For the read aloud I read a chapter of the book The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. After conversing with the classroom teacher about having me do the read aloud, she offered to help choose a book and told me I could continue from where the class had already left off in their read aloud book or she also gave me the option of reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, which was another book they had started. Or I could have brought my own short story. I chose to continue with The House of the Scorpion because I had been present in class during read aloud time, and I could tell the students enjoyed this book. Aside from their enjoyment a couple of the characters names were names of some of the students in the class. The book also contained Spanish phrases, and ways of being of the Hispanic culture; and the vast majority of the class is Hispanic.
Other factors that influenced me in choosing this book was that I didn’t want the students to be in two stories at the same time, or to start another chapter book and leave it unfinished. I thought about the idea of bringing a small picture book, but they are more interested in chapter books. In preparing for the read aloud I read the book from the beginning up to a little bit further from where the class had left off; As I read I came across a few new vocab words that I had to look up the meaning of. I also practiced reading out loud, trying to pace myself and being loud enough for the class.
Some strategies that I used for the read aloud were occasionally pausing, making eye contact with some students, and trying to switch around my pitch and tone of voice when the book was quoting a character. What I learned from this experience was that something that seems as easy as reading can be a bit more complicated than that. I found myself feeling pretty nervous during the read aloud, it is a completely different experience reading independently in your head, or even reading to one student, then that of reading to a whole class.
Education 240 