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Interactive Read Aloud
Ana Luisa Domingues de Moura
C&T 4133 - Learning and Teaching in The Reading and Writing Classroom
Teachers College, Columbia University
March, 2015

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Interactive Read Aloud and Response

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Part 1: Selecting the text and planning for the read-aloud

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I am currently placed in a first grade class with 18 students in Parkchester, Bronx. I read
one of Mo Willems books a couple of weeks ago and my students did not know his Pigeon
books. They enjoyed so much that I have been reading one at a time when we do have time for it.
The first pigeon book I read was Dont Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and it was used to
discuss punctuation. The students loved it and I read The Pigeon finds a Hot Dog next. I read it
for fun, but it was a great way to revise punctuation. For this read aloud I wanted to do another
pigeon book to record the reaction of my students.
The Duckling Gets A Cookie?! (2013) is a book by Mo Willems that has one of his
famous characters, the Pigeon, but this time he is mad because the duckling got a cookie and he
did not. This book is entertaining and leads the way to a conversation about manners with the
class you are reading to.
After doing the read aloud I planned to ask questions to the students not only about the
story, but about something similar that could happen in their lives. Questions such as What do
you do when you want something? and Is there a way to ask for something you want?.
According to Fisher et al. (2004) there are seven components for an effective read aloud.
Although I do not agree to all of them, some of them were present when I read to this first grade
class. I tried to be animated and to use expressions, I practiced before and stopped the read aloud
sometimes to ask the students some questions. One of the components mentioned in Fishers

article (2004) is the requirement of having a teacher with fluent oral reading, but I do not agree
with this component because I think making mistakes might be a good thing to show the students
that nobody is perfect, even the person who is teaching them.

Part 2: Conducting the read-aloud

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The students were really excited when they saw
I started telling them that I got this great book and I wanted to share with them. I talked to them
about the Pigeon books and they told me they love these books, just like their teacher said they
did, and I said I loved them too. I said that the book I brought to read for them was the last one
released and I wanted to share with them because I liked it so much.

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Transcript of read aloud:

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Ana Luisa: Ok guys, so I know you know this guy on the corner of the page already, the
Pigeon. But the name of this book is The Duckling gets a cookie?!
Many students: I know it!
Shantell: Ive read it!
Many students: Wooow, we dont know this one!
April: I don't know it!
Ana Luisa: You dont know it? Thats great! If you know it its ok too, we are going to read it
together and then we can talk about it. Is that OK?

Many students: Yeah.

Ana Luisa: So lets start OK?! You know this fellow over here?
Many students: Yes! The Pigeon!
Ana Luisa: And this one you do too, right?
Many students: The Duckling!
Ana Luisa: Ok so lets start. Can you see what we have in here?
Many students: Cookies!
Devante: On nom nom!
Ana Luisa: Are you guys listening? Look what the Pigeon is saying right over here, I do not
like the look of that title. Do you guys have any ideas why he doesnt like the title?
Devante: I think because the Duckling gets a cookie and he doesnt.
Ana Luisa: Oh that could be true! Or maybe because his name is not on the title of the book.
Did you guys see that?
Students: Yeah.
Shantell: The Pigeon and the Duckling get a cookie.
Ana Luisa: Maybe thats what the Pigeon wanted, right? Lets see what is going to happen in
the book.
Shantell: Hello.
Ana Luisa: Hello.
AL: Flipty flop.
AL: May I have a cookie, please?
Devante: Yes you may.

Shantell: Oh!
AL: Oh! Thanks!
Shantell: Flipty fl-op flop.
AL: Flipty flop flop.
AL: Thank you! That was very nice of you! Look at all these nuts!. Do you think the
Duckling likes nuts?
Many students: Yes!
AL: Me too! Lets keep reading! Who is this guy over here?
Shantell: The Pigeon!
AL: Hey! Where did you get that cookie?
Shantell: I asked for it.
AL: I asked for it.
AL: You asked for it?
AL: Say, does this cookie have nuts?
Shantell: Politely. Hey, you missed one!
AL: Politely. I am sorry, I skipped one page! So the Pigeon said You asked for it? and the
Duckling said: Politely.
AL: Say, does this cookie have nuts?
AL: Yes.
AL: So, you got a cookie with nuts just by asking?
Shantell: Politely.
AL: Politely.

AL: I ask for things all the time.

Rachel: Oh!
AL: I asked to drive the bus.
Shantell: Yeah, we have that!
AL: Do I ask for candy? I do! I ask for hot dog parties!
Shantell: Cause he love hot dogs.
Rachel: Yeah.
AL: It doesnt have to be a big bus, ya know. Ive asked for a french fries robot every now and
then. Ive asked for a walrus.
Shantell: Yeah, he asked for that.
Mikayla: Yeah.
AL: Right now I am asking: Why? Why ? Why?
April: Hahahhahha!
Shantell: Oh, oh, hes going to scream!
AL: Oh, and there is more! Ill ask for one more story! Sometimes I ask for a hug! I cant
count the times Ive asked for my own personal iceberg.
Mikayla: He asks.
AL: I asked to stay up late.
Shantell: Oh, Ive read that one!
Mikayla: Yeah, me too!
Kidus: Me too.
AL: Oh yeah, I am the askingest pigeon in town. But do I get what I ask for?

April: No.
AL: But do I get what I ask for?
AL: Does the Pigeon gets what he asks for?
Mikayla: HE DOESNT ASK PLEASE!
AL: Ohh. What else did you guys say? Angel, go ahead!
Angel: I think, I think he does not get what he asks for because he is not saying please.
AL: Oh! He is not saying please! Do you agree Shantell?
Shantell: Ahn, he is not, he is not being polite.
April: I asked for an walrus.
Shantell: But thats not how you do it.
AL: Hm, thats great. We are going to talk more about that later.
AL: But do I get what I ask for?
Shantell: Nooooooooo.
Mikayla: Yes.
AL: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Look how many Os! Look at the Duckling!
Shantell: Look at the cookie!
AL: The cookie is flying too! And the Pigeon looks pretty mad because he doesnt get what he
asks for, right?!
Shantell: How do you get like this?
April: Nobody gets it..
AL: Its not fair!
Shantell: Flipty flop.

AL: Ducklings get everything! Pigeons like cookies too. Specially the ones with nuts. Why
did you get that cookie?
AL: Can everyone see?
Many students: Yes.
AL: So I can give it to you.
AL: And another thing Hubba what?
Many students: Hahahaha!
AL: You are giving me that cookie?
AL: With the nuts.
April: Haha.
AL: That is so nice! Thank you! Thank you very much!
Shantell: Oh!
AL: Look, he gave the Pigeon the cookie.
Angel: Its funny.
AL: Hm, that is one cool duckling, on nom nom. Yes, sir.
AL: Bye.
AL: Lets see what will happen next.
AL: May I have one cookie, please?
Shantell: Yes.
AL: But this time, no nuts.
AL: Wait, guys look at the back cover! What do you see?
Shantell: Hey!!! Cookies! That one does not have nuts!

April: No nuts!!! Hahaha.

Many students: No nuts! Yes!
AL: And in the front over here, what do you see?
Many students: Nuts!
April: Cookies with nuts! Haha!
AL: So what happened, guys? What do you think, Devante?
Devante: I think the Pigeon doesnt get what he asks for.
AL: Why? Do you have any idea why he doesnt get anything?
Devante: Maybe because sometimes people dont get what they want and sometimes people
get what they want.
AL: That is a really good point.
April: If you ask nicely.
AL: Sometimes we dont get everything we want, right?!
AL: Lets listen to Atyia, she has an idea too. Go ahead, Atyia.
Atyia: Hm, sometimes I want something and I forget to say please and my mommy and my
daddy dont let me do it, but sometimes when I say please they let me do it.
AL: Ok guys, if you agree with what Atyia just said raise your hands. Oh, you dont agree,
Rachel? With what she said right now? Do you want to share?
Rachel: I agree.
AL: Oh ok, so now I want to listen to Max. Do you have something else to add?
Max: Sometimes I ask for a cookie, but my parents dont give it to me.
AL: Why? Because you didnt say please?

Max: No, because I had too much candy already.

AL: Ahhh, ok. But I wanted to..
Max: And also
AL: Go ahead, go ahead.
Max: Also because I like to eat too much candy and my parents dont let me eat cookies all the
time.
AL: Ok, ok. Guys, I want to ask you one more thing. We just read the story, right? So tell me, if
you want something, what can you do to get this thing you want so badly?
Makaliee: Ahn, we have to say please.
AL: You have to say please, yes. And you have to be what?
April: Polite!
Atyia: You have to be polite.
April: You already did Atyia!
AL: I just called you too. Do you want to share something, April? Go ahead, if you want
something is there anything you could say?
April: You, you, you cannot scream to somebody when they dont do something. You, you just
have to answer nicer.
AL: Oh, that is great!
April: Sometimes, if you say please, they will give you something.
AL: So there you go, if we are polite we have a bigger chance to get what we want, right?
AL: OK. I have one more question for you guys!
Devante: I, I!

AL: Go ahead Devante.

Devante: Sometimes the Pigeon gets what he wants because he convinces people.
AL: Aham, yeah. We cannot get everything we want all the time, right?!
Many students: Yeah, Yes.
AL: But I want to ask you one more thing! Tatiana, are you listening? So, one more thing, you
all have friends right? You are friends with each other here! What is one thing you can
do to make your friend feel special? Does anybody know? You want to share,
Daniela? Go ahead.
Daniela: Sometimes if they do something nice you can say thank you.
AL: Oh, that is really important! Do you want to share again, Devante? Go for it.
Devante: You can be polite. You can be special to them and they will be special to you.
AL: That is great. And what is one thing the Duckling did in the book that made the Pigeon
feel special?
Mikayla: He was polite.
AL: He was polite, great. And what else?
Shantell: He gave the Pigeon the cookie.
AL: Oh, he gave the Pigeon the cookie, right?! So some people like getting cookies. But some
people like to give cookies, right?
April: I like getting presents.
AL: You like getting presents? I like giving presents.
Shantell: Me too!
AL: And do you guys say thank you when you get presents?

Many students: Yes.

AL: Go ahead, Devante.
Devante: Maybe the Duckling gave the Pigeon a cookie because they were friends and because
the Duckling gets everything by asking.
AL: Uhum. So we learned a good lesson today, right? Actually I dont think you guys learned it
because I think you already knew how to be polite. Ok, guys? Thank you! You were
great!
April: Ah, can we have one more?
Shantell: One more!
Kidus: We are not going to read another one?
AL: No guys, I did just one today! Did you like it?
Many students: Yeah!
AL: Great! Maybe we will do another one soon!
Many students: Yay!!!!!
AL: Guys, lets stand up and line up to go to gym.

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Part 3: Reflection

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I do not remember how many read alouds I conducted while I was working in a school,
but I know it was not a significant number. I remember if I was reading a part of a text book to
the children I did not wanted to be interrupted because there was a schedule to be fulfilled. I
specifically remember one I did for my third grade class at the library that it was different. The
students interacted with the book and I liked to see their reaction. I liked to see that they were
paying attention and enjoying the book I was reading to them. I remember it felt really good and
maybe that is why this is one of the few I remember doing.
I really like to do read alouds with this class because I feel that they really like them, but
there is always the wondering about what to expect. In the end I always like doing the read aloud
so much that I want to do others and so did the students because they always say they want
another one.
Before reading Sipe (2002), I thought the childrens reaction to a read aloud were a
natural thing, but I remember that when I conducted a read aloud at my old job I wanted the kids
to be quiet and to listen. Most of the read alouds I have seen were like that and I wanted to do the
same as the teachers were doing. Today I can see that their interaction is a good thing and just
because they are talking back or taking over, it does not mean that they are not paying attention.
According to Sipe (2002) there are five categories to describe the childrens reaction to a read
aloud. One common response I had while reading The Duckling gets a cookie?! was talking
back. Many students talked back to the book like they were responding some of the sentences I
read.

I asked the students why they thought the Pigeon did not like the title of the book (cover
page) and some students said that it was because the duckling gets a cookie and he does not, and
some students said that the name of the book should be The Pigeon And The Duckling Get A
Cookie. After these answers I was sure that the students knew the Pigeon books really well
since they know the Pigeons personality.
Sipe (1998) says that discussing the pictures with the students is very important in a read
aloud and I did that in some parts of the story. On the first page of the story you can see the
Pigeons face showing that he looks mad about the title and I talked to the students to know what
they thought about it. I also talked to the students about the pictures in the end covers where you
can see cookies with nuts at the beginning and cookies without nuts at the end. I asked the
students what were they seeing and all of them answered cookies!. One student, Mikayla, took
over and said on nom nom as if she was chewing a cookie as a reaction to someone that
definitely loves cookies and would like to be eating them at the time of the story. Specially
because it was two periods after lunch.
Another example of talking back was when I was reading all the things the Pigeon asked
for and the students were saying that they knew this book or that they have read it before. When I
said that the Pigeon asked for hot dog parties Shantell said Cause he loves hot dogs!. Two
students that are more shy , Rachel and Mikayla, often agreed with what Shantell said.
When the Duckling asked if he could have a cookie (page 2), one or two students
answered Yes you may before I turned the page, which means that they did not knew the
answer and were talking back (Sipe, 2002) to the story. Some of them nodded their heads as well.
I think that was a really interesting reaction since I am sure that before reading this article, I

would not see this reaction as a common one among my students. After reading this article
(Sipe, 2002) I realized that when students are talking back, dramatizing, or doing something
related to the story that means that they are actually enjoying the story and want to be a part of it.
On page 4 I asked if the students thought the Ducking liked cookies with nuts or without
it. Most of them thought he liked the cookie with the nuts and I said I thought the same thing but
I was not sure and we should find out together reading the book. They were as curious as I was
when I read the book for the first time and I thought some of them could be because the
Duckling asked for a cookie without nuts at the end, but no one seem to worry about that. They
just laughed and enjoyed the story.
On page 7 I skipped one of the Duckling lines that said Politely and one of the students
said Hey, you missed one!. I apologized right away and re-read the previous page and them the
one I missed before. Like I mentioned before, Fisher et al. (2004) state that a teacher with fluent
oral reading is an essential component for an effective read aloud, but as a teacher I think that
making mistakes is a part of everyones life and when a teacher makes one he/she can take
advantage of the situation saying that even teachers makes mistakes and that no one is perfect.
One of the students that was sitting in front of me, Shantell, read many lines of the book
before I did or with me. First I thought that this might distract some of the students, but I do not
think it did since all of them were paying attention to the story. I think Shantell was dramatizing
the story in many parts of the read aloud, but I think that she might have been inserting as well
because it looked like she wanted to be a part of the story. Devante as well when he said Yes
you may when the Duckling asked for a cookie.

McGee and Schickedanz (2007) say that just reading a book is not enough to help
children to get oral vocabulary development and listening comprehension. That is one of the
reasons I wanted to talk to the students about the story after reading it as well. The also say that
the most effective read alouds are the ones where children get involved with the story and that is
what I tried to do when I stopped to ask them questions.
Knowing the students from my classroom I was positively impressed that no one said
anything rude about asking for things, or anything to take the focus of the story. In the end, I
think the read aloud was really effective for many reasons. One of them is because the book was
entertaining and that emphasizes the idea of literary pleasure and playfulness (Sipe, 2002).
Another reason I think the read aloud was successful is because we talked about manners and I
think that is a subject that should always be discussed in a classroom.