Brittany Wolgast

Interactive Read-Aloud

Objectives: Students will follow events of a plot with multiple events.

1. Students will infer characters feelings from the text.

2. Students will recognize and identify some aspects of text

structure, specifically letter formatting.

Materials: Book- Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James

Procedure:

1. Have all students sit on the reading rug in the front of the room.

2. Today we will be reading Dear Mr. Blueberry. By looking at the cover of the book, what

are some predictions we can make? (Encourage participation if necessary)

3. Read aloud the first letter to Mr. Blueberry; ask students what they notice about the

words on the page, any special format, pictures, etc. Allow time for students to share

their ideas.

4. Continue reading the letters and ask who the characters are and if they notice any

patterns. Stop on letters #4 & #7

5. After finishing the book, have a whole class discussion about the difference and

similarities in the letters to and from Mr. Blueberry. Allow students to talk to a partner

before sharing with the class. Ask questions such as:

a. Who is Mr. Blueberry?

b. Why were they writing letters?

c. How did Emily use her imagination?

d. How do you think Emily felt when reading the letters from Mr. Blueberry?

6. While I would not have the 1st grade students go back to their seats to individually write

letters, we could write a letter as a class to Emily, Mr. Blueberry or the whale if there

was extra time to do so. This would be a good segue into writing their own letters with

using the model we created together.

Evaluation:

- Observe student participation and note their responses during the read aloud

discussion.

- Listen for techniques of letter-writing in group discussion.