asks what battered might mean, then acts it out with a fist on a palm.
Why does this matter for the record?
Log read-alouds by title and the words taught. Over a term, the list shows the language a student has been exposed to.
Rate each skill as you teach it
Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.