Carla’s Sandwich Read Aloud Connections Lesson Example
Let’s use the fabulous book Carla’s Sandwich to apply everything we’ve been chatting about during this reading comprehension blog series. All of the information that is really coming together today as we plan an interactive read aloud (shared reading, comprehension modeling, or read aloud whatever you want to call it) lesson together!
This is part 4 of my reading comprehension blog series. If you are interested in the other topics, check them out at the links below or if you want all of this incredible info sent right to your inbox to use and save? Sign up for the email training here to gain access to all of the freebies associated with this blog series.
#1 Overview of all Comprehension Skills
#2 Three Steps to Scaffolding Lessons
#3 Interactive Think Alouds to Model Comprehension
#4 Using Picture Books to Practice Skills
#5 Comprehension Activities to Apply Reading Strategies
CARLA’S SANDWICH LESSON FOCUS: MAKING CONNECTIONS
You can start off with the concrete activity from blog post 2 here. After that, dive into the shared reading lesson plan we are going to develop together below.
🎁 Remember, you can get all of the making connections printables for free here!
Our Book: 🥪 Carla’s Sandwich
It is available on storyline online if you want to check it out or use that to share it with your students, watch the video here or get the book on Amazon here.
🗓️ 5 Days
I break up my shared reading books across 5 days for a few reasons.
🌟 With using reading centers, I only have 10 minutes a day for shared reading read aloud. Read more about how I cohesivley connect my centers and shared reading in this blog post.
🌟 Reading a picture book a few pages a day over 5 days builds suspense and interest!
🌟 Modeling think alouds consistently with the same book for 5 days allows students to take ownership to lead the think alouds… see diagram below.
The student practice piece is when they are holding that concrete object associated with the reading strategy (read more about the concrete lesson hook in post #2 here) and using the sentence frame themselves to respond to what you are reading.
🌟 A quick shared reading allows students to then go into centers where they can practice the reading strategy themselves in a variety of ways (more info coming in blog #5 🙂) .
How to divide up the book ➡️ count the total number of pages then divide it by 5.
*I do check where the days end to check if there is a cliffhanger or an awkward part to pause at and adjust as needed. Cliffhangers are good!*
Planning a Making Connections Lesson
Reminders:
– Sentence frame for connections is “This reminds me of… because…”
– 🎁 You can get all the making connections printables for free here!
– I am planning this out across 5 days.
– If you are planning to use the Modeling Lesson Plan Template in my comprehension crew resources, I am only planning the Modeling and Applying parts below. The other parts are written in the lesson plans for you.
– The text in italics are things that you would say to your students.
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🥪 Carla’s Sandwich Day 1
Planning notes:
✏️ Look at what the text says- think about what connections can you make. Can you make a connection about one specific word? A feeling? An action? It may be easy to pick out a word and think of something related, but really look at what is being said and think of what type of connection on that page would deepen students’ understanding of what is happening in the story.
✏️ This story has a lot about teasing so I try to focus my connections on empathsizing with the main character in various ways but do not want every single connection to be about that. So try to look at the illustrations and other details, too!
✏️ Also, connections are about you individually. So while as teachers some of our modeling connections can stretch the truth a bit to demonstrate the point- please change up what I wrote to say to match things about you personally!
✏️ The amount you are modeling should gradually decrease throughout the week as the amount of time kids are practicing increases.
Modeling
While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to think about a detail in the text or picture and make a connection to it. Make sure to use the sentence starter, and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time.
Read page 1
Pause after pickle and say- “This reminds me of the turkey sandwich I like to eat because it has pickles on it.”
Keep reading then say, “I notice that Buster is pinching his nose. This reminds me of when I went to a farm because it smelled bad and I had to pinch my nose.”
Read page 2
Say- “Hmm bananas and cottage cheese, this reminds me of my aunt’s breakfast because she eats cottage cheese with bananas and strawberries.”
Read page 3
Say- “Leslie is saying that is disgusting. This reminds me of a time that a friend told me that my drawing was ugly because I didn’t agree.”
(If you have read Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun…)
“I notice the kids think everything that Carla eats is gross. This reminds me of Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun because all of the kids thought that Lucy’s lunch was gross too.
Read page 4
Pause after bit into it and say, “This reminds me of when I bit into a carrot because it crunches!”
Keep reading then say, “Wow that is nice that she brought extra! This reminds me of when my friend stopped for donuts on the way to school because she brought extra to share!”
Applying
“Students, it is now your turn to make connections. While I am reading, notice a detail that reminds you of something else.”
Read page 5– pause and allow students to try a think aloud of making a connection. Remind them to use the sentence frame (helps to keep them from going off on tangent stories).
Read page 6 & 7– pause after each page to give students time for connections.
🥪 Carla’s Sandwich Day 2
Modeling
While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to think about a detail in the text or picture and make a connection to it. Make sure to use the sentence starter, and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time.
If students want to make connections during your modeling time just say, “It is my turn to make connections now, soon it will be your turn.”
Read page 8
Say “Wow everyone is so excited about the picnic. This reminds me of when I announced to you about __ (insert something your students were excited about) because you were happy and excited too!”
Read page 9
Say “They are really teasing her. This reminds me of when I wrote a song about my brother because he laughed at me and I felt really mad.”
Read page 10
Say “Ah the children are walking down the hall behind the teacher. This reminds me of how our school works because we walk in a line to travel throughout the school.”
Say “I see in the picture the girl is holding a stuffed animal tiger, this reminds me of my Paddington bear because I would bring him to school with me everyday.”
Applying
“Students, it is now your turn to make connections. While I am reading, notice a detail that reminds you of something else.”
Read page 11-13 pause after each page to give students time for connections.
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🥪 Carla’s Sandwich Day 3
Modeling
While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to think about a detail in the text or picture and make a connection to it. Make sure to use the sentence starter, and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time.
If students want to make connections during your modeling time just say, “It is my turn to make connections now, soon it will be your turn.”
Read page 14
Say “This reminds me of when I rummaged through my bag in the car because I couldn’t find my glasses and was so worried that I forgot them!”
Read page 15
Say “I see butterflies flying around them. This reminds me of when I walked around a lake because there were butterflies all around us.”
Applying
“Students, it is now your turn to make connections. While I am reading, notice a detail that reminds you of something else.”
Read page 16-19 pause after each page to give students time for connections.
🥪 Carla’s Sandwich Day 4
Modeling
While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to think about a detail in the text or picture and make a connection to it. Make sure to use the sentence starter and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time.
If students want to make connections during your modeling time just say, “It is my turn to make connections now, soon it will be your turn.”
Read page 20
Say “Hmm Buster examined it carefully and then took a bite. This reminds me of when I tried meatloaf for the first time because I looked at it closely then tried a small bite.
Read page 21
Say “This reminds me of when my son had swimming class for the first time because we were watching him and waiting and waiting to see what he thought!”
Applying
“Students, it is now your turn to make connections. While I am reading, notice a detail that reminds you of something else.”
Read pages 22-25 pause after each page to give students time for connections.
🥪 Carla’s Sandwich Day 5
Modeling
While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to think about a detail in the text or picture and make a connection to it. Make sure to use the sentence starter, and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time.
If students want to make connections during your modeling time just say, “It is my turn to make connections now, soon it will be your turn.”
Read page 26
Say “This reminds me of Monday mornings because all of you come in wanting to show and tell me things at one time!
Applying
“Students, it is now your turn to make connections. While I am reading, notice a detail that reminds you of something else.”
Read page 27-30 pause after each page to give students time for connections.
By the end of the week, your students are really running the show! You should see a huge increase in confidence and ability to appropriately apply the reading strategy in response to what you read aloud.
So far we’ve covered a lot about students applying comprehension strategies to photographs and with listening comprehension. These are important foundations for understanding the skills. But what about when they are actively decoding and reading independently?
👀 Ready to go to next blog post- we dive into ways students can practice these reading skills independently on their level.
🤷🏽♀️ How do you feel about this lesson we went through together? What questions do you have about my thought process in planning it?
