More Ramped-Up Read Alouds: Building Knowledge and Boosting Comprehension

Walther’s newest title provides practitioners with 50 new and innovative read-aloud experiences for the elementary school classroom. Before getting into the titles, Walther presents thorough evidence in support of read-alouds across disciplines and age groups, including evidence-based research on the importance of interactive read-alouds and tips for successful ­classroom use. The read-aloud experiences are grouped into five thematic areas: classroom climate, foundational reading skills, listening comprehension, STEAM topics, and writing integration. Each read-aloud experience is presented in two spreads that provides everything an instructor could need to employ it, from a short summary, to learning targets, to example prompts and recommendations for “comprehension conversations” at all stages of the reading process. For recommended classroom activities, either a template or exemplar is provided, as well as suggestions of similar titles (at least two per title), exponentially expanding the possibilities for instructors using this text. Back matter includes an appendix of text sets, a bibliography that includes both professional and children’s literature references, and an index. The consistent formatting and clear labeling of read-aloud elements make this book easy to reference for a quick lesson idea, but the in-depth justification from research makes it a valuable long read as well.