A Vignette on how Shared Reading is used to learn about Story Plot

Here is how one teacher reads “There’s an Alligator under My Bed” by Mercer Mayer, to a group of four-year-olds.

Before Reading

The teacher begins by saying, “Let’s look at the picture on the cover of the book. [Shows a boy in bed with an alligator sticking out beneath]  The boy in this story has a big problem.  Can anyone guess what that big problem is?”

After the children have made their guesses, the teacher points to the title and says, “The title of this book is ‘There’s an Alligator under my Bed”.  So Suzy and Joey were correct in guessing what the boy’s problem is.  How do you think the boy will get rid of the alligator?”

When several children have shared their predictions, the teacher begins reading the book aloud.

During Reading

After reading the first section of the book which introduces the boy’s problem, the teacher pauses and asks, “Do you have any other ideas about how the boy might get rid of the alligator?”
The teacher reads the next two pages, which detail the boy’s plan to leave a trail of bait to the garage, and then pauses to ask the children what the word bait means.

After reading the next section, in which the boy lays out a trail of food, the teacher asks, “What do you think the alligator is going to do?”

Finally, after reading the rest of the story, in which the alligator gets trapped in the garage, the teacher points to the note the boy left on the door to the garage and asks, “What do you think the boy wrote in his note?”

After Reading

The teacher sparks a discussion of the book by asking several open-ended questions, such as “What did you like best about the story?” and “How would you have gotten rid of that alligator?”

Later, the teacher does a follow-up small group activity – to reinforce a sense of story plot, she helps children sequence a few pictures of the main story events.  The older children could rewrite the ending of the story.