Amanda's teaching journal

During the process of finishing this assignment, I did reading aloud twice by reading different books to two different targets. For the first experience, it wasn’t very successful and frustrating. I choose a booked published by East West publisher, called Winnie the witch.  I like the story which has simple sentence pattern and surprised turning points hidden behind the story. It was simplified by the publisher and the illustration is not detailed on everything. Basically, a page contained a sentence and a picture that says about the sentence. So I think it shouldn’t be a problem for the first graders to understand. But things went wrong and I got frustrated at the end. Afterwards, I realized that it would be easier to do it smoothly if I had done some preparation before reading. The preparation before reading a book is the key point for a successful experience.

 

After the failure for the first reading aloud, I did it for second time with different book to different targets. This time I make some effort on my targets and the book. Of course, I learn the lesson from my first experience. I did the proper preparation for the second reading aloud.

First, I choose only three students to be my audience rather a class of the first graders. They are the children of my colleagues and also my students.  Two of them are the second graders, one girl, one boy and the other girl is the first grader who is my student now.  I taught the two second graders a year ago when they were at their first graders. So I knew their ability very well. I asked their parents about their English learning after school, the two second graders go to the English cram school once a week, but the other does not attend any extra English lesson.

The book I read:

The book I choose is “A Color of His Own” by Leo Lionni, who is one of my favorite writers. I collected a couple of his books such as Fish is fish, Frederick, Swimmy and so on. I truly love the story very much. Simple story lines with prediction features that the children can predict what will happen. The story outline is about a chameleon which is wondering why he couldn’t have his own color.  Elephants are gray. Pigs are pink. Only the chameleon has no color of his own. He is purple like the heather, yellow like a lemon, even black and orange striped like a tiger!  Then one day a chameleon has an idea to remain one color forever by staying on the greenest leaf he can find.  But in the autumn, the leaf changes from green to yellow to red . . . and so does the chameleon.  When another chameleon suggests they travel together, he learns that companionship is more important than having a color of his own. No matter where he goes with his new friend, they will always be alike.  It’s about self-identity and appreciation of the companionship.  

Before reading, I hold the book on my hands and ask children what they can see from the cover page. Pointing to the pictures and have them answer my questions, “I see the 變色龍, leaves” said the boy from the second graders. So I knew that they don’t know the word “chameleon”. I point to the chameleon and repeated it several times. They repeated after me. Now they knew that animal on the cover page is called “chameleon”. So we kept the sights on the other information on the cover page. They found the title of the book- “ A color of his own”. But they don’t quite get the meaning of a color of his own. Later, They found the author’s name but again, they can’t read the name. Only the boy try to read it, I repeated the name for them. So we discussed about what it would happen to the chameleon in this story? “Change color” the second grader girl replied. “Yes, it changes color. See, so many colors on his body.” I responded back. “ Does he have a color?” I asked. “No!” the first grader girl answered me. “ It does have a color but it changes whenever he goes.” I said.   Then, I turned to the first page starting with “ Parrots are green.” beginning the story.

During the reading,

I read the story lines as each page goes. During my reading, I pointed to the pictures that say about the lines for their comprehension of the context. I also asked them some simple questions to clarify their understanding like “What color is the pig?” “Pink.” and pointed to the same color on their clothes by showing them extra examples. When the chameleon went into the grass meeting another chameleon, they have some conversation. I pretended the voice and make the conversation alive. When the wind blew the chameleon down the leaves, I acted it out. I also made some pros to dramatize my story. I retold the story using the stick puppets I made. They like to hole the stick puppets by themselves.

 

After reading, we did some discussion about the story. I asked them some simple questions first to clarify their understanding as following:

Those questions are under their vocabulary range, so I asked them in English. After that, I used Chinese to asked them some further thought about the story. These are the questions that I asked them.

 

The discussion went on livelily. I can tell that children like the story very much. Although they are at different levels, they can understand the story well under Leo Lionni’s artwork on each page.  

I found that I am good at voice pretending so I attracted the children’s attention when I did the voice pretend. I use my voice to dramatize the dialogue between the chameleons. Also, I use the stick puppets to act out the storylines. With puppets acting out, it forced their comprehension again. My weakness would be the pace problem. My speed sometimes is slow that will distract children’s attention. They will wonder around and lose the focus on my story.

There are some difficulties I came across during the assignment. First is the selection of the books. I have to know about the abilities of listeners first, although two of them are used to be my students. Because of trying to scaffold their learning during the reading, I try to find a book that have a little bit beyond their level. Knowing their abilities, I researched the books that I read before and evaluated them. But I found the books I’ve ever read is not enough. I should broaden my reading among the pictures book.  Second is to keep children’s attention. Children nowadays are affected by the visual media a lot, it’s hard to keep the attention always on the lines and follow the story. 

 

The quality of the book I used is very good. The illustration is so alive and simple describing the content on the page. Children can easily understand what pictures say and connect to the words. The illustrations are using different skills and materials which make the richness of the book. The only one defect is that the printed words are too small to read. I would say if the words are bigger that children can easily keep their concentration on the pictures and lines.

 

This is a picture that I found on the website. This can be a warm up activity before reading aloud. Using the illustration of every kind of things to show the color of its own contrast to the two chameleons without any color but white, children can get the main idea about the story. Also, if the teaching is focus on the grammar of the sentence pattern~ “_____ are red, _____ are green.” It can be extended to make a mini book of “Colors of animals” with an exception of chameleon.

Another way of using the book is to play a puppet show. By having children trace the outline of each animal, cut them out of papers and glue a stick behind the puppet, children can do the role play by using the puppets made by themselves. After the reading, children can choose a role to play the whole story in a group or in front of the class. Or we can do it in a dramatic way by acting out or in a reader-theater way.

 

In Teale’s article, he mentions how to make the maximize effectiveness of reading aloud by using some strategies in reading-aloud activities. I adapted some ideas from him by selecting a higher level book to scaffold the book as much as necessary in order to create a beneficial listening experience for the children. On the other hand, the book starts with simple sentences and keeps on the center value of finding one’s own color. The information provided in the story extends further more than the context. The children are not only listening to the story and learned some new words but also learning the morals behind the story.

 

Besides, all the articles mentioned that the reader has to choose a book that he or she truly love and read it before reading aloud. I deeply agree with this since I gained the lesson from my first experience and realized that only if I truly love the story then my reading will attract children’s attention. Not to mention how good the book is, children can tell how much I love the book through the way I read it. I examined every page through the whole book and read it out loud for several times, the more often I read the more I like. Pictures with simple colors focus on the important text ideas.

 

Many aspects from those articles support my reading-aloud experience. The other one is to ask questions and invite children react with me to keep them engaged in the book. The things I used are the puppets I made ahead the reading-aloud. I use them to keep children attention and have them to join in the reading by holding the chameleon or other animals. I also asked some questions during my reading. The reaction between the reader and listeners goes back and forward makes me aware how much they understood I had been reading. If I found that they don’t get the point, I will change the way I read by acting out or say the lines in another words.

 

The final discussion is important for children to have a complete ending of the story. We discuss in Chinese after the reading, children all talk about what they think and share the opinions they gained from the story. Sometimes, they talked in a quite childish way. But I knew they learn something from my reading. The important thing is to share the ideas from different people. Sometimes we can’t expect the learning has obvious evidence to show the progress how far they are. I believe that the impact is there deep down in children’s heart. To keep their interest and have them love English is always my belief for teaching English.

 

Less chances that I have during my course schedule, I took this chance to do a small experimentation for reading aloud with only three children, I found that the preparation really is the key to a successful reading aloud. The preparation includes the readiness of teacher and students. Teacher set up an environment for a perfect reading aloud experience, students can sense the meaning behind the activity and enjoy in it. This is a precious experience that I had; I will apply into my regular class more often after this experience. Not only had I found the children love it but my self. Especially my target is the younger learners; reading aloud truly has its affect on children. I see more smiling on their faces than doing the drill of the conversation in the class.