Samantha Pallitto

October 23, 2014

Lesson Plan: Interactive Read Aloud
Common Core State Standards: Reading Standards for Literature K-5
Grade 4:
R.L.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
R.L.4.2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text;
summarize the text.
R.L.4.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing
on specific details in the text (e.g., a characters thoughts, words, or actions).
R.L.4.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text,
including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology.
R.L.4.6: Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are
narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
Objective: The students will listen as the teacher reads aloud, stopping to discuss
different character development through dialogue.
Materials: The Extraordinary Mark Twain (Acccording to Susy) by Barbara Kerley
Lesson Sequence:

Before Reading:
o Readers, today I am going read you aloud a book called The
Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley.
Mark Twain was a famous writer and some of you may know him and
read some of his books one day. Give me a thumbs up if you had heard
of Mark Twain. I want you all to look at the cover and title of this book
and tell me what you think the story is going to be about and who you
think is going to be telling the story. Turn and talk to a partner for one
minute about your predictions, then I will pick two volunteers to
share what they think.
o After the turn and talk, allow two students to share their predictions,
make sure to ask, What on the cover, or in the title makes you think
that?
o Readers give me a thumbs up if your predictions about who is telling
the story are similar to these two predictions.
o Very good predictions! I am going to begin reading aloud, I want you
to listen as I read and think to yourself if your predictions were
confirmed and think about who is telling the story and the type of
dialogue the author uses to distinguish the different characters in the
story.

During Reading:
o Stop reading occasionally and allow students to confirm if their
predictions of who is telling the story were correct.
o Plan to stop and ask a question:
Stop after reading page with first post it note and ask,
Readers, who is Susy? What in the text gives you that
information?
o Stop and model your own thinking:
Second post it note: So readers, the author gives us a glimpse
into Susys journal to show us the book she is writing. I know
that Susy is writing a biography about her father because in the
text the author tells us thats what type of book Susy is writing.
From reading her journal, I can tell that Susy is informing us
about her father because she is giving us true facts about Mark
Twain, so this makes me think a biography is an informative
piece about someone, written by somebody else.
Thumbs up if you were having similar thoughts as me.
o Plan to stop and ask a question:
Stop at next post it note: Boys and girls as we are reading, I am
noticing the author is using different fonts, can anyone tell me
why she is doing that? What in the text makes you think that?
Stop at next post it note: Readers, even though the author is
not telling us that Susys papa is speaking, she is using
quotation marks and the specific font that we have
distinguished is Susys father. Can anyone tell me why the
author does this? How do you know that?
o Stop and model your own thinking:
Stop at next post it note: So boys and girls as we are reading
along we have established the author uses different fonts for
the different points of view and dialogue for the different
characters. This makes me think the author wants to
distinguish different personalities between characters, and
understand each character better. I know this because of the
language she uses when she is talking or giving a point of view
for a certain character. For an example, when the author is
writing as Susy she makes some spelling errors, but when the
author is writing as Mark Twain she sounds sophisticated.

After Reading
o So readers, today and everyday we should keep in mind that good
writers use specific dialogue for a reason. The author uses specific
dialogue for different characters, and this gives us as readers, a way to
know our characters better. Good writers develop their characters
through description and dialogue.

o I would like you to turn and talk to a partner and record on your own
index cards about the different ways dialogue was used to develop
different characters in The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to
Susy).

Assessment
o How will you know if students are successful?
Students will be successful if they are able to distinguish that
the author used dialogue to develop the characters. I will be
able to measure this by having students write about the
different ways the author used dialogue to develop her
characters.