Read Aloud...Lesson 1 Reflection

Reflection:

In planning my first read aloud lesson, I was looking for a non-fiction book that dealt with friendship. Non-fiction is important, because I know that second grade is a transition year in which students are moving from learning to read to reading to learn in which  more in-depth word learning should occur.  I chose the subject of friendship, because this is the beginning of the school year, a time for making new friends.  I found Tarra & Bella on a recommended reading list, and it met my criteria (complex vocabulary and friendship).  The following is a chart I used to determine and plan terms that would be highlighted and taught to students before, during, and after the lesson.  The strategies listed came directly from the article.

I enjoyed planning and teaching this lesson.  The students were so eager to participate in discussion before, during, and after reading.  They really surprised me with their comments and the connections they made to the terms.  For example, one boy commented that a sanctuary was at his church.  We were able to connect an animal sanctuary (safe place for animals to live) and a church sanctuary (a safe place for people to worship). When we discussed the term relationship, the students all said a relationship was a marriage.  I was able to broaden their understanding of the word to friendship. I used morphemic analysis for the last two key terms.  The students did well dividing the words inseparable and reunited down into smaller parts (morphemic analysis). They were able to retain the meanings of these words during the story and afterward.  We used imagery with three of the words; chatter, trumpet, and whine.  They enjoyed making these sounds throughout the book as the author described the animals’ reactions.  Ten of the fifteen words were addressed during the lesson by giving a brief student friendly definition or synonym.

Students were engaged before, during, and after the read aloud.  One student raised his hand at a sad part of the book and announced, “This story is just too sad to continue!”  I reassured him it would end on a happy note, but I knew from his comment that he was engaged. 

I found that the strategies discussed in this article were strategies that I do regularly without even thinking about it.  The difference was in preparation.  I found that the preplanning of the lesson helped me to be more prepared with appropriate student friendly definitions, synonyms, examples, etc.  I utilized the articles levels of instruction, instructional strategies, and five steps to increase word learning potential to plan this read aloud. I will continue to incorporate these strategies into future read alouds.

Words	When	Level of instruction	Strategy
1.      Sanctuary	Before, during, and after	Focused and embedded	Questioning, Definition (safe place animals can go to live freely in nature…like the wild) , Synonym (habitat), and Labeling (show pictures)
2.      Relationship	Before, during, and after	Focused and embedded	Questioning, Synonym (friendship), and Examples
3.      Inseparable	Before, during, and after	Focused and embedded	Questioning, Morphemic Analysis: look at IN and Separable IN: Not able to be  Separable: separated
4.      Reunited	Before, during, and after	Focused and embedded	Morphemic Analysis: look at RE and UNITED RE: again United: together
5.       Attracted	During	Embedded	Definition…brought together
6.       Mystery	During	Embedded	Definition…something we can’t figure out
7.       Intelligent	During	Embedded	Synonym…smart
8.       Entertainer	During	Embedded	Definition… Someone who performs
9.       Roam	During	Embedded	Definition…to go from place to place with no purpose or reason
10.   Feisty	During	Embedded	Synonym… full of energy
11.   Dusk	During	Embedded	Definition… almost dark
12.   Chatter	During	Embedded	Definition…sounds an elephant makes and imagery
13.   Trumpet	During	Embedded	Definition…sounds an elephant makes and imagery
14.   Whine	During	Embedded	Imagery…make whine sound
15.   Spinal cord injury	During	Embedded	Labeling…point to spinal cord