Warm up: Familiar song or snap word poem

Day 1: Get excited about reading our new book.

Before: Excited children about reading the book and talk about our favorite animals.  Go for a picture walk.  Ask what they think the book might be about?

During: Read the book.

After:  Talk about vocabulary ears, elephant, beaver, pointed, long.  Have students partner share their favorite page.

Day2: Snap word identification

Before: Talk to the students about snap words.  Our newest snap word is this.  Review this quickly and explain that students will be looking for the snap word this while we read.

During: Have students wiggle fingers every time they hear the word this.

After:  Have students work in partners and tell one another sentences using the word this.

Day 3:  Guess the covered word.

Before: Cover the vocabulary words previously talked about in day one.  

During: While reading stop at the covered words and ask the students what to do?  Encourage children to use the picture power to help solve the hidden word.  Uncover the first sound and have students partner share what the word could be.  Continue to uncover the word until the whole word is revealed.  Read the rest of the covered words in a similar manner.

Day 4: Comprehension

Before: Talk to the students about listening to every word and really noticing the pictures.  You can get a lot of information from rereading a book.  You can even learn more from a book by rereading.

During: Point out details in the book while reading.  Things that students can look at and really notice.

After:  Have students share 2 things they noticed in the book with their partner.

Day 5: Fluency

Before: Talk to the students about what it means to know a book by heart.  We have read this book for 4 days and we know the words in this book well. Remind students to use great reading voices while they are reading.  

During:  I model reading for the students.

After:  Have students read using great reading while I use a quiet, whisper voice.

Mandy Geyer

In my interactive read alouds, I find myself rushing through them more. I need to give students more “think time” to be able to book talk. I have been stopping throughout the book and asking questions based on the moment. However, I realized it would be more beneficial for me to use sticky notes to have transferable questions throughout the book. I can also put key points I know I want the students to stop and talk about on these sticky notes. I also use a lot of questions referring to the pictures and words. I would like to use more inferring and open-ended questions giving the students more opportunities for open discussions. 

I noticed I did a great job introducing the book to the class. I gave them moments before the book to look at the cover, and take a short picture walk in parts of the book. I also did a good job after finishing the book with the retell. I had students stop and notice the big ideas in the book. I also made sure to focus on the key events having students retell to build their comprehension of books. 

I spent time before hand coming up with four different turn and talk prompts throughout the read aloud. I put sticky notes on the pages to remind myself what I wanted to ask. As I was preparing the lesson, I also noted 2 vocabulary terms that I may need to clarify. Lastly, I prepared a whole group discussion for the end of the book. 

Most of the lesson went really well. It helped to have everything preplanned and written down on the actual pages. In the past I would preplan my questions and vocabulary words but not necessarily have them written down. This helped me remember as well as allowing me to track how many questions I was asking. I waited until the end to discuss the vocabulary words instead of going over them as we covered them. I have mixed feelings about this. I had some children asking about the words as I came to them and had to stop and tell they we will talk about it later. I may change this for next time. I felt like I gave an appropriate amount of time to turn and talk. I paraphrased what I overheard some kids discussing which helped keep the pacing going. At the end, we had a whole group discussion where we talked about how the main character changed from the beginning of the book to the end. I felt the discussion went ok but this is an area I realized I needed to spend more time with. I allowed several children to share their thoughts but had a lot of repeating. I recognized that I need to teach the children how to have a discussion among themselves and not just stating their opinion or answers to me. I will teach speaking prompts such as “I agree/disagree with ____ because…” or “To add to what _____ said…”. I think having these lessons of proper discussion techniques will really help enhance our class discussions.