Fall 2015

Sem I-Read 366

Erin O'Connor
October 8, 2015
Ms. Higgs, Kindergarten, Mountain View Elementary
Date to be presented in class: October 20, 2015

LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program
TITLE OF LESSON: Los Gatos Black on Halloween Read Aloud
CONTEXT OF LESSON
The students have engaged in many read aloud lessons already throughout the semester. The teacher has
done a picture walk before the story before and children have been able to successfully make predictions
even if they were not accurate. The students have shown the ability to identify and discuss new vocabulary
and guess what words mean based on pictures and contextual clues.
OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT
Developmental Objectives
1. The students will use pictures to
make predictions before reading the
story.

2. The students will discuss meanings

of Spanish words through reading and
discussing Los Gatos Black on
Halloween.

Plan for Assessment

Before reading the story to the children, the teacher will do a
picture walk through the book. First, the teacher will show students
the cover, read the title and ask them what they think the story will
be about. Then while slowly flipping through the book without
reading the teacher with ask the students leading questions that
require students to make inferences based on the pictures.
Before the book the teacher will talk about the fact that the Los
Gatos in the title is not an English word. Talk about what language
it is and what it means. Have props of the different Spanish words
that the children can see when talking about what they mean. Then
explain that there are more words in the book that are not in
English. While reading the book students will use the pictures,
context clues and props to identify what the different Spanish
words mean. After reading the story the teacher will go over the
Spanish words again and talk about what each one means.

COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA

Assessment will occur informally through teacher/student discussion before, during and after the read aloud.
RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (K & 1)
K.2 The student will expand understanding and use of word meanings
a) Increase listening and speaking vocabularies.
g) Use vocabulary from other content areas
K.8 The student will expand vocabulary
a) Discuss meanings of words
K.9 The student will demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts
c) Use pictures to make predictions.

MATERIALS NEEDED
Read aloud book: Los Gatos Black on Halloween: me
Leading discussion questions on post-its: me
Various props to help identify the Spanish words: me
PROCEDURE
PREPARATION OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
The read aloud will occur on the reading carpet. Each student has an assigned carpet spot when they
will be asked to sit during the read aloud. The teacher will have the read aloud book with discussion
questions and the box of props next to the teacher chair when the teacher will do the read aloud from.
INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION
Before reading the book the teacher will read the title and introduce the idea of reading and
discussing Spanish words during this book. The teacher will read the title and ask the students what
they think the book will be about. After asking a few children (3-5) what they think is going to
happen the teacher will begin the picture walk.
IMPLEMENTATION
The teacher will start the picture walk by talking about how they will flip through the book and talk
about what is happening in the pictures but not actually read any of the words yet. The teacher will
ask questions to get the children to think about what is happening in the pictures. Intro questions
include: What is going on here? Who is this? Why does this character look excited/scared? How do
you think the story is going to end? Possible teacher responses include: That could happen! Thats
very possible! Are you sure about that? The teacher will flip through all but the last couple of pages
and then will actually read the book to the children so the students can see if their predictions are
correct. As the teacher reads the book and comes across a Spanish word they will pause at the end of
the text on that page and repeat the Spanish word again. The teacher will then say something to the
extent of Wow thats an interesting word! and describe the pictures on the page. Then the teacher
will ask the students if they have any guess as to what the word could mean in English. When the
children guess it the teacher will bring out the prop and ask a child that identified the word in English
or someone who is sitting really nicely to hold it for them. If the word is hard and the kids cannot
guess then the teacher will bring out the prop and repeat the Spanish word while holding the prop and
ask the children again if anyone can guess what it means in English. If the students still cant guess
what it means, then teacher will describe the word. The teacher will continue this practice for all the
Spanish words throughout the book.
CLOSURE
When the book is over the teacher will go over the various props by using the Spanish word and asking
the students to identify the word in English. After all the props have been collected the teacher will

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reread the title and ask the children closing questions. Closing questions include: what happened in the
story? What is one thing that you learned?
DIFFERENTIATION
This lesson accommodates for different types of learners by utilizing all different types of teaching
styles: visual, auditory and hands on. Looking at the pictorial cues to identify the Spanish words gets
the visual learners involved in making educational guesses, using the context clues from the words
being read to them in the story gets the auditory learners involved in the guessing of the Spanish
word meaning, and incorporating the props into the guessing of the Spanish words gets the hands on
learners involved by using objects they can physically hold that represent the Spanish word. When
guessing what the Spanish word means in English, the teacher will allow plenty of thinking time and
after calling the students allow a lot of time to guess and use all the context clues (words in the story,
pictures and hands on props) in order to come up with their answer.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
1. Some children may find the book a little frightening
a. I plan to skip one of the pages that talks about the undead and it does not mess up the flow
of the book or the understanding of the book or activity. I also plan on telling this story in a
happy tone and focusing on the rhymes of the book and the Spanish vocabulary more than the
picture. I also looked up a few other lesson plans because this was initially my concern with
this lesson and they were all aimed toward PreK-3rd graders.
2. Some children may be distracted when holding the props from the story
a. Before the story I will explain that if you are to be holding the props you have to hold it in
your lap and still pay attention to the story. If this doesnt work then the child will have to
pass the prop to another student who can successfully hold it in their lap.
REFLECTION

My lesson incorporated the idea of a picture walk and a read aloud from our course content. I modeled
my read aloud after what was shown in class. I started the lesson by reading the title to the children and
looking through the pictures with the children. I would ask them to describe the pictures and tell me what
was going on. Then when we reached close to the last couple of pages of the book I asked them to
predict what they thought was going to happen in the rest of the book. Then I actually read the book to
the kids. As I read I used read aloud questions and prompt to get the students thinking about what was
going on in the book, like the questions posed to us in the read aloud in class. Examples include I wonder
what the cat is thinking when it runs into the witches, I notice the cat looks frightened can anyone tell me
why you think it looks like that? After the book I also had the children retell the story and discuss what
parts they liked and what parts they didnt like in the book, which works on their comprehension skills
and vocabulary skills.
In order to prepare for this lesson, I read the book a few times and decided how I was going to begin the
lesson, what I was going to say while reading the book and how I was going to wrap up the lesson. I
decided to first introduce the topic of a different language by reading the storybook title since some of it
was in Spanish. I then talked about how there were other languages spoken by other cultures and the
word in the title and others in the book were in another language. I asked if anyone knew what language
the word on the cover was in and one child responded that it was in Spanish. So then I talked about how
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there were other words in this book at were also in Spanish and that throughout the book we were going
to identify them and try to figure out what they meant. I read the story and asked leading questions and
then ended with a discussion about the various Spanish words and what happened in the story. I used
sticky notes to remind myself of questions to ask before and after the lesson and a couple on some of the
pages to remind myself of what to say when I came across a certain things in the book. I think the sticky
note method worked out really well and made sure I touched on everything that I wanted to in the lesson.
I assessed my students with a discussion before and after the reading. Before the reading the children all
got a chance to predict what they thought was going to happen in the story based on what they saw in the
pictures and what I pointed out in the pictures to them to try to guide their predictions. As we came
across the Spanish words in the text and a student could tell me what the word meant they got to hold the
prop that corresponded to the Spanish word. I think this really kept the students engaged in the story
because they were listening to the words being read and when I would come across a Spanish word all
the hands would shoot up and every student wanted to guess what each word meant. The students had to
use the context clue from the story and the pictures to come up with what the word meant which really
helped their comprehension of the story as well. After all the props were handed out and the book was
over we retold the story and a couple of the children even used their Spanish words while retelling part
of the story. When I got a good sense that the students understood what the story was about I asked each
child who had a prop to come up front and I read the Spanish word and they had to tell me what the word
meant in English.
If I were to do this lesson again I would use the sticky notes and props the same way and maybe even use
more of them. I think it would be good for every student to get a chance to guess a Spanish word and
then get to tell me later what that Spanish word meant in English. I also think the props helped because
the student had to think about how that Spanish word fit into the storyline and sometimes repeat the story
in order for them to understand what the word meant in English so this helped the students to pay
attention and think about the story. I think if I was to do this again I would read the book through and
have all the words passed out and then I would read it again and have the children really pay attention to
the story and try and comprehend it without having to try to guess what each Spanish word meant. I think
this would have helped them to strengthen their skills better than they way that I did it. Additionally, I
went way too fast in my lesson with the readings and the discussion. It was my first time teaching in
front of the class though so I think once I get more comfortable this will work itself out. However, I need
to work on not speaking as to the students as fast as I do in general because I normally speak incredibly
fast but the Kindergarteners have a hard time understanding me sometimes so I know if I had spoken
slower and with more clearness that the lesson maybe would have been even better.

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