Maria Mariani
Lesson Plan Format for Read Aloud
Is Your Mama a Llama?
Maria Mariani
Grade level: Kindergarten
Time required: 30 minutes
Materials
Guarino, Deborah. Is Your Mama a Llama? New York: Scholastic, 1989. Print
Crayons
Paper
Michigan Literacy Objectives
GLCE’s: R.N.T.00.03 Discuss setting, characters, and events in narrative text.
R.N.T.00.05 Respond to individual and multiple texts by finding evidence, discussing, illustrating, and/or writing to reflect, make meaning, and make connections.
CCSS: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Lesson Specific Objectives
The student will be able to …
1. Identify why the main character takes specific actions across the story.
2. Sequence the events of the story while retelling the story.
3. Demonstrate comprehension of the story through a drawing and sentence about a favorite part of the story.
Anticipatory Set
1. I will begin by showing a picture of a llama and ask, “Do you know what kind of animal this is?” If students do not know, I will tell them that it is a llama.
2. Next I will ask, “Has anyone ever seen a llama before?” Some live in the wild in other countries far away, but around here most of them live on farms.
Before Reading
1. I will show the students the front and back cover of the book and ask them to identify some of the animals. I will help find and identify them if they have some trouble. Then I will ask, “Do you see any llamas? I will also point out to them that most of the baby animals are with their mamas, but the llama is all alone. I will ask, “Why do you think the baby llama is all alone?” (He may be looking for his Mama) OR (He may be going on an adventure by himself).
2. This book is called, “Is Your Mama a Llama?” The author is Deborah Guarino. The illustrator is Steven Kellog. I will ask the students, “Do you know what an author is?” (Take responses from students, if not explain that she wrote the book). “Do you know what an illustrator is?” (Take responses from students, if not explain that he drew the pictures for the book).
3. Next I will do a brief picture walk through the first few pages of the book and have students identify some of the animals. Transition: I will tell them, “As I read, pay attention to what the llama asks each of the baby animals.”
During Reading
1. The book describes each animal. To keep students engaged in the reading, I will ask them to guess the animals as we read the book together.
After Reading
Responding
1. What was the question asked by the baby llama all through the book?
2. Why do you think the llama kept asking all the baby animals if their mamas were llamas? (Maybe he was trying to find his mama) OR (Maybe he wanted to know what the mothers of other baby animals looked like)
3. What was your favorite baby animal in the story?
4. Is there anything you wonder about the story?
Exploring
Next I will say to the students, “Let’s see if we can retell the story now” (using pictures for guidance).
Extending
Next I will ask, “What was your favorite part of the story? I want you to draw a picture of it. Then I want you to write a sentence to go along with your picture. Once you get your sentence written, raise your hand and I will “adult” write it. Once your pictures are drawn, we are going to share them with each other.”
Closure
Before leaving, I will ask the students “Are there other books that remind you of this story? Did you like this book?”
Assessment
I will listen to the responses students give to my questions after the reading. Then I will see how well the students are able to retell the story. Finally, I will look at their drawings from the book and see how much they comprehended from the story.
Adaptations for Diverse and/or Special Needs
Children who have trouble seeing or hearing can sit close to the front so that they can see and listen to the story. Also, those who may have a hard time staying on task and focusing can sit close to me. I will have all students try to write a sentence, but then I will “adult” write the sentence based on what they tell me about their sentence. This gives students the opportunity to try to sound out the spelling of words on their own and allows them to see the correct spelling of the words.
Reflection
What went well in the lesson? Students became engaged when I showed them the picture of the llama. They also seemed to really enjoy the book.
Is there something that should be changed and how? The one thing I would change is to ask fewer questions at the beginning and to simplify some of my questions. In the “After Reading” section, question #2 seemed a bit abstract for the students. Neither student was able to answer the question.
Were the students able to stay on task the whole time? One of the students got a little distracted when we were reviewing the book at the end. I think part of the problem was that there was a lot going on in the classroom at the same time (people moving around, students and teachers talking in their reading groups, etc.)
Reflection
My lesson plan went okay, but there is room for improvement. If I had been more familiar with the students (their personalities, capabilities, and attention span), things would have gone better. This lesson plan was done in a small group setting. The two students that I worked with were Luke and Hannah. They were both shy and apprehensive. I can completely understand this, because as a young child I was very much the same way. Unfortunately, this type of personality can be challenging for a teacher. It is hard to tell what the students know or how much they’ve learned when they are unwilling to answer questions. Asking the students to draw a picture of their favorite part of the book is the best way to find out how much was comprehended in this situation.
My lesson focused on the book, “Is Your Mama a Llama,” by Deborah Guarino. I began the lesson by showing the students a picture of a llama and asking if they could identify what type of animal it was. Neither Luke nor Hannah knew. I asked them if they had ever seen a llama anywhere, like at a fair, a farm, or a zoo, trying to activate prior knowledge. However neither one of the students had seen a llama before. Next I showed the students the front and back cover of the book. There were many different animals depicted there. I asked them to identify some of the animals. Hannah pointed at the little llama right away. This made me happy, because she was able to recognize it. Since I didn’t get much of a response from the students about identifying the animals, I briefly tried to point out to them some of the animals that would be in the story. I also asked them “Why do you think the baby llama is all alone?” Neither student responded to the question, so I said that maybe he is looking for his mama, or maybe he is going on an adventure all by himself. I explained to the students what an author and illustrator were and then did a brief picture walk-through of the book. Both students seemed to be quite interested in starting to read the book at this point. For these two kids, I think there were too many questions before starting to read. They seemed to be really afraid of answering the questions and I think it may have discouraged them. If I were to do this lesson again, I would show the picture of the llama, do a brief picture walk through of the book, and then go right into reading the book.
Once I began reading, both students seemed fully engaged. At this point, both Hannah and Luke had begun to open up a little and were guessing the animals as we read. They seemed to really enjoy the story. Before reading, I had asked the students to figure out what the llama asked each of the baby animals in the story. When I finished the book, I asked the question again, and Hannah smiled and replied, “Is Your Mama a Llama?” I was really happy with her response! I also asked them why they thought the llama kept asking all the baby animals if their mama’s were llamas. Neither student wanted to answer, because I think the question was a bit abstract. If I were to do this lesson again, I don’t think I would ask this question. Hannah was a little more cooperative when it came to retelling the story. She remembered the llama’s question and was able to point out the different animals that the llama asked as we went through the story. Hannah showed me that she had comprehended what had been read to her. However, Luke had become distracted and was having a hard time focusing on retelling the story. I think if there would have been fewer distractions in the classroom, Luke would have been more engaged.
I asked the students to tell me what their favorite animal was from the story. Hannah said she liked the bunnies. Luke didn’t really want to answer, so I had him look at the book cover. He pointed to an owl as being his favorite animal. Next I asked the students to draw their favorite animals and then to write a sentence about their picture. Hannah began drawing right away. Her picture was very colorful and had detail; sun, grass, a river, and a bunny in it. Luke sat there with the blank piece of paper in front of him. I kept trying to encourage him to begin, but he just kept looking at the paper, then back at the box of crayons. I think maybe he needed some space and didn’t want me hovering over him. If this had been a classroom where students were all seated at their tables, I could have walked around the room. Eventually, I helped Luke draw an owl on his page. Then I had both students copy the name of the book (Is Your Mama a Llama) on their papers. One thing that really surprised me is that they both used uppercase letters when writing, even when they wrote their names. I think both must have fairly good literary skills, because despite the fact that the book title was written with both uppercase and lowercase letters, the students showed me that they were able to distinguish the difference between the letters.
One thing I learned from this experience was that kindergarten students require a lot more instruction and extra patience from the teacher. Since it was the beginning of the school year, I think many of the students were still working on getting adjusted to their new classroom. I understand why it is so important for a teacher to know their students. If I had known the kindergarteners a little better, I think I could have tailored this lesson plan more to their capabilities and personalities. However, this was still a positive experience for me. The fact that I got to work with kindergarteners and learn that they need in-depth instruction and patience from the teacher was a good learning experience and it is something I will keep in mind for future lesson plans.