Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One

     We have been working on comprehension skills using Kate Duke's book titled, Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One.  Some of the tier 2 vocabulary words, sophisticated words found in print more than oral language, that are highlighted in this story are the following:  ingredients, gloomy, grumble, villian, odious, and lurk.  Before reading the story, I record what the students already know about these words.  For example, my students described grumble as:

Student Generated/Friendly Meaning

1. a big noise 
2. My belly grumbles when I'm hungry.
3. Grumbles is the sound you hear when the band plays at a faraway football game.      

     The second step is to discover what these words mean in the context of the story during our read aloud.  We compare and contrast the student generated meanings with the contextual meaning. 

Aunt Isabelle and Penelope are creating a story and need the proper ingredients for their story.  They have established the characters (who), the settings (where), the time (when), and Aunt Isabel determines it is time for a PROBLEM.  The proposed problem is that the King and Queen disapprove of Lady Nell's friendship with their son and are sending Lady Nell far away from their son, Prince Augustus.   Penelope grumbles, " I think we should leave that Problem part out."
Contextual Meaning
Penelope is unhappy about Aunt Isabel's proposed ending and complains to herself in a low voice.

The contextual meaning is different than student generated meaning.  Students discover that grumble has multiple meanings. We probe this word further.
When would you grumble?  Say the word after the scenario if you would grumble.

You get to go to a birthday party.     

The party is cancelled.

Mom takes you to the park to play with a friend.

Mom takes you to the dentist.

Show me what grumbling looks like.

I close this vocabulary activity by asking, "What's the word we are learning?"

Here are two videos that go along with what I'm learning in Dyslexia Training.  The first link let's kids meet the author, Kate Duke and learn about how her stories evolve from pictures and oral language. The second link introduces you to the queen of vocabulary instruction, Isabelle Beck.  I selected her book, Bringing Words To Life, to read for my second book report.

Meet the Author Kate Duke  

Isabelle Beck- Robust Vocabulary Instruction