I got the call this morning. Not a welcome call, but a call nonetheless. Coverage was tight, would I be cover a first grade class so the teacher could attend her grade level meeting. Without a second thought, I accepted the call.
I had a few minutes to peruse my shelves of picture books and thoughtfully grabbed Marc Simont’s, The Stray Dog. It’s a book had used for read aloud in years past, but given the past few years, it had sat, unopened, unread on my shelf. The story is about a family that goes to the park for a picnic. They befriend a stray dog for the day, and contemplate taking him (Willy) home. They decide not to for it must belong to someone. The story then takes the reader back to home with the family where each member of the family is quite preoccupied with thoughts of Willy. They return to the same park for another picnic. Willy appears and so does the dog warden. Just as the dog warden is about to whisk Willy away, the boy pulls off his belt and claims “here is his collar” and the girl pulls off her hair ribbon and claims “here is his leash”. Together the proclaim, “his name is Willy”.
Jen had given me permission to be flexible with the first few parts of the schedule, so when I deemed it time for read aloud, I closed my eyes, counted to twenty by two’s, and had them find a good listening spot for read aloud. I opened my eyes and there they were, before me, ready to be readers.
Throughout the read aloud, I got to pose open ended questions like “What do you notice?” and “What are you thinking/feeling? Why?” I got to listen to their thinking. I got to hear A explain why she thought the family was preoccupied with thoughts of Willy after they left him, “they are all grumpy because they are having second thoughts about what they did”. I got to hear them debate whether the boy and girl were lying and wether or not it was OK for them to lie. I got to hear J say at the end, “sometimes doing the right thing is better than not telling a lie.”
It was the best, unexpected, start to a day. I sat there with 18 first graders not only sharing a story, but getting to know each other a little bit better.
let's observe 
“I got to…” you made the most of this unexpected time WITH KIDS. No surprise that you made the best of it for everyone involved.
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Her read aloud was a LOT better than mine!!! lol!
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🤣 but you were hungry!
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There are so many parts of this that made me want to cheer- how you chose a book that was both familiar and new, how you closed your eyes and counted to 20 by 2, how they thought and commented, and mostly how lucky you & they were to “get” to read aloud today. Lovely.
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Ohhh! I love The Stray Dog! And what lucky first-graders! I needed that book last week when I was the unplanned and UNPREPARED sub in a third-grade classroom!
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Yes, when in doubt grab the read aloud! I am not surprised at the students’ thoughtfulness. You are skilled at getting kids to go deeper. Yay to you and a good book.
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Of course you did! Nothing better than read aloud – for them and us!
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I hadn’t read that book, but now I not only want to read it, but I have a sense of how deep it can be. I love that comment by J at the end. I had to read it twice to make sure I got it. Amazing depth for any student, especially amazing from a first grader.
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There’s nothing quite like reading aloud, especially with a class you don’t know. This was such an enjoyable slice and great description of how the students became engaged and really entered in.
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