contributor(s):
Jennifer Jones-Clark, Facing History and Ourselves
rationale
This interpretive oral reading activity is an alternative way for students to engage and process reading material that is challenging or emotionally powerful.
This activity will:
- Improve reading comprehension including author's purpose, character traits, mood, and theme
- Foster critical and fluency reading skills
- Develop students' interpretive imagination
- Engage students to read a text in a more enjoyable or gratifying way
- Foster cooperative learning skills
procedure
Step One: Group Read
Select a reading passage that students have read and discussed. The passage should be one that can be divided into sections that say something and/or have an impact or power in each section.
Have participants form a large enough circle to include everyone and give everyone a copy of the reading. Have each person read a sentence or two going around the entire circle without stopping. If you complete the reading before everyone has read start again and go until you complete the passage.
Step Two: Large Group Discussion
In the large group ask students the following questions:
1. What were you thinking about during the reading? Responses might include:
... when it was my turn I...
... can I read with making mistakes?
... this feels odd
... I am moved by reading the voices of people in the Holocaust
2. What are the cognitive areas we are focusing on?
3. What are the benefits of reading the passage in this way?
4. How could we vary this activity?
Step Three: Interpretive Planning
Divide the participants into groups of no more than six. Assign each group a small piece of the passage (one or two paragraphs). Each group should take 20 or so minutes to come up with an interpretation of the reading (not a skit). Be sure to stress that this activity is not designed to be a role play or a mini theater production. Rather it is an attempt to deepen understanding or to gain a greater insight into what the writer is trying to convey. For example groups may decide to do a choral reading (everyone should be reading together) or one person can narrate while others are standing or moving. Have participants consider using their voices in different ways, sounds that may enhance the feelings, etc.
Step Four: Interpretive Presentations
When groups come back together, form a large circle with everyone sitting (floor or chairs). Starting with one group that has the first section of the reading go through the entire passage one group at a time with no pauses or breaks in between groups (each group will interpret their piece in the center of the circle).
Step Five: Post Reading Discussion
Ask students:
- What did the process feel like for you?
- What did you notice (about your group and the other groups)?
- Do you have questions or comments for the other groups?
- What would you do next?
- This is what I would/have done?
- What is the value of this type of activity?
- How could we vary this activity?
classroom example
This strategy is most often used with a reading passage that is emotionally powerful. Examples can include:
additional resources
- Copies of the reading text for each student
- Space in a classroom for students to present their interpretations
