Emily Bluth

Shared Reading Reflection

Before the Reading Warm up with Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein
I read the first six lines out loud with minimal expression
I read the first six lines again with expression to give the narrator a voice
Discuss the difference between these two readings
While reading the rest of the poem, I read slowly and pause at the end of
each line to let students try to determine the ending word
During the Reading Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too
Project onto SMARTboard
Use expression from warm up to help with this poem
Three different characters = three different voices
Read with expression
After the Reading Turn and talk about imagery from poem and the illustrations
Discuss rhyming sounds of poem and make a list of them on the
whiteboard underline the part that rhymes

Reflection
While planning my shared reading for the 3
rd
grade class I am student teaching in, I
grappled with what text to use. My classroom does not use big books, and my cooperating
teacher uses chapter books for Read Aloud instead of picture books. For this reason, I decided I
was going to use poetry for my shared reading. In the classroom, I found A Light in the Attic by
Shel Silverstein, a quirky and engaging book of poetry, which I loved as a child. I was excited
about the opportunity to use it for shared reading with my students.
I chose to warm the students up with Boa Constrictor, because this poem has repeating
words and a predictable format, as the boa constrictor is eating the narrator. This poem was a
good warm up for getting students thinking in the mindset of Silversteins quirky writing style. I
read this poem out loud to the students while they sat on the meeting rug. I chose not to project
this poem on the SMARTboard because I wanted students to use what they know about rhyming
sounds and body parts to help them navigate the successive lines of the poem. I chose to read the
first six lines of the poem to the students first, before proceeding with the remainder of it. I read
these lines with minimal expression, because, based on the poems structure it may be difficult
for a young reader to imagine the tone of the narrators voice. Then I modeled how the first six
lines can be read with expression, which gives a particular voice to the narrator. We discussed
the difference between the two readings, which students were able to access and make noticings
about. As I read the rest of the poem, I chose to pause before reading the body part names, letting
the students determine what they may be based on the previous rhyming word and sound (gee,
knee). Because they were all body parts, the students caught on with the rhyming sounds quickly.
The ending of the poem surprised them: the words no longer rhyme but the narrator is eaten with
a, upmmmmfffff. The students and I had fun saying this word together. I think that choosing
this poem for my warm up was a good choice and I would definitely use more Shel Silverstein
poems in the future. I think that I was able to successfully model for students the different
between two tones of expression. Maybe next time I could work on the emphasis or inflection of
particular words.
For my shared reading I chose Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too. I like this poem
because of its use of repetition, dialogue, and illustration. Unlike the warm up poem, I projected
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too on the SMARTboard for students to follow along with as
we read. Because I have visual and audio learners in my class, it was important to me that there
be a visual reference of the poem for this learning portion; unlike the warm up, which was just
about sounds. Before reading, I told students that we would use the expressions we used in Boa
Constrictor while also reading this poem. I wanted them to know that they can apply reading
strategies they learn for one text to other texts they are reading. Ickle Me, Pickle Me, and Tickle
Me are three different characters in the poem so they will have three different voices. As a class
we came up with three different voices of expression to use for the three characters. This made
the reading more imaginative and more interactive for the students. While reading out loud,
students were excited about the repeated line of, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too. It was
definitely a tongue twister. This poem also consisted almost entirely of familiar words that were
simple for students of all reading levels to say fluently. After we read the poem, I asked students
what imagery came into their minds while reading. This was an opportunity for turn and talk
discussion, since not all students feel comfortable sharing out. I am working on my pacing of
turn and talks, and I think I could have given the students a little bit more time for this
discussion. One student said that she pictured a dirty brown boot flying over Machu Picchu
(students had previously learned about this mountain during a test prep reading). Another student
was wondering if the shoe that they were flying in was very big for life-size people, or if the shoe
was very small for tiny-sized people. I was happy to see the students thinking about the poem in
different ways, using their imaginations, and making connections to prior knowledge. Lastly, we
talked about the rhyming words in the poem: some of the words had the same rhyming sound but
were spelled differently (too, blue). Students identified more of these rhyming pairs throughout
the poem. Students also had a turn and talk discussion with a partner in which they came up with
other rhyming pairs that followed this same pattern. I compiled a list of these on the whiteboard
for the class to recite together; I underlined the parts of the words that actually rhymed while the
students and I read. In retrospect, it may have been unnecessary to have students make other
rhyming sound pairs with a partner. At the time I just wanted to solidify their understanding of
this as an extension of what they see in the poem. I could have used that extension during
Morning Meeting as a review instead of incorporating it into the shared reading time. I also think
that maybe I should have stuck with either focusing on rhyming sounds or focusing on imagery.
It may have been too much to try and touch upon both. Instead, I could have assigned one focus
to this shared reading and saved the other focus for the next shared reading with this text.
Ultimately, I think that my first shared reading experience went well. I had never
conducted a shared reading before, and I now understand firsthand the value of it being an
engaging and meaningful reading experience for young students. Being in a 3
rd
grade classroom,
I did consider it to be slightly more difficult finding an appropriate text that could be used for
shared reading. However, I think that using poetry, such as Shel Silversteins, ended up being a
great option for this. Poetry is something that I will continue to use for shared reading in the
future with older students.