The Best Tool for Integrated Literacy Instruction

Reading involves integration of a set of  many skills, as is illustrated in the Reading Rope we’re all so familiar with. Whenever we can integrate, we deepen learning and save time.  Way back in 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) came up with what they named as the five pillars of strong reading instruction. But all too often, likely because the 5 pillars are depicted on a graphic as five separate entities, instruction tends to become siloed.  In so many classrooms, there’s a separate time for phonemic awareness practice, another time for phonics instruction, another for fluency, and so on.  This leads to a constant battle:  teacher vs the clock.

Fortunately, one simple, easily accessible tool can be leveraged to beautifully integrate the majority the 5 pillars:  the read aloud. It’s simply the best tool for powerfully integrated literacy instruction.

“Students’ understanding is enhanced the more integrated the curriculum is…”

Palinscar, Brown, and Campione, 1993

The most accessible tool in your arsenal for integrated literacy instruction?

Your classroom library, including the books you use for instruction, are by far your most powerful teaching tool. In their book The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library, Colby Sharp and Donnalyn Miller call the classroom library “the co-teacher in the room.“ There is no better term to describe the humble read aloud!

Let’s get into those pillars of instruction, and how the read aloud integrates so much. 

First, vocabulary.

High-quality read alouds are a fabulous source for vocabulary. Not only are these books rich with tier 2 vocabulary words that are perfect for targeted, explicit instruction, but they are also full of more flowery, descriptive and figurative language as well. Given that vocabulary has such an enormous impact on reading comprehension, we all know that developing a larger vocabulary in all of our students is of utmost importance. It is, after all, “the glue that holds stories, ideas, and content together to make reading comprehension possible for children.” (Improvingliteracy.org)

Next, let’s address fluency. 

As Tim Rasinski is famously known for saying, “fluency is the bridge to comprehension.” There is such truth to this. Reading with prosody reflects the  meaning that the author intended.  When children can do this, it’s a pretty sure bet that they fully comprehend the text. The child who reads way too fast with zero intonation, or conversely, the one who reads at such a choppy, slow rate that meaning is nearly impossible to attain are both at very big disadvantages. 

Reading aloud to our students from a variety of genres and types of text goes a very long way in modeling excellent fluency.  Complex sentences pulled from our read alouds are rich tools for explicit teaching of how syntax works. Syntax, a.k.a. sentence structure, can be highly confusing to students. Using real examples from real authors to teach syntax is quite easy to do with the right read aloud. A long, complex sentence gives us the opportunity to dissect it to show kids exactly how it works. Not only does this help them as readers, of course, it also helps them as writers. ( Need some fresh read alouds? Grab my list of 20 phenomenal read alouds along with tons of teaching ideas!). 

And of course, comprehension. 

We know, as Sharon Vaughn reminds us, that “reading comprehension is an outcome.” It’s not a separate skill. It’s the tightly woven interconnection of subskills that all work together that make comprehension possible. However, research has shown for a very long time that “summarizing, developing an understanding of text structure, and/or paraphrasing” yield strong results in reading comprehension. (Shanahan, 12/2/23)  It serves our students well to provide them with a great deal of practice with these skills. 

There are a plethora of opportunities for integrating comprehension instruction with any high-quality read aloud. 

The practice of interactive read aloud, where you have preplanned stopping points, questions, and discussion prompts, is a highly effective teaching method. Every manner of level of thinking can be brought forth through this intentional planning. 

We can ask level one,  “right there” questions. And we can very much dig into so much more:  the author’s purpose, why they chose to craft the text in the way they did, and themes and central ideas. We can even take it further on Webb’s depth of knowledge levels, and do some critiquing and evaluating. 

But wait!  There’s so much more that read alouds can provide! 

Reading aloud hits the first two pillars of reading instruction, as it can also “promote foundational literacy skills, including phonological awareness and print concepts” as Molly Ness (2024, pg 4) points out.  And Cervetti and Hiebert  argue that background knowledge ought to be a sixth pillar added to the NRP’s original five. Natalie Wexler has discussed and written extensively about the role of background knowledge in reading. Hand-in-hand with vocabulary, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the more you know about a topic you are reading about, the better you’ll be able to understand it. Reading aloud from a wide variety of texts across a variety of genres builds large networks of background knowledge. 

I’m all about one stone hitting as many birds as possible. 

That said, here are some ways to get even MORE bang for your buck that most teachers overlook:

1. Very wise text selection. 

There are thousands upon thousands of books we could choose to read aloud to our students. But not every book is worth the time or effort it takes to plan and deliver a full lesson. Extremely careful selection puts you on the path to stronger instruction. 

Not sure how to go about this? I’ve got you! Grab my free guide listing the 10 questions I ask myself every single time I choose a read aloud for the core of  my lessons.

One of those questions is always does connect to what I’m teaching in other subject areas?  It may be later in the year I’ll be teaching  about the Revolutionary War. Or it may be that earlier in the year I’ve taught about the water cycle. Bringing those topics forward through reading aloud gives massive bang for your buck. 

Not only does reading aloud  build vocabulary and conceptual understanding, because you are building those conceptual understandings,  when you do teach those concepts in content studies, the learning is far stronger. This is also why I love the idea of using a text set, where several texts (including video) can be used together to deeply build vocabulary and conceptual understanding. 

When it’s time to sit down to plan the read aloud, I always think about what my kids need as readers and what they need as writers. There are no random questions or stopping points. I pick things that will support my students to step into their next levels of development. 

This is where, although your given curriculum may tell you the stopping points in a book and even tell you exactly what to say at certain points, following that with fidelity may not always hit the mark. Your students–and their needs–must be front and center. 

2. Model what it means to activate prior knowledge before reading a book. 

How many times have you watched your students quickly flip the book open without even really glancing at the title or even checking to see what the blurb says? Without pondering why the author wrote it in the first place? 

They won’t, if we never show them that this is what readers do. 

Be intentional with the way you introduce the text. Read that blurb to model how to think as you read it to get a sense of what the text will be about. Model how it connects to other books that have been read on that topic or similar concepts and how it connects to your own schema. Really be intentional about wondering about the title. The title very often gives more than a hint of what the central ideas of the story are. It can often lead to text structure, which is a very important part of understanding the text itself. 

3. Take the time to flip to the back, if available, and read the author’s note. 

The author‘s note is often brimming with more background knowledge on the topic. It also often shares more about why the author wrote the text in the first place. As well, take a second to read the author’s bio in the back. More often than not, you’ll get a great sense of  the author’s point of view. This sets you up for an interesting, rich class discussion. 

4. Ensure a mix of stopping points. 

Sometimes, you will simply stop and think aloud. This is where you will uncover your thinking as a reader to explain the strategies you’re using at the moment and why.  Students can and should be actively engaged in this thinking work. . The key is to make sure that all students are involved. Not just the one or two that you call on. All students need to be involved in the process. All students need to benefit. 

Mix up the ways kids might respond.  Sometimes it’ll be more verbal, like a turn and talk,  as discussion is so crucial for deepening comprehension. But they might also move with their body. I love to do this with vocabulary.  For example, I recently read a book aloud to a kindergarten class, and the word “trudged” came up.  Very quickly, I explained what that meant, and had all the students stand up to pretend to trudge through deep snow. It got them moving and illustrated the word.  And sometimes, have them write or draw. Literacy researcher Steve Graham has discussed for decades the importance of kids’ writing about what they are reading and learning about. It’s a long-standing, highly effective teaching practice.

There you have it.  The many ways the humble read aloud–when well-executed–integrates all the major pillars of effective literacy instruction. Effective and very time-efficient!

---

Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-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! I’m here to partner with you to build that foundation of student motivation for writing so your students can realize greater success.

Or, consider joining my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment (really–no blaming or shaming is allowed!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!