Sarah Cordes

Dr. Scott
TED 509
27 October 2019
Non-Fiction Book Read Aloud and Student Activity
The Non-Fiction Read Aloud and activity were done in a 1st grade class. The lesson was
spread out of 3 days, with 2 days to read the book and 1 day for the activity. I was able to
incorporate social studies and language arts. The book I read for this activity was Be My
Neighbor by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko. This book is part of the Fountas and Pinnell
Literacy Program. It belongs to the Text Set that has books about Community. The book focuses
on different neighborhoods around the world. The book discusses the common things that all
neighborhoods have, but it discusses and shows the differences among all the neighborhoods.
Some of the common things discussed are: transportation, homes, places to play, and schools.
The book uses photographs from around the world to show the different neighborhoods. Through
the book, students should understand that even though neighborhoods all look different, they all
have things in common.
This book is an Interactive Read Aloud, so the teacher should ask students
comprehension questions before, during, and after reading the book. To help activate background
knowledge, teachers can ask students what a neighbor is and who their neighbors are.
Throughout the reading of the text, teachers should ask about what certain terms mean to help
students better understand the text, ask about the different things they see in the photos, etc. By
asking about certain terms in the book, such habits, customs, and responsibilities, will help to
build students’ vocabulary. Teachers can further help students understand the terms by
connecting them to the students. Teachers can ask what habits, customs, and responsibilities the
students have. This will further help them to better understand the terms. After reading the text,
teachers should ask a variety of questions in order to determine student comprehension. Some
questions that students could ask is asking how some of the neighborhoods are similar or
different, ask about why the houses showed/discussed are made of different materials, and ask
students to compare certain things to themselves. At the end of the book there is a map of the
world, and it highlights all the places that the pictures in the book were taken from. Teachers can
help students meet the Social Studies Standard- 1.2.1 Students compare and contrast the
absolute and relative locations of places and people and describe the physical and/or human
characteristics of places. Locate on maps and globes their local community, California, the
United States, the seven continents, and the four oceans- by pointing out where the USA is,
where the students are, and having them acknowledge all the different countries around them that
the pictures were taken from.
The activity I did for this book was a Venn Diagram. Doing a Venn Diagram helps
students to work towards meeting some of the 1st grade Social Studies standard 1.5.1 Students
describe the human characteristics of familiar places and the varied backgrounds of American
citizens and residents in those places. Recognize the ways in which they are all part of the same
community, sharing principles, goals, and traditions despite their varied ancestry; the forms of
diversity in their school and community; and the benefits and challenges of a diverse population.
This was a 1st grade class, and they had never done a Venn Diagram before. I explained
what a Venn Diagram was, asking students to repeat the term after I introduced it. I explained
what it meant to compare/contrast two things, which further helps to build students’ academic
vocabulary. This activity was done as the “We Do” part to my lesson. Modeling and filling out
the diagram with the students can help them to better understand how to fill it out, as well as
scaffold for ELLs and students who struggle with writing because they can see what you wrote
and copy if they are unable to write.
I had the students compare/contrast neighborhoods in Mexico and the USA. I picked
Mexico because many of the students are or have family who are from Mexico. When doing this
activity, teachers can pick any countries they want to compare, but they should pick countries
that the students already have some knowledge about. When picking countries and labelling the
circles, make sure to keep the labels objective. Avoid using “we,” “me,” etc. when doing the
USA side. This helps to make sure that the activity is more inclusive for students. Teachers
should walk students through labeling each circle on the Venn Diagram, ask students about
similarities and differences, and fill out the chart with them. Teachers should make sure that
students have labelled the circles the same way the teacher has. Some students did not, and this
caused a lot of confusion when filling out the diagram itself. When filling out the diagram, I
suggest doing each country in a different color, as well as having the Similarities in a third color.
This will help the students to better understand how to fill out the diagram.
After filling out the diagram, the students were to write the sentence “Mexico is the same
as the USA because _____.” This was going to me the “You Do” portion of my lesson. I was
going to write the sentence frame with them on the board, and have them fill the rest out on their
own. However, do to timing, I was unable to get to this portion of the lesson.

*See Samples of Student Work Below