Last week I had an incredible opportunity. I got the chance to read aloud to my first grade class. My lead teacher helped me make a choice about the book I should read. She picked Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and illustrated by David Catrow. The classroom is starting a unit on Narrative writing and the first part of the unit is creating a character. Molly Lou Melon is the perfect candidate to show the kids a strong main character. The book is about a very unique girl who embraces who she is even through a rough time with a bully at her new school.
In preparation for my read aloud I read the book aloud to myself several times. I tried to look for words that I would need to define and I tried to look for places where I could ask questions and engage the children. Despite my prep, when the time came for me to start my read aloud I was surprisingly nervous.
Still, when I started it seemed so natural and to have full attention of the children on the read aloud was a wonderful experience. I asked questions during the read “How do you think Molly feels on her first day at her new school. I allowed time for the children to share with a partner their predictions. Then the kids shared with the whole classroom. The students found the word “foolish” confusing and I explained it as “embarrassed”. I was unprepared to explain that word until a student asked during the read aloud. I used different voices for different characters and let the kids repeat during certain moments. I brought their attention to the pictures in the book explain and bringing out different details.
From this experience I’ve learned that I absolutely love reading aloud to children. It was a beautiful opportunity. Looking at the quiet attention of each student I was impressed with their silence. I loved the way you can connect to kids when you read to them. They are so curious and reactive to the reading and I felt it was a great success. I learned that you can never be too prepared. Also, I think it would have been helpful to read aloud to someone else so they could ask me questions and offer a different perspective. I have come to recognize that no matter how much you practice being in front of the kids is a different opportunity altogether. I learned how to engage the students and have them participate during the reading.
All in all, a very great experience that I hope to repeat many times.
Sparks of Insight 
I love that you had such a great time reading to your students. The first few times can be very nerve racking ! Its like having all those little eyes starring back at you that you don’t want to disappoint them or mess up ! I love that you asked questions throughout the book because I think that’s a great way to only keep them engaged in the book but also it allows to them to relate the book back to themselves as well.
I would agree that you can never really be too prepared and every time is going to be different ! Not only are the children going to have different attention spans but different interest and you just really never know what can happen but I think as long as you keep the book relevant to what is going on they will be genuinely curious and interested !
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I liked your post Anastasiya and I am happy that you had fun reading the book to the kids! I already read at least one book to the class during my volunteering time. I didn’t had time to prepare because my lead teacher asked me to read a book to the kids that day. I was surprised, because I wasn’t ready to do it. However, I took a book and read it once to my self and then I read it to the whole class. Every one was listening and looking at me and the book with huge eyes! I was happy, even though I made mistakes while reading they were still engaged and actively listening to me. In addition, when you get closer and connect more with kids they want to listen to you and engage in activities with you. Again, I am happy that your first time reading a loud was successful. Hope you have great experiences at Sunny Crest for the rest of this quarter!
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