Alternatives to Round Robin Reading

Who remembers dreading the teacher saying that today we would be reading a story aloud, taking turns? Who remembers feeling nervous about reading aloud in front of the class? Who remembers trying to figure out what pattern the teacher was using to call on students to read so you could be prepared when she called on you?

Most of us have been in classrooms where Round Robin Reading, defined by Harris and Hodges (1995, p. 222) as “the outmoded practice of calling on students to read orally one after the other”, has been used as an instructional strategy.   Many of us have used Round Robin Reading in our own classrooms for a variety of reasons…because it’s what we’ve experienced, it can be used as a classroom management tool, it can save us time in our classroom, or we don’t know what else to do. Our students may enjoy reading orally. However, as Opitz and Rasinski state in their book Good-bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies, enjoyment isn’t a good enough reading to continue with a practice that does not engage students in the text.

Round Robin Reading does not promote student engagement with the text. The student who is reading aloud is too worried about being able to pronounce things correctly that they cannot stop to make meaning. Students who are not reading are too worried about being called on to engage in the process of making meaning. Students who are not fluent readers cause others to lose the threads of the story when they stumble over words. While it is important for students to read orally and to practice being a fluent reader, Round Robin Reading does not promote that particular skill.

If we cannot use Round Robin Reading in our classrooms, then what should we use? The following are a list of activities, linked to short descriptions, that you can use in place of Round Robin Reading. Most of the activities revolve around giving students ample time to rehearse what they are going to read aloud before they must actually perform. If you have any questions about how to use these activities, please don’t hesitate to stop by and speak with Cindy Bradley or Jennifer Alex.

All of these activities have been taken from Good-bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies, Updated Edition (2008). Opitz & Rasinski. This text is readily available through booksellers such as amazon.com.

Reading Activities