Jordan CO#3

On July 23 I observed Candice Walters' reading class. We started off with the schedule. We were reading more from the novel and watching from the movie. Then she introduced me and pushed a bit for some questions for me. It wasn't too hard to get this group talking. Then we passed out copies of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and picked up where the class had left off. Mrs. Walters reminded the class about the word "starving" and brought everyone back up to speed on the plot so far. A student asked about the word "dug" which she had used in her plot summary, so we went over the verb forms of "dig" remembering that it is irregular. The Mrs. Walters read aloud to the group and had everyone follow along.
She stopped occasionally along the way to ask about interesting words or get input about what was happening or what might happen next. For instance we went over "plump" and "plucking", asked where the foxes and badgers might be digging to, and discussed the use of "finished" in the sense of "going to die". Then we paused in our reading for a bit to watch some of the movie.
The movie differs a bit from the book starting mostly at about the point where we were, so we discussed some of the differences afterward. Then we returned to the book. Again Mrs. Walters read and paused whenever there was an interesting or difficult word or concept, and students would occasionally ask what something meant as well. We went over what a "grin" was and had everyone model the face described by "stood and gaped". We discussed the word "grub" in the context of "food," the action of "licking ones chops," and what it means to be "mad about" something if one is not angry.
This class showed me the use of reading aloud to the class as a tool for bringing the students' listening skills in to help with their reading skills. Mrs. Walters was also very good at getting student input as to what words and phrases might mean before she explained it to them. The answers were varied and not always correct, but it seemed good to get them thinking critically about figuring new words out on their own before turning to get help.