READ-ALOUD LESSON PLAN

JMU Elementary Education Program

Kendall Lawrence
Mrs. T, Wallaby Elementary School
October 20, 2016 at 1:45 pm
October 17, 2016

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Read Aloud: Wemberly Worried
B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
Observing this particular classroom, I know that Mrs. T has them do reading comprehension
assessments of the beginning, middle, and end with a lot of the books she reads out loud. My lesson
plan is similar to my cooperating teachers where the children write down a sentence describing the
main points of each the beginning, middle, and end of the story. I was testing on comprehension of the
story, not necessarily the storys content.
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand The students will
Know The students will know how
understand that every story has a
to identify who the characters are and
beginning, middle, and an end to it.
what setting they are in. What is the
That identifying characters and
major problem occurring in the
setting should be very easy by now.
middle of the story and what solution
is used to fix the problem mentioned
before.

Do The students will identify the

beginning (characters and setting),
middle (the problem), and the end
(the solution to the problem) by
writing a sentence about each.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
First the story is read aloud to the students and questions that were prepared prior to the reading are
discussed before, during and after the reading. The students are then instructed on how to complete the
worksheet assessing their comprehension in the sequence of beginning, middle and end. The beginning
section is looking for the students to write a sentence about the characters and setting. The middle
section is assessing if the students can identify the problem in the story and the ending section is
assessing if they can write a sentence identifying the solution to the problem. The students will
complete the writing on what was told to them, student work will be shared and written about in
reflection.
E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
1.2
a) Increase listening and speaking vocabularies
b) Begin to ask for clarification and explanation of words and ideas
1.3
a) Ask and respond to questions
b) Follow simple two-step oral directions
1.12
a) Form letters accurately
b) Space words within sentences
c) Use the alphabetic code to write unknown words phonetically
1.13
d) Use complete sentences
e) Begin each sentence with a capital letter and use ending punctuation

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
-Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
- My Story Outline: Assessment sheet on beginning, middle, and end
- Pencils
- Markers
(All materials provided by practicum classroom)
G. PROCEDURE
Have the children do a wiggle before we start our lesson so they have a chance to move before
being expected to sit and pay attention through the entire read aloud and assessment
afterwards.
Introduce the story to the children by reading them the title and ask them a couple prediction
questions. The goal is to see if they can predict what might happen in the story by just
knowing the title and front cover. Hold off mentioning the assessment worksheet until the end
of the reading so they can focus on the read-aloud and not worry about whats coming next.
o What do you think the main characters name is?
o What might the problem be in this story?
o What are a couple things you guys think Wemberly will worry about in this book?
o What are some things you guys worry about?

Questions are to be asked at certain points in the book, during the duration of the reading.
Already familiar with the book, the instructor has placed the questions where they would be
most beneficial to promote understanding, comprehension and prediction skills.
o What are Wemberlys parents saying to her about her worrying?
o Do you guys think that Wemberly should be so worried about everything?
o What is one thing Wemberly uses to calm herself down if she is worried?
o What is Wemberlys newest and biggest worry in the story?
o Did some of you guys have similar worries to these on your first day of school?
Maybe think back to your fist day of Kindergarten, how did you feel?
o What does the teacher immediately do when she is informed that Wemberly is so
worried about school?
Why do you think the teacher did that?
o What is something that Wemberly might have in common with Jewel?
o Does Wemberly seem to be having a good time at school?
o What has changed after her first day of school?

At the end of the reading, questions will be prepared to help the children both reflect on the
story and practice their summarization for the assessment. These questions are important to
keep their brains stimulated right before they are sent on their own.
o What are some of the things we read about that Wemberly worries about?
o What is something that helped Wemberly stop worrying?
Do you guys have something you do to stop worrying?
o What is the biggest worry that Wemberly had in our story?
o How do you think Wemberly will feel on the second day of school?
Do you think shell still be worried or maybe excited?

After reading and questions are completed, the assessment will be explained to the children.
They will be shown the page overhead and explicitly explained to how to complete the page.
o The beginning: talk about the characters and the setting in the story. What are their
names? Where is the story happening? Write this in a sentence. Draw a picture
depicting the characters and setting.

o
o

The middle: talk about the main problem that arises in the story, what is Wemberly
dealing with? Write this in a sentence. Draw a picture to depict the problem in the
story.
The ending: talk about what the solution to the problem was at the end of the story.
Write this in a sentence. Draw a picture depicting the solution to the problem.

The children were then sent to their seats to work independently on their story outline. They
were given a total 20 minutes to complete this task. They were instructed to complete all of
their sentences before they began on their pictures.
For the kids who work a little faster than others, they were instructed to draw pictures on the
back until the 20 minutes were up

H. DIFFERENTIATION
There is one child in the class who is reading and writing at an early kindergarten level. His
comprehension skills however, are actually quite good but it is hard to assess that when you cant read
his work. He never raises his hand to answer questions and since he doesnt understand most things
that go on in the class his attention likes to wonder. I have questions pre-prepared to ask D while
reading the story in order to keep him on track. Then afterwards while I am having all of the other
students work on their worksheets I will work with D to find out what he knows. His writing typically
consists of one letter for each word and it is difficult to read. In order to have any true hope of
assessing his understanding of the story I will read each section to him and have him orally tell me
what he thinks. I will then write it down for him for the sake of time. All of this ensures I keep him
focused and have an accurate assessment of what he is thinking. For the students that work faster than
others, there are spaces beside each section so once they completed their sentences for each they could
draw pictures depicting what they wrote about.
I.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
- One major event that could wrong is a fire drill happening right during my lesson. If this were the
case then I would calmly lead the children, with our CT, through the drill. Once back in the classroom
I would pick up where I left off. However, I would be sure to recap what we did before the fire drill
since I have clearly lost their attention through all of the chaos. I would use that time to have the
students tell me what they remember, which would give me a glimpse at their memorization skills as
well.
- Another problem that could happen is that this book could go straight over their heads. The
comprehension level I am looking for in order to successfully fill out my assessment could be too
challenging for some of the students to understand. If thats the case I will find ways to help them
individually. I would also have more simplified questions prepared if the ones I initially ask are too
difficult. I would make sure to break down some of the words on the assessment sheet as well. An
example of a word that they might not understand is the word, solution, which I could re-tell this
idea as, how can we fix the problem? Being prepared to adjust the level of my lesson to fit the needs
of my students is what is key in order for them to be successful.

Lesson Implementation Reflection

I had questions prepared for before, during, and after the reading. I was able to follow them for the most part,
mixing them up a bit, but I was able to ask every single one of them. I had at least two to three hands up after each
question I asked and I had a max of 10 hands up at a time. As the usual students voiced their answers, other children
got more ideas and raised their hands as well. I felt I did a relatively good job of letting a lot of children answer each
time without going on for too long. I had the same 2-3 children raise their hand after every question and I did make
sure to utilize their attentiveness. However, I also made sure to call on the kids without their hands raised to hopefully
keep their attention active throughout the story.
I had planned this lesson to be administered at the very beginning of the day during reading however; it
worked better for my CT to move the lesson to the very end of the day during writing. Since this was re-scheduled to
take place at the end of the day the children were already tired and antsy. We had them do a wiggle time before I read
the story, which helped with keeping them from moving around on the carpet. However, it was a different story
keeping their attention the entire time. I had no one attempt to lie down on the carpet but I did have to repeatedly
remind some of the boys to keep their eyes on me. The girls in the class, who are a much smaller number, were paying
attention the entire time and were very much on top of things.
I used prompting with very few of my questions and they were able to answer most of them with no help at all.
Their predictions were quite good about Wemberly being a mouse and that she was going to be worrying in the story.
They didnt, however, accurately predict any of her worries that would happen in the story. Fast forwarding to the end,
when I asked my retell questions, they were spot on in remembering what happened. They accurately could tell me
most of her worries including her biggest one.
Moving on to the story outline assessment, I explained the activity with the beginning, middle, and end
sections and what to write about in each. I also made sure to mention that the spaces that were included for them to
draw pictures in should be completed after they finished their sentences. After thoroughly explaining the worksheet, I
had three children explain each section back to me to ensure their understanding. I also had three different children
give examples to the class of what they could write about in each section to hopefully give the other children some
ideas. This seemed to work pretty well and I had great responses from all of them.
While working, every child had to ask me at one point or another what it was that they were supposed to be
writing about in each section. I thought then for sure that my directions had not been clear enough or that I had
completely lost their attention at that point. After talking to my teacher about how I did with the read-aloud however,
she informed me that she thought it was due to how the worksheet was formatted. The one she uses says solely
beginning, middle and end. The one I had said those three words but also an extra sentence explaining what the
children were supposed to write about. A lot of kids in my class cant read so they were trying to read the sentences but
they werent able to, so instead they became confused and had to ask questions. She informed me that if it had just said
beginning, middle, and end, most of the kids would have been able to read those instructions and remember what they
were supposed to write. It wasnt that my worksheet was above their level of understanding but rather just that those
extra sentences confused the students. Another reason could have simply been that it was the end of the day and they
want you to do everything for them since they feel worn out.

Examples: On the next two pages are work samples from three of my students. I took a sample from one of the higher,
middle and lower children in my class to show the range we have in our class.