Read Aloud Lesson Plan

Micah Hendriksen

Book Title and Author/Illustrator: Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear/Isabelle Arsenault

LESSON RATIONALE/INJUSTICE CONFRONTED

Mental illness and the way people approach it is a huge topic today, but it can be hard for children to
understand. Through this lesson, my students will learn that although sometimes feeling sad is okay,
there are things we can do to help others feel joy.

READINESS

I. Goal(s)/Objective(s)/Standard(s)
A. Goal –
1. Students will be able to sequence events of a story
2. Students will be able to describe the characters using appropriate adjectives.

B. Objectives –
1. Students will identify at least three describing characteristics of each sister in Virginia Wolf
2. Using the given sorting cards, students will correctly sequence events from Virginia Wolf into the
beginning, middle, and end of the story.

C. Standards –
1. 2.RL.4.1: Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to
demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

D. Management Plan
1. Time: 70 minutes total
2. Material(s) – Center directions, describing characteristics work sheet, sorting cards, Ziploc
baggies, Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear, photo of Grace and I
3. Space – Reading rug (anticipatory set, read aloud, center one, and check for understanding),
kidney table (center 2), students’ seats (center 3)
4. Expectations – Students are expected to work quietly, but they are allowed to talk. Talking
should be at a level two and students should be making adequate progress on their work. When a
student does not follow directions, I will: 1) give them a warning, 2) remind them of what will
happen if they continue, 3) flip their pineapple card, 4) consult Miss Johnson for next step
5. Behavior – to positively reinforce my students, I will
i. Have a tally up on the white board for each group
ii. The group that earns the most points/tallys by the end of centers will earn a fun size piece
of candy for each member
iii. IF each group earns the same amount of tallies OR there is a tie, all of the students
involved will earn a piece of candy.

II. Anticipatory Set  4 minutes

1. Share story (and pictures) to lead into the book Virginia Wolf
i. “Once, when I was about five, my dad got sick. He didn’t have to go to the hospital, but
he did stay in bed for a while. To cheer him up, my mom helped my sister and me dress
up as clowns to cheer him up. We told him jokes and put on a puppet show, and it made
him feel a lot better!”
ii. Display picture of grace and me on board.
III. Purpose Statement  1 minute
  “Today we are going to read a story called Virginia Wolf, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated
by Isabelle Arsenault. During centers, you will use what you learned from listening to this story
to describe the characters and put parts of the story in order.”
o Go into guiding questions

Plan for Instruction:

I. Adaptation to diverse learners

i. For my students who struggle with reading, I have made the font in all of my recording
and direction sheets bigger and with more space in between lines.
ii. I have included several different activities that intentionally target several multiple
intelligences (interpersonal, intrapersonal, mathematical/logical, visual/special,
verbal/linguistic) to make the activities more accessible.
iii. For students who take longer to process, I have included several chances for students to
share their thoughts with peers before sharing with the whole group.
II. Lesson Presentation
a. Read Aloud: Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear – 15 minutes
i. I will provide my students will guiding questions to consider while I read the story – 1
minute
1. “What do you notice about the cover of this book?”
2. “While I read this book to you, I want you to think about why Virginia is feeling
‘wolfish’ and how her sister cheered her up.”
ii. Begin reading – 9 minutes
iii. Grand Conversation – Guiding questions to facilitate discussion – 5 minutes
1. “What did you like about the story?”
2. “What did you notice about Virginia?”
3. “What did Virginia’s sister do to cheer up Virginia?”
4. “Have you ever cheered any one up like Virginia’s sister did? Turn and share with
the person next to you.”
a. Allow a few students share their stories
5. “Do you have any questions about the book? Anything that you found confusing?
Turn and share with your partner and come up with one question you would like
to ask.”  My second graders are very curious, and I feel that allowing them to
ask questions will enable them to process the story more thoroughly.
a. Allow the students to share their questions/musings
iv. New Content – 5 minutes
1. “When you are thinking about how to describe characters in a story there are four
things you need to pay attention to:
a. What the characters say
b. What other characters say about them
c. What the characters do
d. What the characters think
2. *Write those on the white board
3. “When you are trying to figure out what the characters say and what others say
about them, there is a clue you can use. Who knows what tells you in a story that
someone is talking?
a. Allow students time to think and share if they have ideas
b. “If someone is talking, there will be quotation marks around their
sentences!”
c. This is what quotation marks look like: “” *write on white board
 4. “Now that you know what to pay attention to in a story when you are thinking
about a character, what are some words you would use to describe Virginia?”
a. If students are having trouble processing, I will have them turn and share
with a partner before sharing with the whole group
5. “What about her sister? What words would you use to describe Virginia’s sister?”
a. Turn and share if needed
b. Introduce centers – 5 minutes
1. Give short explanation of what the students will be doing at each center
2. Display groups
3. “Today we are going to do centers! One center will be a quotation mark scavenger
hunt with one partner, in the other one you will sort the events of the story we just
read into beginning, middle, and end with one partner, and in the other one you
are going to create a poster – for this one, you can quietly talk with someone next
to you, but you will each create your own poster. Miss Johnson and I will walk
around during centers, so if you have any questions you may ask one of us. There
are also directions for each center once you get there! On the board, you will see
your groups and where you are supposed to go.”
4. Explain tally/point system and prize
a. Allow time to ask clarifying questions
5. “Alright, head over to your station!”
c. Centers – 35 minutes (10 minutes each with about a minute and a half rotations)
i. *There will be directions at each center.
ii. Transitions will be signaled through the use of a timer. After time, students have until the
end of a short song to pack up supplies and move to the next station.
1. Describing characteristics – reading rug
a. Students will grab two of the describing characteristics worksheets and
find a space on the rug to work.
b. They will:
i. Identify (write on the sheet) at least three describing adjectives for
each sister in Virginia Wolf
ii. With the remaining time, they can color in each sister.
iii. After they are done with both sheets, they will turn them in.
iv. I will use these as a formative assessment
2. Beginning, middle, and end sort – kidney table
a. Students will grab a Ziploc baggie containing the cards they are to sort
into the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
b. They may work with one partner.
c. When they believe they are finished, they will raise their hand and either
Miss Johnson or I will check their sort, providing feedback if they
misplaced one of the cards.
d. When their sort is approved, they may quietly read with their partner.
3. Encouraging sentence poster – seats
a. Students will grab a poster paper and write an encouraging sentence in the
center of the paper.
b. After their sentence is done, they will color their poster
c. Students may quietly talk with someone who is sitting next to them, but
they each need to create their own.
d. After school, Miss Johnson and I will hang up students’ posters around the
school to encourage others in the school
III. Check for Understanding
a. I will be observing students throughout the lesson and during their centers to assess their
thinking process and how well they are grasping the concepts of quotation marks and
sequencing.
b. I will use the time during the grand conversation after the read aloud to see how the students
processed the story.

IV. Review Learning Outcomes/Closure  10 minutes

i. Guiding Questions:
1. “What is one thing you liked doing in centers today?”
2. “What did you learn?”
ii. Allow students to share their posters with the class
iii. “What else can you guys do to bring joy to someone else?
iv. Hand out candy

Plan for Assessment

I. Formative Assessment: I will collect the students’ finished event sorts and describing characteristic
sheets to check how well students grasped the ideas of sequencing and describing characters. This is
my Formative Assessment because either Miss Johnson or I will be providing prompts to students as
they work on this project and as we check their work. These prompts and our observations will
provide us with information on how students process the task as well as they’re strategies for
completing the task.
II. Summative Assessment: I will collect the describing characteristics sheets that the students
completed during centers. As the students work on this project, I will keep my interaction/comments
to a minimum, because my goal is to see if they understand the overall task of describing both
Virginia and her sister using adjectives.

Reflection and Post-Lesson Analysis

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
I believe that most of my students were able to reach the objectives. Some students needed a
little bit more time and guidance than others, but in general most were successful. One of my
students, Et, was not able to reach the objectives. Et has intensive behaviors that often negatively
affect his learning, and today in my lesson, he was unable to participate the majority of the time.
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths: My read aloud and grand conversation were better than I imagined they would be.
My students understood the story. The students were thoughtful and reflective, they thought deeply
and related well to the content. Each of the station activities also specifically targeted the objectives
and story in ways that allowed the students to deepen their understanding of the story.
Weaknesses: Overall the management of materials and transitions could have been cleaned up.
In the future, I will specify what materials the students need before dismissing them to their groups. I
will also be sure to model what I expect each student to do at each station. Grabbing my students’
attention during rotations was difficult for me, so in the future I will use a timer.
3. How should I alter this lesson?
I would pay specific attention to management during transitions and how I dismiss my groups to
their stations after instructions.
4. How would I pace it differently?
I would like to lengthen the station time by about five minutes each (total 15 minutes for each
station).
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
Although some students struggled to get started, in the end most of my students were actively
participating in each the stations. They enjoyed the activities and were upset when I informed them
that they needed to switch stations (which is why in the future I will allow the stations to last about
five minutes longer).
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
a. Bloom’s Taxonomy
I used a wide variety of questioning to help guide the grand conversation and lead students in
their response. Although I did ask questions, most of the conversation was student-lead as
they responded so well to the story.
b. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Each of my stations targeted a variety of multiple intelligences to allow students to learn in
ways that best suit them. Throughout my lesson the following intelligences were present:
visual-spacial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, and verbal-linguistic.
7. Were my students able to identify three characteristics for both Virginia and her sister?
Most of my students were able to meet this goal. Some students were still working on the
activity when I instructed them to switch stations, so they will finish the activity tomorrow. I believe
that even students who did not finish today were capable of meeting this goal.
8. Did my students understand the purpose of making encouraging posters?
Yes! This was many of my students’ favorite activities, and after looking at their posters, I am
very happy with the results.
9. Did my grouping strategy work?
I would say that my grouping strategy worked okay. In the future, I will plan the groups ahead of
time (instead of using popsicle sticks). Through grouping in advance, I will ensure that each of the
groups have a good combination of students and that there are few clashing personalities in each
group.