Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading Workshop Journal

A MiddleWeb Listserv Project

Self-selected members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List are joining together to explore the Reading Workshop and other ideas about supporting young adolescent readers. Juli Kendall, a reading teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli is also keeping a weekly journal of her own Reading Workshop initiative. Find out more about our project at our Reading Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here. Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.

Week #28
Shared Reading, Karaoke Style!


Times and tastes have certainly changed. What began humbly enough as a relaxed experience with Shared Reading has evolved into the musical event of the year. Karaoke Club has joined our Reading Workshop.

Now, before you jump to conclusions, here's how it works.
a teacher planning a lesson for daily oral or shared reading could focus on the use of Karaoke Club in 10- to 20-minute segments daily (Ash & Hagood, 2000). Karaoke Club, modeled on Poetry Club (Optiz & Rasinski, 1998), is a five-step instructional activity that focuses on students' fluency development. Students engage in peer repeated readings of self-selected popular music lyrics and then perform them in a Karaoke style. Following these performances, students discuss the meaning of the lyrics as well as issues such as the portrayal of gender or racial stereotypes or how the music positions them as listeners.

From "Teaching Readers Who Struggle: A Pragmatic Middle School Framework" by Gwynne Ellen Ash

(For more information about Poetry Club, check out page 44 in Good-Bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies by Opitz and Rasinski, Heinemann 1998.)

The original idea was to gather all the resources possible to provide a varied and engaging experience with Shared Reading. Or at least that is what I like to think. But in today's reality, a holiday gift had to suffice. Someone gave my collaborating teacher a Karaoke machine and that was just the right beginning. Kids love Karaoke!

Defined by Janet Allen as "eyes past print with voice support," our Shared Reading has evolved into an activity that's impossible to sleep through. But don't be fooled! We also incorporate poetry, news items, sports biographies, jokes and riddles, picture books and short stories. Anything is fair game.
"The goal of Shared Reading is a fluent reading of extended time--a relatively uninterrupted reading of the text"

. . . according to Janet Allen (Reimagining Reading, A Literacy Institute with Janet Allen, Disk 4, "Shared Reading"). The key to success here is practice makes perfect. You really need to be able to read fluently, as well as be aware of what's coming next in the text. Our biggest mistake was getting something new to use for Shared Reading and heading into it before practicing. Be prepared!

Additionally, as you read, kids need to have the text available to them. That's the "eyes past print with voice support" part. An overhead, a chart, a copy of a book or short story, a sheet of poetry or a newspaper or magazine article will all work. Janet Allen says that she keeps her eyes open for ideas of what to use for Shared Reading everywhere she goes. I, however, am just beginning to collect good texts.

The context of independence

During our Afterschool Reading Workshop, the Shared Reading time also includes books on tape. Kids use a battery-operated Walkman and select a book and tape to keep in a large plastic baggie. Then when we're ready, grabbing their stuff, they settle down on the beanbags to "read." Janet Allen explains it this way:
Why am I talking about shared reading in the context of independence? What I want to reference here is the use of recorded books to give the support of shared reading during times of independent reading. For many of my students, the engagement with books they experienced during our shared reading classes was lost when it was time for them to read independently.This process extended the support of shared reading into students' periods of sustained silent reading, providing yet another opportunity for increased reading fluency.

From Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12, Pp. 62-63

As I listened to the Reimagining Reading CDs, I found five ways Shared Reading benefits student learning.
1. It demonstrates fluent reading.

2. It provides a place where you introduce reading strategies through Strategy lessons-- Strategies That Work is a great source for this.

3. It encourages Accountable Talk -You can teach children how to state an opinion and defend it with others, without hitting someone. (Janet Allen said that!)

4. Because the teacher is reading, students are not at risk.

5. It promotes a gradual "release of responsibility model"* for readers.

*Pearson, P. David, and Margaret C. Gallagher. 1983. "The Instruction of Reading Comprehension." Contemporary Educational Psychology 8: 317-344.

So back to the Karaoke Club... How does it fit into Shared Reading? The official definition states that "students are invited to read along silently as the teacher reads the text." Well, why not have a little fun while you're at it? "The last thing that you want to do is reinforce that reading is boring."


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