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Read Aloud Reflection

Madison Weimer

Ivy Tech Community College

Book
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The book I chose was Whose Hands are These?: A Community Helper Guessing Book by

Miranda Paul with illustrations by Luciana Powell. Whose Hands are These? has descriptions of

what different career fields main operations are, actions requiring the use of the employees

hands. The book is talking about actions a person within that career would do on a daily basis.

Examples of the careers mentioned in the book are a doctor, a farmer, a chef (cook) as well as

several others. The end of the book references what teachers hands do. I selected this story for

three reasons. The first reason is the book was published in February of 2016. This publication

date is essential because it is important for students to constantly be exposed to new literature.

The second reason I chose this book was for the diversity shown throughout the reading. The

different illustrations of the career people include various races, genders, ages. The school I

executed my read aloud at is in Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. The school is in a low

income community, and from my experience with this particular teacher, I have learned the

importance of including and emphasizing the option and possibility of different career paths for

these students. The students are often ripped of their dreams due to the environment they are

growing up in. The teacher is responsible for harnessing students ability to dream and for

encouraging them to pursue those dreams. Using books in which different careers are represented

diversely helps to plant the seed of dreams in students. After reading a book where a young girl

sees a woman in a science career or a young African-American sees a man/woman working in a

law field, the student is more likely to look at the career in a positive and obtainable light.

Finally, the third reason I chose this book is that I read it often with a child I nanny so I am

familiar with the book. Along with familiarity, the book sparks conversation. Whenever the child

I nanny and I read this book we spend at least an hour discussing her future and what she can be

when she grows up.

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Audience

I read to a kindergarten classroom of normally twenty-six students however when I

actually did the read aloud there were only twenty-one students present. The majority of the

students in the class are six years old, although the oldest student was seven years old. I have

volunteered at this school since my first semester at Ivy Tech, so approximately two years. The

general age at the school is slightly higher than the typical five years of age for a kindergarten

classroom. The reason behind this, per my observation, is that many students from this school are

held back at a young age. The parents also tend to enroll their students later rather than pushing

them in the door as soon as they are eligible to enroll in school. There also appears to be a

significant amount of parents who prefer to homeschool their children instead of sending them to

the public schools near their homes. I have not only witnessed students coming into the year late

from being homeschooled but also leave the school year early to be homeschool for the

remainder of the year. The classroom teacher sets up the structure of her classroom to ensure the

students are comfortable and learning to the best of their abilities. She forms a relationship with

each individual student throughout the year. Along with the positive relationship she has with the

students she has made the setting of the classroom to be colorful. The classroom teacher has the

room decorated with posters and the students work from throughout the year to promote their

self-esteem and self-efficacy. The room overall is organized. The students go to a rug in the front

of the classroom when it is time for group reading. The students reaction to the book was

inquisitive. After finishing reading there were many questions from the students such as, Can I

be a doctor? or How do I become a lawyer? Do I have to go to college? At this point the

classroom teacher interrupted and told the students a phrase I have heard her say since my first

day in her classroom. The end goal is college. You can all go to college if you want to and you
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put your mind to it. Between the classroom teacher and myself we share the same philosophy

on the importance of harnessing confidence and encouraging self-efficacy in young students.

Students at the end of the day are in control of whether or not they actually retain the information

you present to them. For students to want to learn, they need to feel as though they can learn. A

teacher or volunteer increasing their self-efficacy will result in a positive change in the childs

schoolwork. The classroom teacher uses every chance she can to talk about college. We spent

five minutes going back through the book looking for which careers the students need to go to

college for. The students were surprised to hear you can go to college to become a chef. We

discussed the option of apprenticing (and the meaning of this word), the option of college, or the

option to open up your own business regarding food. The students were excited to talk about

their futures. This conversation was powerful to witness. The students, especially at a young age,

have a broad imagination and the ability to dream. Talking about all their options after primary

and secondary school sparks these dreams. Having the opportunity to watch their wheels turn

gave me hope for the next generations to come.

Literacy Lesson

Before reading the book, the students and I worked together to write all the future jobs

the students could think of on the dry erase board at the front of the room. While reading the

book when a career on the board showed up in the book we paused. I then lead a discussion

about the new information the book provided about each specific career. While I was leading this

discussion the classroom teacher was writing on the board summaries of the students remarks. I

chose to do this because in kindergarten the students benefit from seeing and hearing words

above their zone of proximal development. Even though students will not immediately be able to

read or write these words exposure to the words is crucial for them. A child cannot be expected
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to say or write a word if they have never heard or seen it before. These discussions are a fitting

time for myself or the classroom teacher to explain words, read from the book, or to insert proper

vocabulary in the students discussion. Having these discussions aloud allows students to

participate more at a young age because they can use words in speech they cannot read or write

yet. Arlington and Cunningham stated in Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and

Write, If we are to teach all children to read and write, then models, explanations, and

demonstrations of how we go about reading and writing will be essential elements of

instructional programs, (2007). I wanted my read aloud to be multidisciplinary for the students

due to the time constraint I was given to come in during their school day. By adding writing to

the board to the discussion before and during the read aloud the classroom teacher and I were

able to demonstrate and model proper writing styles. Due to the conversation occurring while

reading we actually read the whole book twice, one with the discussion about the careers and

again without the discussion. During the reading I made sure to emphasize words I knew the

students would not be familiar with and also their sight words which I knew they would

recognize. I encouraged the students to read the words they recognized aloud when I pointed to

them. I used a large pointer finger tool the classroom teacher uses. To engage the students I

would ask throughout the reading if they saw any of their sight words. Students would volunteer

to come up and use the large pointer finger tool to point to the sight word. The students are

almost always eager to be a part of the activity no matter what I am doing with them, but with

identifying their sight words I notice they are particularly eager. From my observations I would

deduce the students feel a sense of accomplishment when they can point a word out to their

peers. I chose only to call on students whose hands were up. I decided to do this since the

students volunteering to come up to the book and participate were so confident in picking out the
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words. I did not want to call a student out in front of their peers if they did not recognize the

sight words in the book I chose to read, because it was a book they had no prior exposure to.

After we read the book as a class we used the time usually used for individual writing to create

our own book with the new information from the Whose Hands are These? read aloud. I placed

the students in pairs of two or three. Each pair came up with I help with statements with a

drawing regarding a career mentioned in the read aloud and one of the careers we listed on the

board. Each group was assigned one career from either source to ensure there were not

excessively similar statements. The classroom teacher and I traveled around the room to assist

students with the new career vocabulary. All of the words written on the board were left there for

the students to see. I took the statements home with me and put them all into a new book. I titled

the book and put the classs name for the author as such, Mrs. Xs Kindergarten Class 2016-

2017. I returned the next week to read the new book with the students and leave a copy of the

book with the students in their classroom for the remainder of the year.

Reflection

Just before I began my read aloud I honestly felt completely comfortable. The reasons

why I felt this way are my experience with the classroom teacher and that I had met the class

when I had chaperoned a field trip for them a few weeks before I completed my read aloud. I

planned all of this accordingly because I wanted the students to be comfortable working with me

and interacting with me. This way the students were not complete strangers when I came in to

read. During the reading the students interaction with me made me feel good. The students were

asking questions and were eager to help read and identify their sight words. If the students had

sat there with no expressions and with nothing to say about the book, I would have not felt good

about the reading. Now, if I could repeat the activity I would have done two parts differently. The
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first part I would change would be how I went about the students writing their own books. I

would still do one book as a whole class since the students are so young. However I would

reiterate certain vocabulary before students began trying to come up with their own statements.

Another way I could have completed the book would be to let the students focus on the drawing

of the career woman or man then place their pictures in the laminated book with statements I

wrote based off of their drawings. I think slightly older students would find the activity easier.

The second part I would change would be to make enough books for the students to each have

one. The students were not happy having only one copy for the entire classroom. The students

wanted to each take a copy home. If I could redo this activity I would ensure I had the resources

to make each student their own book to take home.

Summary

Overall I enjoyed the experience. I would recommend keeping this assignment as a part

of the curriculum. During our service learning hours not all students are required to perform an

engaging activity or whole class activity. This assignments gives us, as students too, the

opportunity to learn the ins and outs of a read aloud. Much of this semester has been spent

talking about the importance of a read aloud, hence Maniac Magee. The students of this course

for the most part agree to how successful read alouds can be for a class as a whole. This

assignment makes us as future teachers practice what we preach. Having practical experience

implementing part of your intentional methodology can never hurt.

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References

Allington, R. L., & Cunningham, P. M. (2007). Schools That Work: Where All Children Read

and Write. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from

https:// www.education.com/reference/article/children-benefit-modeling-demonstration/.