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Choral reading

What is it?


 Choral reading is a teaching strategy that enhances reading skills and promotes fluency. In choral reading, a group of students reads a text together in unison, often following the teacher's guidance.


Source

Why use it?

It can provide less skilled readers the opportunity to practice and receive support before having to read on their own.

Choral reading allows all students to participate, fostering a sense of confidence and community in the classroom.

Provide a model of fluent reading while the students listen.

Helps improve the ability to read words at first sight.

Key Information

 Focus

                  

Reading fluency

How?

                  

Small groups

All the class

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When?

                  

                During Reading

        

How to implement it?


    1. Choose a text that works well to be read aloud as a group:
    1. Structured or predictable (for beginner readers).
    2. Not too long.
    3. At the independent reading level of most students.
    2. 2. Provide each student with a copy of the text so they can follow along. (Note: You may choose to use an overhead projector or place the students in front of a computer monitor with the text on the screen).
    3. Read the passage or story aloud and demonstrate fluent reading for the students.
    4. Ask the students to use a marker or their finger to follow the text while reading.
    3. Reread the passage and have all the students in the group read the story or passage aloud in unison.

Diversity in the classroom


For second language learners, students with varied reading skills, and younger students.
  • You can assign each student a different section of the passage to read depending on their reading level.
  • Allow them to read the passage quietly before starting the reading in unison.
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Evidence


Hasbrouck, J. (2006). For Students Who Are Not Yet Fluent, Silent Reading Is Not the Best Use of Classroom Time. American Educator, Summer 2006, 30(2).
Texas Reading Initiative. (2007). Fluency: Instructional Guidelines and Student Activities.
Kim, M.K., Bryant, D.P, Bryant, B.R, & Park, Y. (2017) A synthesis of interventions for improving oral reading fluency of elementary students with learning disabilities. Preventing School Failure, 61(2), 116-125.


This article is a free adaptation and translation of: Reading Rockets (n.d.) Choral Reading.https://www.readingrockets.org/classroom/classroom-strategies/choral-reading
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