Read Aloud

OBJECTIVES

--to promote active listening skills
--to encourage reflective responses
--to encourage problem-solving strategies and critical thinking skills
--to develop an understanding of homelessness
--to analyze characters
--to identify the setting and compare it to where they live
--to predict what might happen next
--to discuss ideas and thoughts
--to relate what they already know to what they are learning
--to discuss values--compassion, unselfishness, helping others and experiences they've had when they have helped someone.

ACTIVITIES:

	Active Listening . . . Students jot down questions on post-it notes as I read from the book and go back to their questions later
	Reflective Responses --Pose questions to the students as I read and engage them in discussion. --Assign writing exercises at various points during the book. Students then elaborate on their thoughts and ideas.
	Encourage Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills --Students consider what they would do if they were in my situation. --Students work in groups to think of ways that J.C. could get help --Students pose questions about J.C. and whether he was resourceful in getting help. --Students consider the choices I had and what decisions I made. --Students consider their own values and choices. --Students compare their own home-life to that of a homeless person.
	Develop an Understanding of Homelessness --Students take notes on the research presented to them --Students conduct research using the websites listed in my book --Students pose questions as they listen to my book, such as, "Why are so many children homeless?.

EXAMPLES
As I read to my students. I would stop at various times and ask them a question. I want them to relate what I am reading to their own experience and their own feelings.

Page 14 "Many homeless people had no one to look out for them.; they were isolated from family and friends, many times of their own choice."

Question: What do you think this means, to be isolated? Why would someone want to isolate himself?

Page 30 "He could have been a colleague of mine, I thought, any of the teachers I had worked with over the years. Why him and not them?

Question: What does the word, "colleague" mean? What do you think? Why did he become homeless and not another teacher?

Page 47 "I don't mean to bee so abrupt with you, but your questions interrupt my train of thought."

Question: How would you describe how J.C. was feeling? How do you think it made me feel when he said that to me? Do you ever feel that way when someone interrupts you?

Page 51 "A smile costs nothing but its value is priceless. It enriches the one who gives it but it doesn't impoverish him." Anonymous

Question: What do you think this quote means?

Page 51 "Holidays were probably hard for J.C., I thought . . "

Question: How do you think a homeless person celebrates the holidays?

Page 55 "I sighed deeply thinking how a homeless person could just disappear and no one would ever miss him."

Question: What would you do if a homeless person was missing? What happens if a homeless person is missing? Who would care?

Page 62 "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Question: What does this quote mean?

Page 67 "Shelter are so crowded that the night are noisy with people talking, crying, laughing, and so on."

Question: What are the pros and cons of shelters. How do you thin living in a shelter compares to your own life?