The Name Game

After the students were asked to read the teacher began asking a series of questions. T answered one of the questions using the knowledge he had known previously to reading the story. The books states, “Other understandings depend on children’s unique experiences” (Mcdevitt & Ormrod, 2013, p.244). T was able to take his previous experience in the classroom and relate it back to the story. Even though he may not have read the whole story that was given to him, he was able to take what he had enjoyed doing previously in science and tie it in to what the teacher was asking.

“What can you tell about a story by looking at the cover of the book?” (Show the students the front of the book). “We know that this book is called Boy Soup. If we look at the pictures on the front of the book would you be able to make a prediction or a guess on what the story is about?

With the text being predictable and the story having a fairly common story, students should be able to pause and make their own predict what may happen

author wants the audience to think as a result of reading his text to overcome expectations, stereotypes,

Lesson Purpose/Goal: The goal of this lesson is to teach children how to ask and answer questions about key details in a story being able to retell key concepts, which supports understanding of literacy text.

Reading is the beginning of every child’s learning. The basis of education begins with learning to read. Short (2010) explained that literature acts as “an inquiry to life” and a “way of knowing” (p. 50). However, in order to support children’s learning, it is essential to show children that learning is interesting from a young age. When Short first began teaching using worksheets and a basal reading program, she wrote, “I often felt that children were learning to read in spite of me” (p. 49). The students were not learning to think critically. However, when she began introducing literature circles to her students, she saw them “critically exploring their understandings with each other” (p. 49).

In addition, the teacher, Rossie has a flexibility to incorporate student perspective into the daily activity while she reads the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff (1985). When Rossie was reading the book, Numerroff (1985), students were excited about the story and said, “My picture is on the refrigerator too!” and “I want some cookie too!” Rossie took a moment and waited then continue the reading. Students were engaging listening the story because they could related to the feeling and behaviors of the mouse, and Rossie let students to enjoy the learning experience.

This learning activity has the students looking more deeply into their chosen book using a more critical mind rather than just enjoying the book for its basic story line. It has them taking note of what is happening at each stage of the book and why these events are taking place, then taking this information they have gathered and developing a written report to convey their thoughts and ideas in the book along with developing the skills necessary to produce a piece of writing that is easy to read and understand for the reader. This activity also has a lot of hidden features to the task, such as using the correct grammar, development of sentence structure and use of creative thinking to make the piece interesting to the reader.

[ ] In order to build on the children’s understanding and content knowledge, lesson one’s purpose is to engage the children through making a prediction based on the text, pictures, and title. Lesson two builds on the language and literacy by continuing with using the mentor text, “Fancy Nancy” and using the rich academic language associated with the central focus of predictions. For example, each lesson has a distinct objective in which the activities are built on but all three lessons build on each other by incorporating similar academic language and literacy. The children start out in a whole group setting and are actively engaged through discussions and sharing activities. The children are then scaffolded into independent reading and activities to assess their understanding of the content objectives. They then use their prior knowledge and rich vocabulary to successfully complete the objective of each lesson through verbal discussions, independent work, and physical movement. In lesson one, the children are actively engaged through participating in a gallery walk. This gallery walk is done with the children’s table groups and encourages community and social interactions. During this activity, the children will work together to activate their prior knowledge of predictions and record through writing what they

Essentially building upon their learning needs brick by brick. Chapter two has a few sections under the theme Characteristics of Thoughtful talk. Ballenger describes the difference between the way some students speak during classroom discussions versus free play when the conversation is not based on academic topics. She states “I may think they are making jokes or wasting time, or that they are confused and need help, like Rubens, when he suggested the sun was alive-but it usually turns out they are thinking in constructive ways. When I have this principle in mind, I participate less and allow the children more room to explain themselves.”(57) This example is how an educator can step outside of expected norms and meet children where their culture and imagination can work

This allows the child to read the book and understand the content without being confused or over stimulated with information. From this analysis, the content of the book is effective and should be used because it is accurate and in the correct scope. It is easily understood without being too simple that children dismiss it because it is for earlier aged children. Although the content is a main piece of the puzzle, the way the content is organized is significant as

The author depicts the differences between how the child understands the story. A child that consciously views the story knows and could tell about the real meaning or hidden message of the story while a child that unconsciously views the narration could not tell about what happened in the story because they do not grasp the full message intended to be taken away from the

Allow students to describe to their partner the front cover of the book, listen for words that describe characters and settings.

The curriculum for reading with a group of second grade students is, teaching the students how to interact with the text by asking questions and answering those questions. Having the students learn how to ask “who, what, when, where, why, and how” is the first step for new readers to understand what they are reading. The students are learning how to pick out the key ideas and details within the story to help fully understand the concept and meaning behind the writers words. Students need to be able to describe what they are reading and pay attention to the story’s plot. Second grade students now have the ability to understand the reason behind the characters actions within the stories that they read. This short story in particular serves the purpose of learning how to pick out the key ideas and details for new readers.

Ever analyzed a picture book before? The colors, shapes, and underlying message on every inch of the page create a story. A story that makes your brain tick and contemplate what exactly you’re looking at. These things are significant to the constant development of a human being, but the specifically to a child.