Interactive Read Aloud Reflective Report

The class began with a silent reading assignment from the next section in the text. While students read, the teacher individually checked in with each student to provide feedback on the previous nights homework. The homework assignment was to summarized the reading from the previous day in their own words. The teacher provided both positive and constructive feedback to all students, pointing out at least one successful aspect of their summary. This activity is very much in line with was the strategy of upgrading your interactive language discussed by Eric Jensen, “during every sing interaction with your students, make eye contact and affirm the good in them” (Jenson, 2013, p.25). If a student was missing an integral part of the story she would prompt them by recalling what was discussed before and provide textual evidence if necessary, and allow them to add to their response. She was very upbeat and supportive of the students, and her tone and language were both accessible and age appropriate. When giving instructions she used

In the chapter, “Equal Sharing Problems and Children’s Strategies for Solving them” the authors recommend fractions be introduced to students through equal sharing problems that use countable quantities because they can be shared by people or other groupings. In other words, quantities can be split, cut, or divided. Additionally, equal sharing problems assist children to create “rich mental models “for fractions (p.10).

For the next read aloud I would definitely do things different. For an examples I would read the book aloud before I do it in front of the class, to see how long it takes. Then I would come up with questions and have the questions simple enough for them to understand whats being asked. But keep the question good enough for them to know if they comprehension the story. And ask questions throughout the story to keep their interest with me. I could tell some of the student was not interesting with the book I reading to them.

After this, the students talked to each other and they decided that they enjoy it when the teacher reads to them. The teacher read the book and the students followed along with the reading. When the teacher finished reading, she asked various questions that the students had to answer. The students, had to discuss the question and the answer with their group members. The teacher, asked each group to give their answer and, all the students participated in the activity. They had a good teacher and student relationship. The students respected the teacher and she did an awesome job with the lesson. The teacher, talked to us and, explained that when she creates her lessons she tries her best to incorporate group work and class discussions. Her goal is, that her students are engage in the lesson that she created.

The second learning outcome is General Outcome 2, “Comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts” (Alberta Education, 2000, p.16). The educational assistant was successful in developing this learning outcome by having the students re-read and pre-read chapters together. Repetition helps improve speed, memory, confidence and understanding. The students are spending a lot of time sharing ideas, discussing, exploring and explaining their understanding with each

Overall, the read aloud lesson was a great experience in which I learned many aspects about myself. I believe that conducting more read aloud lessons would help me improve in tone and fluency for reading. Also, in my opinion, an interactive read aloud is a great way to assess students’ knowledge of the central message of a book. I will use the interactive read aloud lesson in my future classroom ever change I get to help my students be

At the end of each part of the story, teacher must stop to ask a question that related to that part. For example, asking question after reading the “raising action

Write, or speak with a natural narrative voice, as if telling a story to a friend. Use complete sentences to express your ideas, and make sure that your explanations are thorough by providing details from the lesson. At least five complete sentences.

The question that I have chosen for my inquiry project is: How can you improve performance in a first grade classroom with Guided Reading? I am interested in this since I teach first grade. As a first grade teacher I am always looking for ways to improve my class’s performance. Guided reading offers support to the students as they are learning. Rogoff suggested that “adults support children’s learning by structuring the task’s difficulty level, jointly participating in problem solving, focusing the learner’s attention to the task, and motivating the learner.” (Frey & Fisher, 2010, 84).

Students will read and identify the beginning, middle, and end of a mini story provided for them.

Encourage students to think back to this lesson when they are reading text. “If you come across one of these words or a new word that you do not know, use the sentence or sentences around the word to figure out the meaning.”

Half way through the book stop and have the students raise their hands to summarize the story events and make predictions.

In a previous lesson, the teacher demonstrated a “Think-Aloud” strategy with Gary Soto’s short story “Seventh Grade,” to teach students the elements of a plot. The teacher read the beginning of the story and then stopped to ask the students to identify information about the characters, the setting, and the background information that establishes the exposition of the plot. She repeated this process with the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. The students recorded notes and observations in a graphic organizer.

The teacher should aid discussion to focus students’ attention on key areas as well as prompting students by pointing out ideas from their “K” section and asking what more they would like to know about this. Each student must then write down 2 or 3 questions for “what I Want to know” (Appendix C) based on their own personal interests of the topic (Ogle, 1989). Asking their own questions encourages students to go beyond the lesson content to work out their own explanation rather than simple rote learning questions and answers from text books (McConachie et al., 2006). Both the class brainstorming activity and small group discussions encourage accountable talk, which aids students’ understanding as they must learn how to verbalise and rationalise their ideas (Michaels et al., 2010). This element of the activity also incorporates prediction. Students must decide “what I Want to know” based on what they predict the text is about from the pre-reading activity (Gibbons,

A final way differentiated instruction prepares students from the 21st century workplace is through direct instruction. Whether students go to college or enter the workforce, students will be required to receive information directly from one, or many, people and think critically about it. Whether it is sitting through a lecture in college, or a meeting at work, students will need to have the ability to take in information verbally and apply it to their area of study or expertise. In my classroom, I try to begin a lesson and end a lesson with some form of short discussion or lecture. I believe that it helps to either set up, or bring closure to, the information we are covering. For example, at the beginning a lesson this week I spoke for about fifteen minutes introducing the struggle for equality that African-Americans faced in the early 1900s. This short lecture helped lay the groundwork for the next two days and assisted in giving my students context for the upcoming hybrid stations.