Meeting the Common Core Reading Literature Standards can be challenging. Like many teachers out there, we are using old basils. A booked published published before the newest Core Standards were implemented.
The result? In order to meet our Core Standards, we realized we would need to prepare our Elementary Lesson Plans with reading units adapted or enhanced. As a group of teachers who have written our fair share of Text Dependent Questions for the stories inside basals! We knew that can be very time-consuming process.
How we met the core standards during read aloud time
Some of us are teaching in schools without a set curriculum. Did you know we teach in charter schools? This gives us the autonomy to create our own language arts curriculum. We have tried a few comprehension resources over the last two years but weren’t completely satisfied.
Interactive Read-Aloud Time Helps Meet Core Standards
So, we have been writing interactive read-aloud lessons for a few years now. We feel we are becoming skilled at planning Interactive Read Aloud lessons for popular children’s books. You can read more about how we set up our lesson structure for our interactive read-alouds here. Several years ago, we decided to start the daunting task of writing our own curriculum. We embarked on our journey to infuse Core Standards into our read aloud time.
Likewise, we still teach guided reading, phonics, grammar, and writing workshop, but use our read-aloud time to immerse our kids in their favorite stories AND hit many Core Standards at the same time. You can also use this block to teach comprehension and writing in response to text. In our lessons tackle both of these through our text dependent questioning. You can read more about how we write and use text dependent questions here.
PRODUCTS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN
Our Year of Interactive Read-Alouds curriculum can be implemented in any classroom. Do you teach in a school where you have the freedom to make curriculum choices? Then this is all you will need to cover the Reading Literature and Informational Text Standards? If you teach in a school where the basal isn’t the only resource that can be used, our interactive read-alouds are the perfect resource to extend your basal instruction. Even if you teach in a school where you cannot stray from the basal, our read- aloud lessons can be taught exclusively during your read aloud time.
We have been teaching this interactive read-aloud curriculum in our schools a few years now. We have found it to be incredibly easy to use and engaging for our students. New authors and illustrators engage readers in a ways that can’t compare to some older stories that are still in basals. Of course, there is always room for classic children’s literature and that is why we have included old favorites in our Read-Aloud curriculum.
In one week, we teach either eight Reading Literature standards or nine Reading Informational Text standards using current children’s literature. Our read aloud time also offers students an opportunity to practice Speaking and Listening standards in a meaningful way.
Teaching Core Standards
Experience has taught us that students don’t naturally notice the way authors and illustrators work together to write books the first time you read a book to them. We have learned so much from revisiting the same book several times, and so have our students.
Further, our students love figuring out what more they can learn about the story through the illustrations and text working together. Students also love paying attention to the author’s craft. They are experts at noticing and understanding the author’s use of rhyme, enlarged or bold text, italics, ellipsis, etc..
Therefore, we love teaching our Core Standards during our interactive read aloud time! There are a hundred more reasons why it is better to teach using current literature in your classroom. Find out for yourself!
Shop our store to find over 100 individual read-alouds lesson plans, 18 monthly bundles, and 2 year long bundles.
