Shared Reading Online!

One very important part of the reading block in elementary classrooms is shared reading. Shared reading is when all students are reading together from the same text (for example: a big book, a poem, etc.). Recently, I have been exploring the web to find places for online books to use for shared reading. My favorite one so far is MeeGenius.

You can go to www.meegenius.com and get 6 books for free to read together with your class. It will either read it aloud and highlight each word, or you can turn that feature off and read it at your own pace with your students. You could even set up students individually with this site during group time or reading workshop time. Another way to get even more free books with MeeGenius is through the iPad/iPod/iPhone app or through the Google Chrome App Store. There are more books that you can buy through the app for very reasonable prices (and they never get torn or lost).

iStoryBooks is another good site that you can find in the Google App Store, or download the app to your internet-enabled device. You can also go to http://www.istorybooks.co/ to see the available books.

This site doesn't give you the option to read it by yourself and it doesn't highlight the words, but it is still a good resource and has a great choice of books.

Another site I really like is Reading A-Z. You can go to that site at http://www.readinga-z.com/.

This site has hundreds of downloadable books. You can get a free 30 day trial to try out the service. You will love it! Not only does it have downloadable books, but all of the books can be projected onto your interactive whiteboard. You can use the interactive pen that is included when you view the projectable book and underline or write on pages as you read aloud with your class. It also has worksheets to go with each book. This site is good for Kindergarten through 5th/6th grade. After your free trial, you may want to buy the 1 year subscription. It is well worth the money!

I hope this has helped you in your quest for shared reading books! Happy Reading!

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