Interactive Read Aloud Planning/Recording Sheet

Name: Ana Drehwing

Book Title: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
nd
Class: PS 452 2 grade ICT classroom 30 students

How will you introduce and set the purpose for reading?
o This frames the reading and all instructional moves below should support.

I will introduce the book by first asking which students have read, or heard about, this
book before. Depending on student responses, I will say, that is great! When you read a book
for the second, or third, or even fourth time, remember that you always want to be thinking in
new ways, noticing things you might not have noticed before. Every time you read it will be a
new experience.
Then, I will introduce the text, for those of you who have not yet read this book, it is a
wonderful book! I am so excited to read it to you. This book is about two girls (show cover on
the projector), and their friendship. The book talks about some changes that happen with these
two girls throughout the book, so as we read I want you to be thinking the changes that happen,
and why they might be happening. What I also want you to be thinking about, is the inference
work we have been doing the past couple of weeks. Think about what the author says, what the
pictures show, and what it really means think about what we can infer from all of those cues
from the author and illustrator.
Now, before we start reading the book, lets look at the cover, and make some
predictions based upon the images. At this point, I will have the book cover on the projector,
and have students make predictions about the book based upon what they are seeing, and what
they are noticing. After a few observations, and after reminding students to focus on inference
work as I read in regards to the changing relationship in the book, I will start reading.

Describe how you can include the following:

o Turn and Talk - 2 (specific paces, what will you say?)

1. Page 5 After reading the page, I will say: Wow. Has that every happened to you
wanting to play with a group of people, or wanting to do an activity or a game with
someone, and that person or that group of people says no? Put your thumb on your knee
if you are able to relate to how this girl is feeling. (I will survey student responses and
adjust the turn and talk based upon students ability to relate to this situation.) How do
you think she is feeling? Why do you think that the girls said no, based upon what we
read so far? This question requires inference work, which supports the focus of the
read aloud. After giving students a minute to think, I will restate the 2 questions, and
have students turn and talk. After the turn and talk, I will do a short share of responses in
a mini-discussion before moving on.
2. Page 25 After reading, I will stop and say, Wait a minute. Lets stop for a second. I
am thinking about all that has happened so far in this book, and how much has changed
from the beginning of the book. Lets go back for a second to refresh our memory. Do
you remember in the beginning, when Annie asked the other girls to play, and they said
no? (Go back to the page and show students.) Now, look at how much has happened,
and think about what is going on right now. In the beginning, the girls did not let Annie
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play, and now, they said yes! Based upon what we read, what do you think changed?
Why do you think before the girls did not let Annie play, and now they are? Turn and
talk to your partner about that for a minute.
o Think Aloud - 3 (pages, what exactly will you say?)
1. Page 2 After reading the first page of text, I will say: Wow, I am already thinking so
many things. Im wondering why her mother says it is not safe to be on the other side of
the fence? Im thinkinghow does what this girls mother is saying effect what the girl
is thinking and doing? Already I am having so many thoughts!
2. Page 8 After the vocabulary elaboration, I will say, HmmmIm thinking again about
how this girls moms comments are influencing the way that she sees the world, and her
relationship with this other girl. Im also thinking, that if I were this girl, I wouldnt be
so happy with the response because thats the way things have always been. I dont
think that is a very good and sufficient response! Lets keep reading to see what
happens.
3. Page 13 Our class is in a unit on poetry, and we recently discussed how poems are
moody. I will take this opportunity to extend this idea through a quick think aloud by
saying, This is just like how we talked about weather affecting our mood during our
poetry unit! (We did an activity with weather and mood, in order to access the idea that
poems have moods too.)
4. Page 19 After reading, I will stop and say, Interesting I feel like something is
changing herein these past 3 pages, (I will flip back to show and point to the images
and ideas I was talking about), the girls are now having a conversation, Clover is near the
fence for the first time, they are making a connection about how both of their Mamas
dont want them on the fence, but they never said that they couldnt sit on the fence, and
they do it anyway. I wonder if the author wrote this page (turn to page 13) to show us
how feeling brave can sometimes lead to a changeLets see what happens next.
o Vocabulary Elaboration (choose 1 or 2 words and write how you will
elaborate)
1. Page 8 I will draw students to the words stare and polite. I will say, Class, we
have seen this word come up quite a lot throughout the beginning of this book. (At this
point, I will flip back to the pages that have said stare so far.) Do you all know what it
means to start? I will have students practice staring at each other for a few moments, so
that they can understand why it could be uncomfortable, and to have students understand
the meaning in a deeper way.
a. Then, I will ask students, Do you know what it means to be polite? I will take
student ideas, and then clarify. Finally, I will scaffold for students to connect why
it is not polite to stare, before continuing to read.
o How can you utilize voice, pace, and/or expression?
This picture book has wonderful illustrations that tell the story themselves, and therefore,
there is very simple, minimal text to support the pictures. Because the text is minimal in

comparison to the illustrations, I feel that it is important to speak slowly, with a lot of emphasis
and expression, to help bring out the power in the meaning that the words Jacqueline Woodson
wrote. Also, it will be significant to read slowly so that students can internalize the language,
and do the inference work I asked them to consider. Additionally, there is a wide range of
readers in our class, so I want to use my expression and voice to help students that struggle with
reading consider the implications of the words.
There is dialogue mixed in throughout the text as well. I think that the way I speak in the
girls voices, both Clover and Annie, can help to make these characters come to life. I will likely
speak in a different tone for each of the girls, so that the characters can take on the personality
that Jacqueline Woodson wanted for them. Additionally, the tone of voice that I use for Clovers
mother will be significant, because it is her input and opinions that have Clover hesitate to even
approach the fence in the beginning of the story. The voice and expression that I give these
characters through the dialogue represented in the book will also be valuable in helping students
with the inference work.

Include additional information about accountable talk questions.

At the end of the book, as a class we will have about 10 minutes to discuss the book in depth
after the interactive read aloud. I will have the following accountable talk questions ready for
discussion:
2. First, I will acknowledge the end of the book, and how much there is to think about, by
saying, Wow what a powerful book. Look at how much has changed from the first
page, to this last page. Look at how all of the girls are sitting together on the fence,
whereas in the beginning Clover and Annie were watching each other from far away.
a. I will introduce symbolism by saying, sometimes, authors like Jacqueline
Woodson use something called symbolism. This is when the author talks about
an object or something in the story in a way that really represents a deeper
meaning about something else, usually a big idea. When you think about this
book, and the story of friendship and separation in this story, I want you to
consider what the fence really symbolizes. On this last page, Annie says,
someday somebodys going to come along and knock this old fence down. Now,
we know that there is a real, actual fence in this story, but what do you think the
fence really represents?
3. What do you think they mean knock this fence down? Do you really think they mean
knock the fence down, or is there a deeper meaning there? What can we infer from
Jacqueline Woodsons language, words, and images in this story to help us?

Interactive Read Aloud Reflection

Although I have observed countless interactive read alouds in my placement classrooms,
I had not yet done one myself before this assignment! I was a little bit intimidated when my
cooperating teachers recommended The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson for my first read
aloud, because it has so much potential and thought-provoking opportunity that I wasnt sure I
could find the right turn and talk points, or how I should really think aloud about the text in a
way that makes the power of it accessible for the students in my own classroom. However, I
must say that this was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in the classroom thus
far. I could feel the magic that I always knew a good, interactive read aloud had the potential
to have. The students were engaged and thinking about the text in a much deeper way, which
was very exciting for me to be a part of.
After reading the first page and thinking aloud, students were so eager to talk about it
already, that they were raising their hands and ooh-ing so that I would call on them. I didnt
want to do a turn and talk so early in the book, but maybe it would have been a good idea? I told
students to hold the thoughts they might be having in their heads for later on, and some of the
students seemed disappointed. I am wondering how soon is too soon to do a turn and talk?
Would it have been a good idea for me to deviate from my initial instructional plan to adapt to
the eagerness students were having about this book? I think that this decision comes with some
more experience, but at the end of the read aloud I felt as though the turn and talks seemed to be
at appropriate times.
I found myself doing a few more impromptu think alouds throughout the book, although
they were not all very substantial. For example, when Annie was playing in the rain on pages 910, I found myself saying, wow doesnt that look like fun! Additionally, during the think
aloud on page 13, I was able to relate to that feeling, so I added this to the think aloud as well by
saying, I actually felt that way this morning. After the past 2 rainy days, when I came out of the
subway on my commute I felt so great, happy, and free, just like this girl! I found this to be
appropriately helpful for students, because of the way I noticed students were responding to the
text. I found that the extra think alouds were necessary, because this was a pretty high level book
for this group, and I feel like that was appropriate scaffolding and thinking for my class.
I wasnt sure about students background knowledge about racism, segregation, prejudice,
etc., and I wish that I had prepared a little bit more in considering what students responses and
reactions might have been prior to the read aloud. However, I was pleasantly surprised about
how much they knew and were able to understand about the main ideas from this time, and how
they were very comfortable, and respectful, talking about it for the most part. The students
knew much about the history of segregation, but didnt always have the language to express their
ideas about it, so I was able to introduce that as a vocabulary word as well during our
accountable talk discussion at the end.
Students had a little bit of difficulty discussing the second turn and talk, when students
were asked to consider what had changed from the beginning of the book until now, and why the
girls now allowed Annie to play with them. I flipped back and forth through the book to show
them what I meant, but maybe I could have phrased the question in a different way, or went
through the book, referring to specific language rather than the emphasis I gave on the
illustrations, to help them with the evidence and inference work. After realizing that students
struggled to talk about this, I decided to have a mini-discussion immediately afterwards, before
continuing to read, so that we could do the inference work together. I found this to be effective,

as I was able to scaffold students thoughts about what has changed, and why they were letting
Annie play with them now. This prompted deeper thinking, and a more thoughtful discussion
during the accountable talk at the end of the lesson.
A time management strategy I employed during the turn and talks was to highlight 1-2
student examples that I overheard and engaged with as I spoke with students during this time,
and took 2-3 student volunteers for ideas I didnt directly hear. I found this to be a good strategy,
because much of what students wanted to share happened to be similar to each other, so when I
highlighted some of the shared ideas for everyone to hear, it minimized the overall need for
every student to respond and participate. This also made more students feel valued and
respected, as they were able to non-verbally agree with the responses I highlighted by patting
their heads something that we do in our classroom as a way to express our agreement.
At the end of the lesson, I initially had not thought about relating the text to the world we
live in today for some reason, but after hearing the impact the text had on students, I decided to
add in a question to get students thinking about how much has changed since the time of this
book. This was helpful to have students consider how silly it seemed that kids couldnt play
together because of the color of their skin, or a fence that was separating them. One student said,
there will not be an other side if they knock the fence down so powerful! I was so
impressed and empowered by student responses, that I was upset the discussion had to end.
During the next opportunity I have to teach an interactive read aloud with accountable talk at the
end, I might introduce some sentence starters, especially for a book like this one. Students were
so eager to share ideas that they sometimes shouted them out, which also makes me think I
should have gone over expectations for accountable talk beforehand. I wasnt exactly sure how
much time we would have, which is why I was hesitant to at first, but in the future, when I know
it is a book with the potential for a rich discussion, I would definitely make those adjustments.