Lauren Sammon

4/29/14
Read Aloud Lesson Plan
Purpose:

This lesson is important to model fluent reading for the students. Students at this stage of
development are not fully capable of consistent fluently reading, so it is important for
them to listen to how fluent reading with accuracy, speed, and expression should sound.
This lesson is will provide students a chance to make active, relevant text-to-self
connections, which is a strategy to help build reading comprehension. The lesson will
also introduce a few vocabulary words; picky, fussy, nibble, and rare. In addition to the
benefit of learning new words, this will model to students how to pick out unknown

words and think about their meanings.

Reading 1.9 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of
fictional texts.
a) Preview the selection.
b) Set a purpose for reading.
c) Relate previous experiences to what is read.
d) Make and confirm predictions.
e) Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about what is
read.
f) Identify characters, setting, and important events.
g) Retell stories and events, using beginning, middle, and end.
h) Identify the main idea or theme.
i) Read and reread familiar stories, poems, and passages with fluency, accuracy,
and meaningful expression.

Writing 1.13 The student will write to communicate ideas for a variety of purposes.
a) Generate ideas.
b) Focus on one topic.
c) Revise by adding descriptive words when writing about people, places, things,
and events.
d) Use complete sentences in final copies.
e) Begin each sentence with a capital letter and use ending punctuation in final
copies.
f) Use correct spelling for commonly used sight words and phonetically regular
words in final copies.
g) Share writing with others.

Objectives:

After listening to the read-aloud and participating in discussion, the student will be able
to make a relevant connection to the text I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren
Child through a specific personal experience and form that experience into a complete
sentence written on the worksheet provided.

Procedure:
Introduction:
- To begin the lesson, gather students on the rug. Explain to the students that in todays
lesson, they will be practicing making text-to-self connections with the book I Will Never

Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child. Ask if anyone can remind the class what a textto-self connection is. (A text-to-self connection is a personal connection the reader makes
with the reading material to his or her own past experiences)
o If a student answers correctly, encourage him or her by saying kiss your brain
and say thank you for his or her contribution.
o If a student answers incorrectly, either add on to the statement the student gave to
make the statement true, or guide the student to say the correct definition through
a thinking-stem or supportive prompt.
- Next, show the students the cover of the book I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by
Lauren Child. Ask the students for volunteers to make a prediction of what they think this
book will be about. Take 2-3 student predictions. When the student makes a prediction,
repeat his or her prediction aloud so the entire class can hear it.
- Once the students have shared their predictions, explain that this book is about a girl
who is very picky about what she eats. Ask if anyone can tell you what the word picky
means. Once again, address the students answer the same way as listed above. Then, ask
the students if they have any foods they do not like to eat. Instruct students to think about
one food they absolutely do not like!
- On the Promethean board, open the Activeinspire program. Go around to each student in
the room, and ask them to share the name of the food they do not like. Write each food up
on the Promethean board. Instruct students to listen during the read-aloud for the different
food the main character dislikes, and to touch their noses if the main character dislikes a
food listed on the board.
- If you do not have enough time to go around and ask each student, then pair up
the students and ask them to share what food they do not like with a partner. Ask

the students to remember the food they shared with their partner, and listen to see
if the main character dislikes the same food.
(a,v)
Development:
- Begin reading the book I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child. Pause
after reading the first page to explain to students that the word fussy is the same as the
word picky and remind students of the meaning.
- Pause after reading pages 4 and 5. These pages list the many different foods the main
character Lola refuses to eat. Acknowledge the students who are touching their noses, by
name, to show that they see foods on the board that Lola also dislikes. Ask for volunteers
to point out the foods on the board that they heard in the book.
- Pause after reading page 14, and ask if anyone knows what the word rare means.
Again, address the students responses in the same manner as listed above.
- After reading the book, use the prompts to have a discussion with the students.
Prompts:

Who listed a food on the board that Lola also did not like?
How did Charlie convince Lola to try new food?
(He pretended the different food items were fantastic and extraordinary,
and not the typical food items she thought they were)
Can you think of any fun ways to describe the food items we listed on the
board? Ask for a few volunteers to share.

- After the discussion, show students an example of the worksheet they will be
completing. Explain the instructions for completing the worksheet to the students. Do so
with an example of a completed worksheet.
Instructions:

On the first set of lines of the worksheet, write down the food you shared
with the class during the read-aloud that you dislike in a complete
sentence. (Show the students the completed example and read the first
sentence)
On the second set of lines, use your imagination to come up with a fun
new name for the food. (Show the students the completed example and
read the second sentence)
After youve written both sentences, and only after youve finished
writing, go back to the first box and draw a picture of the food you dislike.
(Show students the first picture of the completed example worksheet)
In the second box, draw a picture of the food item as the new name you
came up with. (Show students the second picture of the completed
example worksheet)

- Hand out the worksheets to the table leaders to pass out. While students are working,
walk around and monitor. Pay close attention to students who may be struggling.
Struggling students may be staring off, drawing instead of writing, or may have
written something illegible.
(a, v, t)

For struggling students:

Provide the thinking stem I dont like to eat ______ for the first

sentence on the worksheet.

Give struggling students extra attention while monitoring the class to
discuss their writing ideas, guide them and answer any extra questions.

For advanced students:

On the back of their worksheets, ask them to write a sentence about one
type of food Lola did not like, and write one sentence about what
imaginary name Charlie came up with for that food in order to get Lola to

eat it.
Ask students to describe why they do not like the food in their first
sentence using at least one adjective.

Summary:
Students will finish their worksheets at varying times, and will move into their dailyfive or small-group Language Arts instruction when they are finished. I will instruct
students to turn in their worksheets directly to me when they have finished. When they
do, I will read over what they wrote, and discuss how it relates to the book. I will ask
each student to recall and compare their sentences to what happened in the story. I will
also ask each student what type of connection they made to the I Will Never Not Ever Eat
a Tomato text. Since each student will finish at a different time, I will have a moment to
quickly summarize the lesson with each student individually before they begin the other
Language Arts activities of the day.
Materials:
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

Promethean Board
Activeinspire program
One Completed Example Worksheet
21 Worksheets
Pencils
Colored pencils or crayons

Evaluation A:
The before and during discussion activities for the read-aloud will give each student the
chance to make a personal text-to-self connection. If we have time to write them on the board, I
will be able to hear from each and every student. If not, the students will have a chance to speak
with a partner about his or her personal connection. During the read-aloud, I will be able to
visually assess which students are connecting the types of food we discussed before reading with
the types of food brought up in the text by whether or not they touch their noses. I will be able to
assess the connection each student makes with the text by the sentences they write on their
worksheets. Disliking certain types of food is very common and universal, so it will be relatively
simple for students to relate this back to their past experiences. I will assess students on whether
they wrote a complete sentence, and if their sentence was relevant to the activity (whether or not
their sentence was about a food they dislike).

Evaluation B:
Did your students meet your objectives? How do you know?
Unfortunately, we did not have time to fully complete the lesson. I worked with a smallgroup of five students. Two students had time to finish both sentences, but not the
pictures. One student only had time to finish the first sentence, and two students did not
have time to even get started. The two students who finished both sentences both met my
objectives: they wrote relevant sentences, and wrote in complete sentences. The students

met my objectives during the lesson, as each student made a personal connection to the
text and was able to compare their own food preferences with the main character in the
book out loud.

What were your strengths teaching this lesson?

My strengths were reading with expression and keeping the students engaged throughout
the lesson. I felt well-prepared to conduct my lesson. I listened patiently to each students
contributions and allowed every student to share. Since I was working with a smallgroup, I was able to provide more individualized instruction. I also felt that my flexibility
with my lesson was a strength, as I was not given the amount of time to complete the
lesson that I had planned for. I also had planned to instruct the entire group with the
Promethean board, and the night before was informed that Id work with a small-group
instead. I quickly managed to tweak my lesson in order to fit with a small-group in a
situation without the Promethean board and the new time constraints. (I got out sheet of
paper, and wrote the students contributions on it since I wasnt able to use the
Promethean board, which ended up working fine for 5 students.)

What were your weaknesses teaching this lesson?

My weaknesses were with both time and behavior management. My lesson was meant to
be 45 minutes, but I had to complete it in about 25 minutes. I had trouble with knowing
when to move along while students were sharing, because I wanted to make sure they
each had a fair amount of time to share, since there were only 5 students. However, one

student got stuck trying to think of a specific type of food, and did not respond to my
guiding prompts and questions, so I lost time. I should have swiftly moved along instead
of spending so much time on that one situation. Also, the students were answering
without raising their hands, and I had to remind them to raise their hands several times. I
should have begun the lesson by stating clearly my expectations for behavior.

What would you change if you did the lesson over again?
If I could do the lesson again, I would definitely make sure I had sufficient time to
complete the lesson! Unfortunately, with the way things worked out with my practicum
teacher, it just wasnt possible. But I would have a full 45 minutes to complete the lesson.
The time was the biggest issue because the students werent able to complete the afterreading activity, and I wasnt able to summarize the lesson with each student afterward. I
also would take the time to go over the classroom rules together and explicitly explain
my expectations for behavior before beginning!

Appendix A: Worksheet