Welcome to Book Smart
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Dr. Anne Cunningham
    • Dr. Jamie Zibulsky
  • Acquired Skills
  • How Is This Book Unique?
  • Book Smart Reviews
  • Press
    • Blog Posts
    • Videos
    • Newspaper Articles
    • Radio
  • How Will Book Smart Help?
  • Tips for Parents-Shared Reading
    • Parent-Directed Shared Reading
    • Child-Directed Shared Reading
    • Joint Reading
    • P.E.E.R Strategy
    • C.R.O.W.D Strategy
  • Chapter Summaries
    • Chapter 1: Oral Language
    • Chapter 2: Emergent Literacy
    • Chapter 3: Learning to Write
    • Chapter 4: Reading Comprehension
    • Chapter 5: Reading Volume
    • Chapter 6: The Social and Emotional Benefits of Reading Together
  • Run a Reading Workshop
    • How to Get Started >
      • Logistics
      • FAQs
      • References
      • Session 1 >
        • Session Summary
        • Powerpoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
        • P.E.E.R. and C.R.O.W.D. Bookmarks
        • C.R.O.W.D. Examples
      • Session 2 >
        • Session Summary
        • Powerpoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 3 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 4 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 5 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 6 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
  • Activities
    • Semantic Development: Strategies for Parents
    • Syntactic Development: Strategies For Parents
  • Recommended Children's Books
    • Wordless Picture Books
    • Songs, Poems, & Rhyming Books
    • Idioms
    • Books To Support Phonological Awareness
    • Abc Books
    • Decodable Books
    • Print Salient Books
    • Books for Writing
    • Books To Teach Writing
    • Books That Utilize Background Knowledge
    • Inferential Thinking
    • Causal Reasoning
    • Visualizing
    • Predicting
    • Questioning
    • Books that Facilitate Narrative Retelling and Summarizing
  • Events Calendar
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Contact
Book SMART on Social Media

Parent-Directed Shared Reading


Picture
With this type of shared reading experience, you, the parent, are guiding your child throughout the story by asking instructional questions. First you start off with asking your child about the pictures in the book. Then you build to asking questions about letters and literal events that take place in the story. After your child is building momentum, ask questions that are more open ended, and relate it back to your child's life.

Below is a list of a series of ways to engage in parent-directed reading, from most simple to most complex, so you can pick an approach that is appropriate for your child's age and stage.  We also provide some example questions to get you started. 


1. Parent reads story to child without interruption.

Picture
2. Parent reads story to child, pausing to                 ask questions about the pictures on the page. 


   (“Oh, what do you think is happening here? What is the gorilla going to do?”)



Picture
3. Parent reads story to child, pausing to ask Wh-         questions about the text on the page.
 
(“What letter does this word 
  start with? Who was sleeping?”)


Picture
4. Parent reads story to child, pausing to ask open-       ended questions about what the child thinks will         happen on the next page or in the future. 


(“So the gorilla let other animals out of their cages. What do you think all of the animals are going to do now?”)



Picture
5. Parent reads story to child, pausing to ask open-                         ended questions about how the story relates to the child’s           own life and experiences. 

(“Does anything about this story remind you of when we went to the zoo?”)