Misunderstanding At The Zoo Analysis

Mr. Peek the Misunderstanding at the Zoo was the book I chose for my interactive read aloud. In the story, Mr. Peek accidentally puts his son’s jacket on before he goes to work. It obviously doesn’t fit and it makes him feel bad about himself. As he is making his rounds at the zoo he talks to himself in a very critical way. All of the animals think that he is talking to them. Once Mr. Peek figures out that he really had the wrong jacket the whole time, he walks back through the zoo praising himself this time. The animals are all happy again. It was all a misunderstanding, but the book doesn’t implicitly state this, rather gives clues. Throughout the lesson, I asked questions and had the students make predictions that would help them …show more content…
When I listened to students talking with each other they definitely understood the whole book and I was so relieved! When I asked the question, “why were the animals so glum before?” A student answered that all the animals were sad before because they thought Mr. Peek was saying all those mean things to them. Then he walked through again and he was saying nice things so the animals were happy again. I was so glad that she gave this answer. I repeated it for the class to make sure that everyone could make the connection. A few of the students shared their role play with the class and it was clear that they learned how to make the connections throughout the book. A pair of boys shared and the boy acting as Mr. Peek said something about being lumpy and the other boy made a really sad expression and said he was glum, a term we had defined earlier in the lesson. I was really happy with what I saw from the students during my interactive read aloud and what I felt that they learned. I think that the book was challenging to understand, but with my stopping points and students helping each other through discussion it was understood by all of the students. The text pushed students to work on comprehension and “think about their reading,” an action stressed in my classroom. I think Mr. Peek and the Misunderstanding at the Zoo was a good book for my students and …show more content…
I honestly, don’t think it could have gone much better. During my last field experience, I worked a lot on improving my language when talking with students. For example, saying “I need you to” rather than “can you?” My supervisor said my language and demeanor were great in helping the lesson be the best that it could be. I was ecstatic at her feedback because it was something that I focused on improving in the past. I worked a lot on clarity and felt that in the lesson the students understood directions and goals for the interactive read aloud. I continued to focus on my lesson objective of making connections throughout the book by asking a lot of questions that facilitated higher order thinking. The questions forced students to think about the pictures, words, and meanings and make inferences about how it all goes together. The students doing so well on the role play activity proved that they made the connections and understood the concept of the book. The facilitative talk was very successful in this interactive read aloud. I asked questions about the pictures and characteristics of the animals that helped the students make the connection between what Mr. Peek was saying and why the animals would think he was talking to them. The student that answered the question that basically summed up the whole book confirmed that the HOT (higher order thinking) questions I asked lead students to a complete