Ms.

Lam
First Grade
Spotswood Elementary
Read Aloud Reflection
Sierra Brown
Overview of how this work reflects the course content:
The Read Aloud connected to a variety of course content and allowed
me to put this content into real life practice. After learning about the
domains of literacy, the differences between preliterate and emergent
readers/ writers, and the benefits of using Read Alouds as an instructional
strategy within the classroom, it was interesting to see how much the
students comprehended and learned from the lesson and if it really worked
as a teaching strategy. As we have learned Read Alouds are the best
opportunity for vocabulary and comprehension instruction and it gets
children excited about learning how to read and write. After discussing the
story, I saw first hand how much they had learned about November just
through listening to a story about it. The students were able to connect these
topics to their own real life experiences and share them with the class during
discussion. After the discussion, it was interesting to see them write their
own personal responses that they completely created by themselves. I
enjoyed seeing this part because I also observed the different writing levels
that students were at. Some students still had trouble getting their letters
the correct ways, some forgot spaces, and then others were working on
remembering capitals and periods in their sentences. I also noticed some
students sounded out the words using phonics, while others just wanted to
be correct in their spelling so they kept asking me how to spell words. I
enjoyed relating this to what we learned in class about the differences
between different levels of students and their literacy and writing
development.
Teaching Methods:
In my preparation of the lesson, I first started out by looking at the SOL
standards and assessing what I would want the students to understand, to
know, and to be able to do at the end of the lesson. After figuring out the

Ms. Lam
First Grade
Spotswood Elementary
goals of my lesson I then set out to find a book that would be an interesting
Read Aloud and that related to what they were learning in class. After talking
to my cooperating teacher I realized it would be beneficial to find a book
about fall since the students were currently learning about seasons. I knew
that the strategy for having an effective Read Aloud was choosing a book
above their grade level that could lead to a good discussion and closure
activity. Having these components in the Read Aloud would then allow me to
formatively assess if the students had indeed learned the objectives I had set
out for them. I think that if I were to do this lesson again, I would again find a
book that related to a topic we were currently learning about in class so that
they were more intrigued to listen actively to the story and relate their
learning from the book to what they were learning already during other times
of instruction. If I had to change something about how I implemented the
Read Aloud it would be to give the students more time to discuss with a
partner or a small group. I felt during the read aloud it was hard to always let
everyone answer and often times students would talk over each other
because they wanted everyone to hear what they had to share. By having
students talk to their partner, it gives everyone the chance to share but does
so in an orderly, and quiet manner, that does not lead to the chaos of
everyone shouting at once.
Student Learning:
I assessed students progress towards meeting my objectives through
the discussion questions I asked them and the response they had to
complete afterwards. By using what they had learned about November in the
story, they were able to relate their own life experiences to the book and talk
about the connections with the class. Through their responses, I was able to
see if they had learned something that happens in November through
listening to the story and had them think more about the holiday
Thanksgiving when asking what they liked to eat. While they were
completing the sheets I also walked around to different students asking why

Ms. Lam
First Grade
Spotswood Elementary
they thought I wanted to know their answers to the questions. Doing this
made the students think about the connections between the story and the
questions I asked on the sheet creating deeper thinking about the topics.
After seeing how excited and interested the students were in completing the
response activity I could see that most all students were thoroughly engaged
in the lesson. They were excited about the book In November and eager to
create their own page about what they do and eat during this month. This
class has a group of very diverse students, from the Dominican Republic to
Nepal, and it was interesting for me and the other students to hear each
child share about what they do in November, comparing the differences
among themselves. They also showed me that they could transfer the
information they had just learned to create their own worksheets using their
comprehension and writing skills. Here are a few examples of students at
different levels applying their knowledge of the lesson:

Ms. Lam
First Grade
Spotswood Elementary

Future Lessons:
In future lessons I will create another or project after reading the book
to the class so that they can individually show me that they understood the
story and learned something from it. I could tell the students enjoyed
illustrating what they had written and that students were more motivated to
work on their reading and writing when doing it together. Something I would
do differently if I was to do this lesson again, would be to word the
discussions questions that I asked the students differently. It is important to
ask questions that promote deeper thinking, and I think that a few of my
questions this time were a bit straight forward. Since it is first grade though,
it is good to have both types of questions but it is especially important to use
essential questions to encourage deeper learning and comprehension that
sticks. I enjoyed doing a Read Aloud as my first lesson because it an
instructional strategy for teachers that is incredibly useful, helps literacy and
oral language development, and is also relatively easy to implicate!