Read Aloud Lesson Plan_mccloud 36621j

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Type of Lesson—Reading Comprehension Lesson The Story of Jumping Mouse by John Steptoe Information about the Class A. Grade Level—4th B. Reading Levels—4th grade (on level): 4 students; 3rd grade (below—on level): 10 students; 2nd grade (below level): 11 students. By the end of fourth grade, these students are expected to be at a 3rd grade level because they are ELL students. C. Diversity—13 Boys, 12 Girls; All are English Language Learners; All are Hispanic; All can speak both Spanish and English well enough to be in the All English Classroom. D. I have read the story prior to reading it to the students. I have practiced reading aloud to children at the daycare I work at and my siblings’ children. The students have been studying Native Americans for the past two weeks. They have learned about questioning, predicting before, during, and after reading, and making connections. Rationale (Theory to Practice) A. According to Lynch-Brown, Tomlinson, and Short (2011), "Reading Literature to learn about literacy creates strategic readers who reflect on their reading process and text knowledge" (Lynch-Brown, Carol, Tomlinson, Carl, Short, Kathy. 2011. p. 300). Additionally, Lynch-Brown, Tomlinson, and Short (2011), also state that "Adults should encourage engagements [with literature] by helping children develop a repertoire of strategies to use when they encounter... and to gain knowledge of text structures and literary elements" (Lynch-Brown, Carol, Tomlinson, Carl, Short, Kathy. 2011. p. 300-301). Objectives and Assessment Plans To achieve benchmark 1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. c. Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others. d. Review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion. Objective #1—Students will listen to the story and answer critical thinking questions, such as making connections and predicting.

To achieve benchmark 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

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Objective #2—Students will write a story about themselves having a part of an animal they would like to have and create a story map to go with it. Materials A. Book/Text The Story of Jumping Mouse by John Steptoe Synopsis—the story is about a mouse that is given the jumping ability of a frog. Later the mouse gives some of his gifts to other animals in need and then is rewarded for his unselfish acts. B. Supplies Story map and sentence strips—so the students can understand the sequence of the story. Lined Paper—for story about what animal part the students would like to have. Grouping Techniques I chose to use whole class grouping. The whole class will listen to the story, answer questions about the story, participate in the story map, and then individually, write their own story. Procedures A. Introduction 1.Show students the text. 2.Ask questions about predictions they have for the story. “Look at the cover. What do you think this story is about?” 3.Have them think of connections as the teacher reads the story. “Does anyone have a connection to the story they would like to share with the class?” B. Lesson Steps 1. Read the story aloud to the students. 2.Stop at different points in the story and ask the students to predict, ask questions, and make connections. 3.Also stop and point out pictures. “Look how the illustrator drew this picture. Why do you think he drew it like this? What would make this picture better?”

4.When the story is finished, the teacher asks the students what the moral/lesson of the story is, what they think the far off land is, and if they can make anymore connections (that is the reading strategy this week). 5.The teacher es out sentence strips to 7 students. 6.The teacher shows the students the 7 pictures that go with the sentence strips. 7.The students discuss as a class which picture on the story map that they think each sentence belongs to. Then they decide which sentence goes first. The students who have the sentence strips come up and place their sentence and the corresponding picture next to each other on the board. This story map will be a circle. C. Closure 1. Students are to create their own legend about how they got an animal part. 2.They should include what they can do with at least one animal part and which animal it came from. 3.On the back of the paper the students should create their own story map for their legend if they have extra time.

Reflection Paper I chose to read The Story of the Jumping Mouse written and illustrated by John Steptoe to the fourth grade class that I was in. All the students were Mexican-American or from Mexico and are all English Language Learners (ELL). This is their first time being taught in an all English classroom. The reason they are able to be in this class is because most of them have scored high enough on the ACCESS test. The other students in the class were refused bilingual education (these are the students that struggle the most). One reason I chose this story to read is because they are in fourth grade. This is a longer picture book and these students should be able to hold their attention to this book longer than younger students. I also think this is a picture book for older readers. I would classify it as a picture book for older readers because it has a complex theme with a moral that younger students may not understand, but that does not mean they should not be taught the story’s moral. Another reason I chose to read this story is because the students were finishing up a three week unit on Native Americans. Many of them were interested in Native American legends, so I thought this would be a good choice for them. My cooperating teacher, along with the entire fourth grade at Gary School, is teaching thematically. One morning she had the students pair up and read different legends. They filled out a sheet, which incorporated the week’s reading strategy (connections) plus past strategies they had learned (predicting, questioning, summarizing). Then the students did a rotating circle and shared their legends with each other. The students really enjoyed this assignment. When I introduced the book to the students, I showed them the cover and read the title and author/illustrator. Then I asked, “Who has a prediction as to what this story is going to be about?” Several of the students had excellent predictions. One student said they thought the mouse would go on a journey. Another student said the mouse would run into trouble. Then I

asked, “Does anyone have a question they would like to ask?” A student asked what the silver medal was on the book and I explained what the Caldecott Award was. Another student wanted to know if there were any other animals in the book. During the read aloud, I stopped at different points. The students made more predictions and asked more questions. After I read about Jumping Mouse giving the bison his eyes, the students were able to correctly predict that he would also give his sense of smell away to the wolf. One of the students predicted Jumping Mouse would not make it to the far-off land because the snake would eat him. After I finished reading, the students clapped. I asked if anyone’s prediction came true. The students who predicted correctly told the class their prediction and why it came true. The students whose predictions did not come true explained why. Then I had the students who asked questions try to answer their questions. Most of them could be answered. I also asked if anyone could make a connection with the story. Only one student raised their hand and said they thought of the bison we saw at the Field Museum on our field trip when Jumping Mouse helped the bison in the story. I was surprised none of them could connect with the other legends they had read previously. Another question I had was, “What was the moral of the story?” The students did not seem to understand it; however, one student did say it was about being caring and a good friend. I explained that it was about being unselfish and doing unselfish acts will always be rewarding, whether it is inside of you or someone repays you. My final question to the students was, “What do you think the far-off land is?” Many of them thought it was the sky and some thought it was freedom. The first part of my extension activity was the story map. I made seven sentence strips and drew seven pictures. I had the students return to their desks after the story was finished and I

handed out the sentence strips. I randomly selected students by pulling their class-assigned numbers from a pile. After seven students had a sentence strip, I had the class discuss the appropriate picture match-up with each sentence. Then the students took turns coming up to the board and putting their sentences with the pictures. Next, the class decided which sentence and picture came first in the story and we created a circular story map. I wanted to include this as a part of the extension activity because I believe that it is important for students to learn new ways of doing things. Some of these students can now use a circular story map, or any kind of sequencing, to better understand a story they are reading on their own or as a large group in class. It is also a good strategy for picking out key events in the story. Another reason for the circular story map was that I wanted the students to understand this story better. Since this is a longer story and somewhat complex, I thought this would be a perfect time to model how a story map and picking out the main ideas of a story can help someone the story and better comprehend it. I believe this was successful because when the students made me a book of letters they had wrote to me at the end of my experience, many of them mentioned how much they enjoyed The Story of Jumping Mouse. The second portion of the extension activity was for the students to write a story about themselves receiving an animal part they would like to have. I wanted them to include what animal it came from and how they were going to use it. A popular animal part was legs from a cheetah. The students who decided to write about this wanted to be the fastest person in the world and get to school really fast. A more creative one was a student who wanted venom and teeth from a snake because they could live forever like a vampire and be a good prankster like a sneaky snake. Some students wrote about how they got their animal parts, which I liked because it connected well with the story (Jumping Mouse was unselfish, so he could turn into an eagle

and get what he wanted). One student said they would want camouflage like a chameleon so they could be good at playing hide-and-seek and stop crime. They got their camouflage power from wearing an army suit for a very long time. I enjoyed reading their responses because it showed me how creative some of these students really are and can be. I also asked the students to draw a story map to go with their story they wrote, but I only said to do this if they had extra time. I was impressed with how well done their story maps were. They drew a picture and wrote a sentence for each key point in their stories. A lot of things went well in my lesson, but I would have liked to change a few things. One is time management. My lesson was longer than I was expecting and I believe that was mostly due to lack of experience. During the story map, I discovered I did not have as much room as I had anticipated because my sentence strips were so large. It took up a few minutes to adjust the arrangement of the story map so it would all fit. Next time I will plan that out better. Something else I would like to do is have a picture walk with the students. I wish I would have shown a couple of the pictures before I read and had the students make predictions based off of that, not just the cover page. Overall, I think my lesson plan was a success. The students enjoyed the story and the extension activities. The best thing that I did was connect this lesson with what they were learning and their interests. It gave me a taste of what it is like to teach thematically and how challenging it can be to find just the right story for the class. I did not realize there were so many things to consider when selecting a piece of literature. Another great part of the lesson that the students liked was that I used different voices for the characters. Reading the story prior to teaching the lesson helped me with that. The different voices gave the characters their own identity, but also kept the students engaged in the story. Hearing something new can all of a sudden grab the attention of a zoning-out student. I am also pleased that I taught the students

how to make a story map. I think this will be useful to them in the future because sequencing and finding main ideas are important in reading. They take accelerated reader tests often and I think creating a story map of main events will help the students the story better for their tests. My goal as a teacher is to teach students different strategies they can use across the curriculum. Strategies like sequencing and main ideas can be useful in any reading for every subject.