Read Aloud Lesson Two

Read Aloud Lesson Two: Strategies taken from:  Revisiting Read-Aloud: Instructional Strategies that Encourage Students’ Engagement with Text by Morrison and Wlodarczyk (2010)

Teacher: Kim Chester    Grade: 1^st grade (Stacy Ginn)     School: WES           Date: 8/23/11               

Text:  A Visitor for Bear by Becker

Content and Literacy Strands:

ELA1R5 The student acquires and uses grade-level words to communicate effectively. The student

a. Reads and listens to a variety of texts and uses new words in oral and written language.

Of the three strategies discussed in the article, I chose to use Alphaboxes.  It seemed to match the first graders and the text best.  This lesson was fun to create and even more fun to teach. Students were engaged and participating from the very beginning. I decided to utilize a chart for noting chosen words and the strategies for teaching the words.  I did not show students the chart or my words in writing initially.  My goal was for students to understand what these words mean when they heard them in the story, not be able to recognize or read them. Just before reading the story, I briefly showed the students a blank alphabox chart and told them to be listening for words or phrases in the story that they could include in their alphabox.  Students seemed very excited and purposefully listened to be able to complete the post-reading activity. First, we completed 6 boxes together as a group, and then I asked students to complete 3 or 4 independently.   Some students drew pictures in their boxes to recall events in the story.  As I walked around and asked about these pictures, students did not hesitate to explain the picture and how it related to the text. For those who wrote words, I expected the students to choose “1^st grade words” to note in their own alphaboxes.  However, many students chose the pre-taught words to place in their own alphaboxes.  Several of the students used these words for their sentences as well.  I will certainly use alphaboxes again in the future as it seemed to increase engagement, participation, and comprehension.