Read Aloud Lesson Plan

Tara Hopkins

Teacher: Helene Anthony Date: 3/5/2018

Title: The Invisible Boy Author: Trudy Ludwig Genre: Realistic fiction

Rationale for Text

I selected The Invisible Boy because I knew the class was working on big ideas and themes the
week before, so this book would work perfectly with a strong anti-bullying theme. The
illustrations develop as the main character starts to feel more included. The illustrator in doing
this allowed for another way for some of the students to understand how the main character felt.
This book ultimately seemed like an important book for this age group to read. Bullying and
inclusivity are important, especially to my particular class as the class is an inclusion classroom.
The book also was written from the point of view of a narrator, which the class had learned
about the week before. So, this book acted as a way to extend their knowledge of what it means
to write from different perspectives.
NJ ELA Progress Indicators
NJSLSA.R1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical
inferences and relevant connections from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or
speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
NJSLSA.R2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development;
summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
NJSLSA.R3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the
course of a text.
NJSLSA.R6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
RL.5.6. Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are
described.

Progress Indicators are in the Common Core State Standards ELA Module on Canvas. If you’re
reading an informational text, look at the RI indicators. You will likely have 1-3 indicators.
Focus on the ones that you believe are most important and that you will be able to assess
to some degree, as you will need to reflect on how well you do in helping the children
meet them during the lesson.
Lesson Objective (s) Assessment(s)
 Students will identify themes from the  Students will share as we read what
reading they think about possible themes and
 Students will connect to the reading connections
 Students will make sense of the point  Students will write a short retelling of
of view in which the story is told the story in a different POV than which it
was written
Opening Moves

 Share book title and author and ask to have a few students use the title and cover image
to make an inference about what the book is about.
 “The author has a very interesting way of illustrating this book, so I want you all to make
note of what you see through the illustrations as we go.”
 “Using the text and the illustrations you should by the end have a couple big ideas in
your heads and be able to share some connections”
  Ask the class if they’re ready to go “So, let’s read and find out what is really going on in
The Invisible Boy.”
Questioning/Statements During Reading

pg. 1-2 I will read the first page and then I will draw attention to the illustration by saying,
“What do you notice about the picture? Is there anything different in the way the
students are drawn?”
pg. 3-4 Read the two pages and acknowledge the last line, “Nathan and Sophie take up a
lot of space. Brian doesn’t” Ask the class, “What do you think the author means
when she writes that he doesn’t take up space?”
pg. 5-8 “After not being picked to be on a team, how do you think Brian feels?”
pg. 11-12 After looking at Brian’s drawings ask, “What do you think Brian’s talent is?”
pg. 13-14 “What do you notice about Brian in the picture when the new kid arrives?”
Pg. 15-16 “Has anyone ever been the new kid in school or made to feel like they were
different?”
Pg. 17-24 As the kids’ relationship develops, there is a noticeable change in Brian’s coloring. I
will draw attention to this change as we go through this sequence of changes. “Why
do you think the author chose to change his coloring at this point?”
Pg. 29-30 The last line is, “Maybe, just maybe, Brian’s not so invisible after all.” Ask the class
how many kids it took in the story for Brian to feel less invisible?” When they
answer 1 kid, this will start into the big idea of inclusivity.
After Reading

“I want you to take a minute to think about what some of the big ideas or themes are in this
story. When you have one in your head give me a thumb up, so we can share.”

Once we decide what the theme is we will talk about connections that the students have that
they would like to share. I will ask the class to, “Think of some connections whether it be a text
to self, a text to world, or a text to text and if you’d like to share you can raise your hand.”

The cooperating teacher had wanted to extend this read aloud into a quick lesson on point of
view because the class had started learning about that at the end of the previous week. In order
to do this we will do a writing task where everyone rewrites the story from Brian’s POV.

Sources Used:
I used some of the reflection questions from the back of The Invisible Boy book, as well as the
author’s website trudyludwig.com

Reflection
Overall, I was extremely happy with how the lesson went. Their teacher had called
everyone to the carpet and explained to them that I, being a student learning to become a
teacher had to do things with the class in order to continue my studies. So, the students
understood that they needed to be respectful and helpful during my lesson with them. I had
asked the kids if they had read the book and no one had but automatically one student, Cyprian,
had said that he thought the Invisible Boy was a Goosebumps character. While for the sake of
this book they weren’t the same, but I was glad he had made a text to text connection so early.
 My opening moves went well, I had early participation right off the bat when I asked if
anyone could make a guess about what the book may be about based off its title and cover. I
first got a response like, “Maybe the boy is invisible!” So, I said, “So you think he is literally
invisible, like magic? Ok good that’s a possibility, does anyone else want to give it a guess?”
Then I had a couple students say that maybe he feels alone and it’s more like he feels invisible.
The class was on the right track to start and I had defined what I expected of them when I said
to keep thinking about the big picture as we go.
I felt that the amount of times I had planned to stop and ask them questions ended up
flowing naturally. What I also had was students raising their hands to share something after
pages that I hadn’t even planned to stop on which was nice. The students noticed the change in
the illustration because I had told them early on to keep an eye out for changes. I had students
give me very profound answers about why they thought he was colored black and white. One
student said, “Those colors make him look invisible, which is how he felt.” And another student
said, “He was sad and lonely and if he had color he would have been happy.” But then they saw
he had gained color as he gained a friend and their thoughts about the color had been
confirmed which was really exciting to them. They all understood that the theme had to do with
being inclusive and that you can be the one person to make someone’s life better. Many of the
students were able to connect with other books they read like Series of Unfortunate Events,
Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Bridge to Terabithia.
The extension activity worked out more amazing than I thought. The teacher wanted
point of view to somehow come out of this lesson by the end. So, the class was asked what
point of view is this story told from to which they said 3rd Person. They understood that it was
told with a narrator. So, what they did next was flip the POV to that of Brian’s and they were
asked to rewrite the story using that perspective. The stories that came out of some of those
kids were amazing. I heard the use of transitions, as well as vivid describing words. The kids
enjoyed doing a writing prompt from a more creative aspect. They also all understood how to
change the perspective, so they were writing “I” instead of “Brian” because they were writing as
if they were Brian. It was definitely a great lesson and I think the cooperating teacher was even
pleased with how well this book was able to lend itself to help with that lesson.