We all know how important interactive read alouds are.  They’re by far one of our most powerful teaching tools we have.  Not only can they be used to teach just about everything reading and writing, they’re also a fantastic way to build background knowledge and vocabulary.  They’re also beautiful and engaging.  Read aloud time is often what we ourselves remember most fondly about school, and it’s a time kids still love and look forward to today.  It’s hard to top the read aloud! 

But there’s a companion teaching tool that can be used in almost all the same ways.  And sometimes, it might even fit the purpose even better than a book!  What is it?

A video aloud!

A video aloud is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s a short video that’s used for deep comprehension work, just like a read aloud.  They’re planned much the same way as a read aloud:  you decide ahead of time where to stop for student active engagement and teacher think alouds to target the concepts your students need.  

I love Pixar (or similar) shorts or even commercials for this.  Grocery chains, Target, and Walmar periodically have excellent commercials for this use during the back to school season and during the holidays.  But Pixar shorts are by far my favorite.  

Here’s why a video aloud is a fantastic tool, and can sometimes even be better than a full read aloud text:

1. They’re super short, so you can play them a few times for close reading work.  Sometimes, the length of a read aloud makes this work very hard.
2. Most of them only use music, not words.  This helps kids really formulate how to explain their thinking without getting bogged down by all the dialogue, description, vocabulary, and figurative language.
3. Because there are no words, it’s a perfect time to focus on concept words to build vocabulary–character trait words and big concepts, like loss, grief, perseverance, and acceptance.  
4. They’re fantastic for work with small elements that contribute to the overall story in big ways:  setting, symbolism, character change, and mood all come to mind.
5. Because video alouds are great for building concept vocabulary, they’re a great way to step into that big work.  It’s a bite-sized way to teach large concepts before moving to complex texts.  This is especially supportive of our ML learners!  The videos truly help those concepts come to life.
6. They’re unbelievably engaging.  If you’ve never experienced a room full of 5th graders who are begging you to play it again, even as they wipe tears from their eyes, you’ve missed out!
7. They’re super accessible.  Sometimes, it can be hard to track down the books you’re looking for.  Having the physical book (or a digital copy) isn’t always easy.  And outsourcing your read aloud to someone who’s recorded themselves reading it and putting it up on YouTube isn’t best practice.  But a video on YouTube?  That’s fair game!
8. Because they’re so short, they’re an amazing way to do big teaching in a very small amount of time.  
9. They’re another type of text.  The word “text” doesn’t just mean books.  Videos absolutely count–and most states have some sort of standard around multimedia.  This also means they’re perfect for adding to a text set around a theme.  
10. Because they’re free and online, they’re super easy to share with families, so they might also watch the video with their child.  You can suggest ideas they might discuss together.  This gives parents a great window into the classroom and shows them some ways to talk about reading.  

The video aloud is a powerful tool, but it’s not a replacement for read aloud books.  They’re an additional tool, used at just the right time for just the right purpose.  I love using them for theme, especially for teaching the idea that a story can have multiple themes.  This then leads very naturally into working on determining evidence to support a theme.  I also like to freeze the video, make a snip of that frame, and talk about how the small parts impact the whole story. 

Below are examples of work I’ve done with one of my favorite videos, Pip, and why a part is important to the overall story:

Want to get started with video alouds?  Here are my top 5 short videos:

1. Pip
2. Ian
3. The Umbrella
4. The Present
5. Kitbull

So, whether you want to build a new concept, level the language playing field, reignite student engagement, or just try out a short but powerful lesson idea, I encourage you to give the video aloud a try!

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 24-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!  Simply email me at [email protected] or reach out for a coaching call!

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