Reading come to Life
The way to get children interested in reading is to give children a voice. Allow the children a chance to explore the book and let the book come to life. Throughout this lesson of an intereactive read aloud children can become their favorite characters and the children have a chance to know what the characters are dealing with.
Interactive read aloud
Common Core/State Standard:
Learning Objective: Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding
The students will act out important events from the story. Students can use prompts and quotes from the story to develop a better understanding of the plot and the characters. Through this students can see in first-person how the story plays out and they can try to have a better understanding of how the problem was solved. Students can also use the types of materials from the book to have a better understanding of the character’s point of view.
The decision is based on the observation that the students are active and bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm into interactive read alouds. Students also interact with the books themselves by turning the pages, brushing over pictures and pointing at certain parts of the book. Students can use the materials that will be available based off the book to physically touch something personal from the story. Interacting with a tangible object helps bring the book to life, the students can benefit from touching a brick in person verses pointing to a picture of a brick. Students also ask a lot of questions about the specific characters they are interested in; allowing the students a chance to become their favorite character helps the students have a more personal relationship with the book as well as help students better understand the character’s role.
Text Title/Level: The Three Little Pigs/ reading level L
Reasons for Text Selection: I chose The Three Little Pigs because it’s a popular story that children seem to enjoy. Some students might come in the classroom with prior knowledge on the story before we read it, while we discuss what we think the book will be about students can guide me in telling the other students a few major events. Also the students in the class seem to be fascinated by natural materials, such as sticks. I think students will find the prompts for this story interesting. The amount of students that typically attend class can make up about 2 full character roles (each character can be played twice.) The students also enjoy books with a ‘bad guy.’ They cheer for the ‘good characters’ and try to tell the class why the bad character is not nice.
Instructional Technique and Scaffolds (Including SIOP Model Considerations) to be used:
Lesson Preparation: Ask children to examine the book before reading, students will actively think about their connections to the world to come up with what they believe the story will be about. I will scaffold students at the end of the discussion by mentioning a brief sentence or two of my thoughts on the book, which will be a rundown of the story.
Interaction: Students will then discuss with their peers and I what they believe the story will be about. Each student can join in the conversation and discuss why they have those thoughts.
Building Background: Students will reflect on their previous life experiences to form a prediction. Some students may already be familiar with The Three Little Pigs.
Practice and Application: As we read through the story students can answer questions to help them better comprehend the story as a whole. Students will talk to their partners to compare answers as we read to form new ideas and as a class we will share our answers.
Comprehensible Input: After reading students will discuss what they believe was the problem and we will then discuss what the solution was. Students will also interact with the same materials the characters interacted with in the story (straw, brick and sticks.)
Lesson Delivery: Students will act out the main scenes from the story. Students can dress-up and play with the materials to have a more realist view of what the characters were going through. The students waiting to act out their parts will be able to watch the book come to life.
Strategies: Students will sit down and debrief about what they gathered from reading the book to acting out the characters. I will scaffold students into mentioning what the solution was in the book.
Review and Assessment: Students can then discuss more in detail what their thoughts about the stories overall content or the stories problem and solution. The students will then be able to go more in depth with their discussion or create picture picture books of their thoughts. I will also draw my own picture book to stay engaged in the natural conversations occurring at the table.
Materials
Book- The Three Little Pigs
Bricks
Straw
Sticks
Wolf ears and tail
Pink snouts
Markers
Blank picture books
Procedure:
Before Reading, I will ask the students an opened ended question, “What do you think this story will be about?” Students will then turn and talk to a partner for about a minute or so about what they think the story will be about. As students talk to their partners I will hold the book up and allow students to pass it around. Through this students can use prior knowledge, students can use the picture and students can use the title. The students have a chance to make inferences and the students can work off one another. After students are done talking with their partners I will bring everyone back together to face the center and we will share our predictions.
I will also introduce the three types of material (straws, sticks and bricks.) Students can touch and manipulate them as I inform the students that these types of materials will be used in the book.
During Reading, I will ask a few open-ended questions about the story to see the students’ thoughts about the book. I want students to really capture what the problem is, which is that the wolf keeps blowing down the little pigs’ houses. As I read about each house I will refresh the students’ memory about each material, I will point or hold up the piece. For example, when I am reading about the straw house I will raise up a piece of the straw while reading. Students can then make a prediction of what they think will happen.
After Reading, We will then discuss what we thought the problem was in the story. Students can then take turns trying to blow the materials away. Students can test out what was happening in the book to help the book come to life. Students can then decide if they want to play a character to help act out the scenes from the story. There will be at least two separate times students will be acting so for the students watching their peers they are still learning by making their own interpretations of the book and how the characters found a solution. Students can also wear a costume to feel more connected to the character they are playing. After the students are done acting we can share our thoughts about what we believe the problem was and how the pigs solved their problem. Students can then decide if they’d like to write a picture book about what they saw, what was read and what they felt interacting with the different materials.
Interactive read alouds allow children the opportunity to have a conversation with the reader. Students can talk to their peers and to the teacher about what they think is happening. Students can extend their way of thinking by listening to others. For my interactive read aloud lesson I extended the children’s thinking even farther. Students can act out important events in the story. Students can use prompts and quotes from the story to develop a better understanding of the plot and the characters. Through this students can see in first-person how the story plays out and try to have a better understanding of how the problem was solved.
Students can act out scenes from the stories to make the story become three-dimensional. It makes the story real to the children and gives it a new dimension. Instead of a flat page on a book, it becomes dramatic play. They can be characters, and really use their individual personalities to express themselves in new way. Adding costumes and props helps the children feel even more involved in the character they play to have a better understanding of what the character was feeling. Props can extend the audience’s imagination beyond what is physically possible (G. Forman, 2012). With props, the more concrete cues we can provide the children, the more comfortable are in retelling the story. The props assist the children in making the stories come alive (F. Polk, 2016).
Interactive read alouds are a great way to help children get involved in the story. Children can build relationships with the characters as well as their teachers. Discussing what children think and having a teacher scaffold students in the right direction can help children have a better relationship with reading.