Vocabulary-Focused Interactive Read Aloud Planning Template

ED 307/ED 401, cohort 2, fall, 2014

Intern(s) co-planning the lesson:

Stephanie Mackey

Teaching date and time:

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Estimated time for lesson/activity:

15 minutes

Overview and Context

Text: Title,
author,
illustrator

Title: Night-time Animals

Author: Angela Royston
Illustrator: Dave King

Overview of
the text:

The book Night-time Animals is about different kinds of nocturnal animals.

Each pages talks about a different kind of nocturnal animal and specific facts
that make that animal unique. Some of the information included is where the
animals live, how they catch their prey, the sounds they make, the food they
eat, and how they communicate with other animals. The book is also filled with
real photographs of the animals taken by the illustrator, or photographer. Next
to the real photograph is an illustrated picture of the animal as well as a small
box that points out specific unique characteristics of each animal.

Context of
the lesson:

This specific lesson will be a part of my mentor teachers bigger unit of

teaching students about how animals communicate with each other. Prior to
this read aloud, my mentor teacher has been reading their Journeys books in a
specific unit about how animals communicate. The specific lesson that the
students participated in prior to this read aloud was an echo reading lead by
their teacher. In this echo reading lesson, the students teacher read an
informational text about how some animals communicate. After that lesson, the
students were put in pairs to come up with their own writing sample about an
animal of their choice. When writing about this animal, they were encouraged
to include ways the animals communicate with sound, smell, touch, and taste.
Although this book is more of a general book about teaching students about
nocturnal animals, I am going to focus on a specific few pages that talk about
how these nocturnal animals communicate with other animals. I am doing this
so that my read aloud still goes along with what my teacher is teaching. Later
in the week, my teacher wants the students to work on making a book for
someone else that tells the reader about how animals communicate with each
other. My lesson will provide students information before doing this activity
because they will not only learn about more animals and how they
communicate with each other, but they will also be taught/given practice with a
few vocabulary words that can be used to talk about how animals
communicate with other animals in their own book.
Learning Goals

Connection to CCSS
CCSS--Reading Standards for
Informational Text K5, Grade 1,
Standard 4: Ask and answer questions
to help determine or
clarify the meaning of words and
phrases in a
text.

Learning Goals
Students will be able to answer questions that I
ask in regards to stating what the author said in a
sentence without using the authors words & the
vocabulary word we are focusing on.

CCSS--Language Standards K5,

Grade 1, Standard 4: Determine or
clarify the meaning of unknown
and multiple-meaning words and
phrases based
on grade 1 reading and content,
choosing flexibly
from an array of strategies.

Students will be able to identify what vocabulary

word a sentence is referring to while then creating a
revised sentence in a way that includes the
vocabulary word.

Attending to the Learners

Anticipating
student ideas:

I think a few of the words that my focus student said he had never heard
of have been talked about in class. Since the class has been learning
about how animals communicate with each other, words such as
burrows, have come up while reading other informational texts. In order
to not have students continuously tell me that they already know a word,
I will preface the lesson by telling the students that if they know a
vocabulary word I am explaining, I still want them to be quiet so that their
other classmates can learn a few new words about animals!

Making the
content
accessible to all
students:

Using definitions that have kid friendly wording will allow me to make this
lesson content accessible to all students. Also, I am not expecting the
students to read anything from the book or during the activity. This will
make sure that all the students, not matter what their reading level, will
be able to get exposed to the information that is in the text and in the
activity.

What
management
issues will you
consider?

When the students are being read informational text, I have noticed that
their eyes wander around the room. I will make sure to use a very
enthusiastic voice and use inflection in order to get the students excited.
Also, I will call the students attention to the pictures in the book because
the combination of photographs as well as illustrations will give the
students a lot to look at.
Also, the students will be either sitting on the rug in the classroom or in
the library. No matter what, I know that many students will be off task.
During read alouds and lessons, my mentor teacher uses a technique
where she says the students name when speaking. For example, she
might say, Some owls, Jackson, live in old farm buildings. This allows
the student to know that she is noticing that his attention is not on her.
The students respond very well to this technique, so I am going to try my
best to use the same technique.
Finally, many boys in my classroom really enjoy learning about animals.
Before starting to read, I will remind students that if I ask a question or if
they have something, I expect them to raise their hand to tell me so that
all the other students can enjoy the book and not be disrupted.
Instructional Sequence

Materials:

Launch:

-Night-time Animals book

-1 piece of construction paper with a sentence that has something to do with
one of the vocabulary words being focused on (4 pieces of construction paper in
total)
-4 notecards, each with a vocabulary word written on it
This morning, we are going to read a book that will is going to give us even

script your
language

more information on how animals communicate. The special thing about this
book is that all the animals we will be reading about are night-time animals.
That means that they sleep all day, and they are awake when it is night time.
The genre of this book is the same as the genre of some of the other books we
have read in our Journeys book that gives us information about how animals
communicate. Can anyone tell me what genre of books tells us information?
Informational text. Throughout this read aloud, I want you to be thinking about
how each of the animals I read about is communicating with other animals.

Stopping
Points
script
your
language

Initiating and follow-up

comprehension queries OR places
where you will address targeted
vocabulary

What are you hoping to accomplish

with this stopping point and
queries?

Page 8

How do bats communicate with other

bats?
Mother bats can find their
babies by their smell and cry.
o Are the bats using smell,
touch, sight, or sound to
communicate here?

I am hoping for students to

comprehend the text. This book is a
little more dense than other texts they
have been exposed to in read alouds,
so I want to make sure that students
are still able to grasp concepts.
I want to check to see if my focus
child is raising his hand when I ask
comprehension questions because I
do not yet know his comprehension
ability. Seeing him engaged in a
lesson will help me to see one
example of his comprehension level
and ability.

Page 10

The word bury means to put something

or hide something underground. *Put
bury notecard up*

During this stopping point, I want

students to be exposed to the
vocabulary word by not only hearing
the definition & seeing the word on a
notecard. I also want them to be able
to use the definition in a sentence in
order to show them that they know
related words to the word bury that
can get the same message across to
a reader. Also, this will help the
students get practice with using the
definition in a sentence without
actually using the word bury.

I will read the sentence again with the

word bury in it: When theyre in danger,
these foxes bury themselves in the
sand.
Please raise your hand and tell me how
you could say what the writer said in this
sentence in your own words?
*repeat what the student said* has a
similar meaning to When theyre in
danger, foxes bury themselves in the
sand.
What is a way that foxes communicate
with other animals?
if students cannot think of an
idea, ask them How do other
foxes know when a fox is in
danger? What do they see them

Asking the students the

comprehension question makes sure
that they can retain their
comprehension. I am asking the
comprehension question after
teaching them about the word bury
in order to see if they can remember
the text that was read to them for a
longer time.

do?
Page 12

This page does not have information

about how animals communicate, but I
thought you would all enjoy it since it
talked about animals.
There is one thing I would like to talk
about though: the word talons. Talons are
sharp claws on animals that help them
grab food. How do you think talons help
owls when they are flying?
to catch their food
talons are sharp
they are on their feet--closer to
the ground

Page 14

Burrows are holes or tunnels dug by a

small animals that the animals can sleep
in and stay safe.
what word can we put in for
burrows in the sentence
Fieldmice nest in burrows
underground.
How can running be a way that fieldmice
communicate?

This stop is only to check to see if

students can go further than the text. I
am using the vocabulary word talon
and telling its definition so that
students could be able to see that
since owls are flying, they need sharp
claws to grab their food when they are
flying.
Seeing who volunteers to answer this
more analytical question will give me
and my mentor teacher a better idea
of higher reading levels.

This stopping point is used to

introduce a vocabulary word and to
use the definition to replace the word.
Again, this allows student to use the
information they are learning.
I also wanted to do a comprehension
question but thought it would be tricky
for students to tell me that fieldmice
communicate that there is danger by
running, because that is not true. They
might just be running to get
somewhere fast. I asked the specific
question that I did in order to have
students link what they read in the
text, that the fieldmice can run fast to
escape from enemies, to how running
can communicate a message to other
fieldmice.

Page 18

To prowl means to move quietly through

an area while hunting or searching for
something. The panther in the book is
prowling, or moving quietly through the
forest, while looking for food.
Can we all do a movement that
looks like prowling?

I used a motion to reinforce the

meaning of prowling because the
students in my class are very
animated and like to be active in the
morning. This will allow them to link a
movement to the word while also,
potentially, letting them think of other
animals that might do the same
motion while they are performing the
motion.

Page 20

How do scorpions communicate with

other scorpions?
they carry their babies on their
backs to show that they love
them and care about them.

When I stop here, I do not want to

give the students too many hints of
how scorpions communicate with
other scorpions because they have
learned about other animals and how
carrying their babies on their back is a

form of communication. I want the

students to be able to remember and
retell that information to show that
they absorbed the things they have
learned previously.
After-reading vocabulary
focus :
script your language

During this read aloud, we learned a lot of different words.

I want to focus on these specific words that we talked
about during the reading: bury, talons, burrows, and prowl.
We are going to do a little practice with these words. I am
going to show you a sentence and read it to you. I want
you all to have your thinking caps on and think of which
new word has to do with the sentence. Once you think you
know what vocabulary word has to do with the sentence, I
want you to raise your hand.
The first sentence is: Prarie dogs sleep in holes
underground.
What vocabulary word relates to this sentence?
Why?
The next sentence is: When big birds sit on branches,
their sharp claws help them to hold on to the branch.
What vocabulary word relates to this sentence?
How could you change the sentence to use the vocabulary
word?
The third sentence is: My dog gets very dirty after he hides
his toys underground in our backyard.
What vocabulary word relates to this sentence?
Have you ever seen a dog burying something?
Our final sentence is: The tiger was so quiet and sneaky
when looking for its food
What vocabulary word relates to this sentence?
Can you all show me the motion we thought of for the
word prowl?

Wrap
up:

I need you all to raise your hand and tell me one new vocabulary word we learned
during this read aloud. *Call on 4 people to get all 4 words*
I can really tell that you all paid very close attention to those words. Can anyone tell
me a sentence with one of those words in it?
I challenge you to use some of these words during your next writing choice during
your Daily Five! If you use one of these words, come show me! I will be so excited to
see you using them.