Read to Someone–Intermediate Students

Regardless of the age of students, is important to remember why we offer Read to Someone as one of The Daily 5 Choices. Read to Someone is designed to support fluency practice, to allow students to read with someone else for support with a similar strategy or sometimes because it is downright fun for them! That said, we find that most of our older students do not have a desire to partner read. Once a child reaches approximately a 4th grade reading level, they become more comfortable with "in the head" reading. Reading aloud to another person becomes laborious.

Think about yourself as a reader. Sure it is fun to read aloud to kids, but if given the choice to read a novel aloud or silently, most of us would choose silently. Most often the students in our intermediate classes who do Read to Someone are auditory processors, so reading to someone supports their comprehension. Yet the auditory processors in our classes are typically outnumbered by our visual or kinesthetic students, so the number of kids Reading to Someone is quite small. If you do have intermediate students who are going to Read to Someone, the rule of thumb for choosing books are the same as for younger children.

1) Children need to read a Good Fit book. If they are attempting to read books that are too difficult, the result is often pretend reading and it is not helping them progress. And yes, reading a picture books is a fine choice.

2) Partners can read two different books. This allows for each of them to choose a book that is a good fit for them. They simply take turns reading aloud and discussing the text.