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Eled 481 Interactive Read Aloud and Close Reading

This document contains an interactive read aloud lesson plan for the book "Sitti's Secrets" by Naomi Shihab Nye. The plan includes an introduction to the book, three stopping points during the reading to check comprehension and engagement, post-reading discussion questions, and extension activities. For the extension activities, students will reflect on what they learned, add the book to a chart organizing learning categories, and draft a persuasive letter on an issue they care about similarly to the letter in the book. A close reading plan is also included to analyze figurative language in the book's letter through identifying examples, creating posters, and discussion.

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512 views4 pages

Eled 481 Interactive Read Aloud and Close Reading

This document contains an interactive read aloud lesson plan for the book "Sitti's Secrets" by Naomi Shihab Nye. The plan includes an introduction to the book, three stopping points during the reading to check comprehension and engagement, post-reading discussion questions, and extension activities. For the extension activities, students will reflect on what they learned, add the book to a chart organizing learning categories, and draft a persuasive letter on an issue they care about similarly to the letter in the book. A close reading plan is also included to analyze figurative language in the book's letter through identifying examples, creating posters, and discussion.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Stephanie Raper

ELED 481: Interactive Read Aloud Lesson Plan

Text Chosen:
Sitti’s Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye
Nye, N. S. (1997). Sitti’s secrets. New York, NY: .
. Aladdin Paperbacks.
Description of the Text:
Sitti’s Secrets is a book about a young
Arab-American girl named Mona who is visiting
her grandmother (Sitti) and other family in an
unnamed Arabic speaking country. Mona does
not speak Arabic yet finds ways to communicate with Sitti and enjoys exploring the ways that
life is different in her Sitti’s country compared to her own life in America. Towards the end of
the book, Mona writes a letter to the President explaining some of her favorite things about
Sitti and the other people she met in the unnamed country and assures the President he would
like them if he met them, so he should choose to have a peaceful relationship with their
country. I chose this book because it welcomes the reader into this Arabic family’s life and has a
message of striving for understanding and friendship with others who may appear different
than us at first glance. This book offers a lot of rich discussion opportunities and can serve as a
jumping off point for a focus on persuasive writing and figurative language.
Grade: 5
Interactive Read Aloud Plan:
Opening:
“In this book we are introduced to a young girl named Mona who lives in America. Her
grandmother, or Sitti in Arabic, lives very far away on the other side of the world, and even
speaks a different language than Mona. This book is about Mona traveling to visit her Sitti and
learning about what life is like in Sitti’s country. We get to share in Mona’s experiences and
learn alongside her!” I chose to introduce the book this way because it’s giving students a little
background knowledge of the text without giving away any details of the story that will be
uncovered as we read on together.
Stopping Points:
1. (p. 10) Mona and her grandmother, or Sitti in Arabic, don’t speak the same language. Do
you think it was hard for them to communicate? What are some of the ways they are
finding to communicate? (I’m choosing to stop here because one of the big takeaways I
want students to have is that although they may not speak the same language, they still
love each other very much and can come to a mutual understanding on important
things)
2. (p. 18) What was Sitti’s secret that Mona just learned? Do you think she has other
secrets too? What might they be? (This is more of a comprehension check, and should
keep students engaged in the reading by asking them to make predictions)
3. (p. 26) What do you think Mona’s purpose for writing a letter to the President was?
(This is again getting at the book’s big idea of striving to understand and form
relationships with others who may seem different than you. This question is also setting
up a post-reading activity I will have the students do)
Post-Reading Discussion:
How would you describe Sitti and Mona’s relationship? Do you think all the differences
between their countries and their languages make a difference in how much they love each
other? How might this message apply to your own life? What have you learned from reading
this book that you didn’t know before?
Self-Evaluation of Engagement:

 As we were reading, was I making connections to the text or comparing my life to the
character’s in the story? (are students making text-to-self connections?)
 What questions do I still have that could help me understand this story more? (are
students thinking deeply about the text and striving for understanding?)
Record of Reading:
During our after-reading discussion, the class will name the things that they have
learned from reading this book. We will generalize any specifics into broader categories (e.g. we
learned about another culture) and then choose one category of learning that we think fits best
for this book. We will then add this book to a chart that organizes all our past reading by
categories of what we learned from reading this book.
Written or Artistic Response:
At the end of the story, Mona writes a persuasive letter to the President to try to
convince him that he shouldn’t go to war with Sitti’s country. This is a topic for writing that
Mona cares a lot about, because she really loves Sitti and the other people she met in that
country. Let’s brainstorm as a class some ideas of things that you really care about. Maybe you
really care about pollution, or whales, or immigration, or wheelchair accessible buildings. After
we have spent some time thinking about what you are really passionate about, you will draft a
persuasive letter that is trying to convince someone that they should care about what you care
about too.

Close Reading Plan:


Page:
26 (letter to the president)
Lens:
Figurative Language, (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.)
Introduction:
Yesterday we read the book Sitti’s Secrets. In the book, Mona writes a letter to the
President to explain to the President a little about who her grandmother is, and why he should
like her grandmother and the other people from her grandmother’s country. Today we’re going
to take a closer look at how Mona used language to help make her letter more convincing.
Demonstration:
Mona included many specific details in her letter that would help the president feel like
he really knows Mona’s grandmother after reading it. Some of these details are real, or literal,
like when Mona wrote “Some have fig trees with shiny leaves.” But other details she includes
aren’t really real, instead they are figurative. For example, when Mona says, “My
grandmother… has a lemon tree that whispers secrets”, this is an example of figurative
language. The lemon tree is not really able to talk and whisper secrets, but what do you
imagine that lemon tree looks like just from that detail? What feelings does it create for you?
Application:
Now I want you and a partner to re-read Mona’s letter together. I want you to highlight
any parts of the letter where Mona is using figurative language. You should have at least two
new parts highlighted. Then we’ll come back together as a class to share what figurative
language we found.
Once we have created a class list of all the examples of figurative language in the letter,
I will assign each partnership a different example of figurative language from the text. They will
then work together to create a “poster” that has the text from the letter and what they think
that figurative language means (using pictures and words).
Discussion:
Each partnership will share their poster with the class and place their poster on the
whiteboard with a magnet. We will discuss what that group felt the meaning of the figurative
language was, as well as see if others in the class have a different interpretation. We will then
work together as a class to group posters by the type of figurative language (simile, metaphor,
personification, alliteration etc.). These posters will be hung on the wall under the headings of
what type of figurative language they represent as a reference for students.
I’m envisioning that this lesson is not the first time that students are being introduced to
these types of figurative language, but instead is a review and a closer look at what meaning
figurative language can convey and how it can be used in students’ own writing. After the class
discussion I would encourage students to return to the letters they started last time (after the
interactive read aloud) and look for at least two opportunities to revise their writing to include
figurative language.

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