Kate Lomazzo

CURR 611-01
10/15/15
Interactive Read Aloud
1. Book Information and Context
a. Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by
Betsy Lewin, is a contemporary childrens book published originally in 2000. The
book was written in the context of using humor to help children enjoy reading,
while simultaneously exposing them to antique items, as Cronin has an interest
in antique typewriters herself. The book is laid out with regular block text
interspersed with typewritten letters between the characters. Similar works by
the same author include Giggle, Giggle, Quack and Click, Clack, Boo: A Tricky
Treat. Cronins books such as Duck for President and Click Clack Peep feature
familiar characters, while The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and Big Red
Barn by Margaret Wise Brown contain similar farm-related content.
i. I am teaching a class of first grade students who live in a rural area.
There are eleven boys and ten girls. Many of the students live on family
farms and enjoy reading and writing about their roles helping on the farm.
They are proud of their knowledge.
ii. The topic of farming is relevant to the curriculums of many grade levels.
For example, there is a kindergarten EngageNY module about farms, and
as a result students in older grades will likely have some background
knowledge about them. Farming and animals are also relevant to the first
grade Different Lands, Same Stories module and the fourth grade
Colonial Farming module. Instruction for students in rural school districts
2.

can also be frequently and meaningfully connected to agriculture.

Rationale for Choice

a. I chose this text because it is silly and fun. Students often unfortunately get
weighed down by so many serious or informational texts. While these certainly
have a place in the curriculum, it is also important that students realize that they
can use reading as a form of recreation and learn new things while
simultaneously enjoying themselves. I also selected this text because it makes
cause and effect relationships very clear and leaves little to infer about them,
which is ideal for introducing the new reading strategy.
b. I will use a read aloud of this text to teach students about cause and effect
relationships. This involves recognition of the events of a story as well as the
reasons for their happening. Understanding cause and effect relationships is
relevant to all school subjects and social interactions, and increases reading
comprehension (Boushey & Moser, 2009). Additionally, the extension activity at
the end of this read aloud will serve as an initial exposure to letter writing.
c. Throughout the book, the cows type various letters to Farmer Brown. As a result
of his responses to the letters, the cows reply in certain ways (by writing more
letters and by going on strike, for example). Therefore, Click Clack Moo, Cows
That Type is well-suited for this read aloud instruction because it provides
repeated opportunities for discussion and practice. Also, as mentioned above,
the cause and effect relationships are relatively explicit and use language like
so to signal an effect, leaving little to infer.
d. One of the clearest opportunities for involving students in a read aloud of Click
Clack Moo, Cows That Type is the refrain which appears every few pages: Click,
clack, moo. Click, clack, moo. Clickety, clack, moo. It would be effective to teach
the refrain beforehand and invite students to say it with the teacher each time, as
suggested by Fountas and Pinnell (2008). Students can also become involved
kinesthetically by acting out typing with their fingers each time the farmer or
animals write a note. This will aid in their understanding of the potentially

unknown term typewriter and will help them stay engaged in the read aloud.
Finally, given the familiar characters, students could easily become involved in
using puppets or plastic animals to help them make connections between the
characters and the dialogue of the notes exchanged between the farmer and the
animals.
e. The context of the students rural environment is very closely related to the
setting of the book, a farm. Their background knowledge and experience with
the farming unit in kindergarten will provide a strong foundation for learning a
new reading strategy by limiting the effort needed to build understanding and
allowing space for students to focus on the strategy (Fountas & Pinnell, 2008).
The majority of students are on or approaching grade level in reading
comprehension, but there is definitely room for improvement. Therefore,
teaching cause and effect relationships can aid in their reading and listening
comprehension skills. In terms of the first grade curriculum, this read aloud
supports CCSS W.1.5 about writing pieces and supporting ones opinions.
Student discussion and activation of prior knowledge allow students to practice
distinguishing between real and fictional elements, as per CCSS RL.1.5. This
book can serve as a reintroduction to the topic of farming, which will be relevant
for the first grade Different Lands, Same Stories module in EngageNY. By
including attributes such as familiar setting and characters, repetitive refrains,
and explicit cause and effect language, Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type is able
to draw upon the context of the environment to meet curricular mandates and
student needs.
3. Activating Prior Knowledge
a. To be successful with the text, students should understand the humor of the
story, primarily in the fact that real cows do not type. This is essential not only for
enjoying the story, but also for empathizing with the incredulity of Farmer Brown.

These first grade students should have significant prior knowledge about farm
animals, given their experience with the kindergarten farming module and
participation in a rural community. To activate and extend upon this prior
knowledge about cows and/or other farm animals, use an adaptation of
McGregors schema-activating activity which invites students to rapid-fire their
thoughts and connections to a given topic (2007). I will inform students that this
book is about cows, and then invite them to use their schema to play a guessing
game about different actions cows could be doing in the story. They will be
surprised when they finally hear in the title that the cows are typing!
b. The most challenging aspects of the text that the students will not already know
are related to new vocabulary. Primarily, then, it is also important for students to
understand the definition of typewriter since this object is mentioned often, is
central to the story, and is likely unfamiliar to young children. Todays children,
however, are familiar with typing on computers, phones, and tablets. After
revealing the title of the story, I will ask students to act like they are typing. I will
also ask them what they use to type, and then introduce the concept of a
typewriter using pictures or a real typewriter, if available. Invite students to touch
the typewriter and make comparisons between it and modern typing devices.
4. /5 Pauses and Questions
a. Students are invited into the text each time I encourage them to say the click
clack moo refrain with me. Given their extensive background knowledge about
rural communities, they are also invited into the text when they share this prior
knowledge and are asked to compare what they know about real cows to the
portrayal of cows in the story.
b. Each and every student is engaged in the story orally and kinesthetically. Ideally,
all students will participate orally as they say the refrain with me, but this is
difficult for me to see. It will be easier for me to notice students typing fingers
so I know if I need to redirect anyones attention. If any students are reluctant to

type, I will encourage them to pretend to use a phone or tablet as well, giving
them interesting choices. The familiar setting of the story should also be
engaging for the students, as they all live in a rural farming community.
c. During the read aloud, students are expected to say the refrain and act as if they
are typing. As always, they are also expected to raise their hands to share
comments, questions, and predictions as they wish. Students should follow the
same procedures (respectful listening, sitting crisscross applesauce) as they do
during any carpet time activity.
d. Students will help me read the click clack moo refrain on pages 1, 3, 10, 14,
and 27. They will make the kinesthetic typing motion on these pages as well,
and as they deem necessary (i.e. when letters are posted on the barn door, or
when the farmer exclaims his frustration about having cows that type). I will
model the CAF reading strategy of determining cause and effect when I stop on
page 8 (see below) by thinking aloud about how the cows letter made Farmer
Brown angry, and by emphasizing signal words like so which indicate that
something is happening as a result of some cause. I will also include concepts of
print in my reading (i.e. mentioning the title and author, using finger sweeping on
certain pages, especially those with letters) since many first graders still need
this reinforcement. I will check for understanding periodically throughout the
story. Overall, the times at which I stop will be based on how I perceive students
levels of engagement and participation. However, I will plan to stop at the follow
pages:
i. P. 4 (to ask children what they notice about the ways these cows are not
like the real cows that live on their farms) (Johnston, 2004)
ii. P. 8 (to ensure that children understand what the cows asked for [the
cause] and how the farmer responded [the effect] and to model my
thinking and language use about cause and effect)

iii. P. 14 (to invite students to examine the relationship between the cows
letters and Farmer Browns emotions)
iv. P. 16 (to briefly define what it means to go on strike)
v. P. 20 (to briefly define ultimatum)
vi. P. 24 (to again invite students to examine the relationship between the
cows letters and Farmer Browns emotions)
vii. P. 29 (Some students will laugh at the picture of the duck jumping off of
the diving board, but others may not have made the same inference
about the illustration. I will ask a student who laughed to explain why they
find it to be funny.)
e. I will need physical props, including a computer keyboard, cell phone, and tablet,
as well as a typewriter if available, to help students understand the term
typewriter. The students will each receive a small printout of a keyboard to
make their acting out of typing more realistic (see attached). For the extension
activity, I will need lined paper and pencils for students to write their own letters.
f.

As a scaffold, I may use graphic organizers (see attached) with some students.
One of the main reasons for choosing this text was its silly and fun plot, so I dont
want to interrupt the story too many times since this places less emphasis on
students enjoyment of the text. Therefore, I will not ask many surface-level
questions to probe for comprehension during the story, and will stop as few times
as possible (see part d) while still ensuring childrens understanding. I also dont
want to ask many questions during the story because this could deny students
the opportunity to make personal connections to the story. I will therefore not
pause too often during the story and will save the majority of explicit strategy
instruction for the extension, and when I do pause I will only engage the students

in brief discussions and think alouds about the reading strategy.

5. Pauses and Questions (above)
6. Reader Response
a. To extend the students learning, I will first invite students to share their opinions
about the story. This is important to me because I want them to realize that

reading can be silly and funny. Then, I will introduce and explain the CAF
strategy of determining cause and effect. To practice, children will examine a few
letters written by the cows and Farmer Brown, then think-pair-share (McGregor,
2007) about the effects of each of the letters (i.e. The request was rejected, the
cows and hens went on strike, Farmer Brown became angry, the cows received
their blanket, etc.). As students discuss these relationships, I will remind them to
use the language I used during my think alouds. Then, students will think-pairshare to determine common characteristics of letters (greeting, closing,
signature, etc.). They will use these models to work in groups to write a letter
asking me, the teacher, for something for the classroom, similarly to how the
cows asked Farmer Brown for electric blankets. I will remind students that the
cows gave Farmer Brown reasons for wanting a blanket (a key idea of the story),
and therefore they need to provide justification for their requests as well. They
will give the letters to me and I will respond after school, and the following day
student groups will share my responses with the class. We will discuss these
interactions in terms of cause and effect.
b. This would be a relevant and authentic experience for young students because
they have the opportunity to share a desire with their teacher. This helps create
their sense of ownership in the classroom. Many students are extrinsically
motivated, so they would be engaged by this task. This activity promotes
childrens understanding of the functionality of literacy and increases their sense
of agency.
References
Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The CAF book: Engaging all students in daily literacy
assessment and instruction. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Cronin, D. (2000). Click clack moo, cows that type. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster
Childrens Publishing Division.
Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G.S. (2008). Teaching for comprehending and fluency: Thinking, talking,
and writing about reading, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Johnston, P. (2004). Choice words: How our language affects childrens learning. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse Publishers.
McGregor, T. (2007). Comprehension connections. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Keyboard prop:

Letter Writing Graphic Organizer:

Greeting

 Body

Closing
Your
name