Since the most of the children knew who he was, I addressed the main theme of the story in a sense of a question, so I asked what does being responsible mean to them. The few kids I did call on said it was "to do something" or "make sure you are careful." I combined the two to say, "Yes, it is to make sure you careful when you do something important."
Due to the fact this book was a little bit longer, I made sure during the read aloud to stop and ask questions. Some were comprehension checks while most were in the sense of predictions. A lot of the students were using the pictures to help explain themselves. Meanwhile, others were trying to utilize the words within the story to support their answers.
Finally, we got to the end and everyone knew Perky (the dog Arthur was watching) was going to have her puppies. I was stunned to hear everyone know this. Turns out, they had watched the episode within the classroom and they remembered it. That being said, I turned it quickly into a compare and contrast lesson to see if they could elaborate any ideas further. The only one situation we could find was when Perky had her puppies under Arthur's bed in the book versus behind the couch in the television episode.
Kati! It sounds like you were well prepared for this read aloud! Arthur was one of my favorite shows growing up. I always loved reading the books but they were definitely not as good as the TV show. As a kid, visuals are key in helping them to understand what is happening, how the characters are feeling and make predictions (if possible)> As a teacher, we will have to be able to make those quick lesson changes right in the mist of it happening because we never know what will happen so that is really good that you were able to quickly turn it into a compare and contrast lesson even though that may not be what you had planned originally. But hey! That's what we need to do, right!
ReplyDelete"Arthur" was one of my favorite all-time shows, too! I believe his adventures will always depict a new, awkward scenario that the kids watching the show and/or reading the book will probably never experience. However, with Arthur and his friends’ guidance will find a way somehow to solve the issue. Nevertheless, it is completely our job as teachers to quickly try adjusting the learning in any way we can if necessary. It definitely was not what I was expecting, but it made it an all the more delightful to see the students to remember as much as they did from the show.
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