1. In the space below, fully explain the rationale and procedure for Read Aloud
with accountable talk.

The rationale for interactive read-aloud with accountability talk provides time for the students to listen and talk about wonderful books that are most likely beyond their independent reading levels by building community in the classroom.. During interactive read-aloud with accountability talk, the teacher models the work that careful readers do to comprehend texts and to foster ideas and theories about stories and characters. Because the teacher is doing the reading, children can concentrate on using strategies for comprehension and having accountable conversations about the text. The conversations that children have about the read-aloud texts serve as models and scaffold the kinds of conversations we want them to have with their partners during the independent reading workshop. Explicit instructions must be given to the students to ensure successful accountable talk, while children listen to and enjoy literature.

In order to have an accountable talk, the students must understand that they have to be good listeners. They need to be taught to have good listeners’ bodies by looking at the speaker. They need to have good listeners’ minds by thinking about what the speaker is saying. They listen hard to try and understand and picture in their minds what the speaker is saying. They need to be taught to question listeners to ask for help to understand, by asking the speaker for details (“Can you say more?), asking the speaker to explain what he means (“I’m not sure I understand.” “Can you explain that?”) or by asking the speaker to explain what she said (“Could you repeat that so I can understand?.”)