Routine · Fluency
Echo and choral reading
You read a sentence and the student echoes it; then you read together in one voice.
- Time
- 4 to 7 minutes
- Skill
- Fluency
- In a session plan
- Reading connected text
When to use it
For a hard text, a new text, or a student who needs to hear what smooth reading sounds like.
Materials
- A copy of the text for each reader
Steps
Get ready
Each reader has the text and a finger ready to follow.
I do
Read one sentence with good phrasing and expression while the student follows with a finger.
We do
The student echoes the same sentence, matching your phrasing. Continue sentence by sentence.
Student: Reads each sentence back after you.
You do
Read the passage again in one voice, together. Lower your voice in places so the student leads.
The student reads one part alone.
Check
Listen for phrasing and expression in the part read alone.
If the student...
Echoes without looking at the words.
Ask them to point under each word as they echo. Read the sentence again and have them echo it once more, pointing.
Tips
- Make the echo chunk longer as the student improves: a phrase, then a sentence, then two.
- In a group, choral reading lets a shy student read aloud without being heard alone.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Partner readingTwo students take turns reading the same text aloud, with the listener following and helping.5 to 10 minutes · Reading connected text
- Reading in phrasesRead a text marked with slashes at phrase breaks, so the student groups words the way speech does.4 to 7 minutes · Reading connected text
- Readers theatreStudents rehearse and perform a short script, reading their parts with expression. No costumes or memorizing needed.15 to 30 minutes · Library only
- First read of decodable textRead sentences or a short passage made of words the student can decode, using today's pattern.4 to 8 minutes · Reading connected text
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.