The First Read Aloud for Cycle # 2

Read Aloud and Book Choice:

Today I did a read aloud with my third grade students. The book I read is called, Ruby Sings the Blues, written and illustrated by Niki Daly. This story is about a young girl named Ruby, whose voice is extremely loud. Her voice drives her parents, schoolmates, teachers, and neighbors crazy everyday. Both Ruby, her parents and teacher try hard to make Ruby turn down the volume, but it does not work. Kids dislike Ruby, and often say mean words to her that make her really depressed. However, Barnard and Zelda – the two magnificent jazz performers discover that Ruby’s loud voice is good for jazz singing, and they teach her how to use her voice to sing. At the end, Ruby performs on stage with Barnard and Zelda, and receives appreciation and praise from her audience. Ruby finds self-confidence and is never ashamed of her loud voice again because she has learned something new about herself.

I began the read aloud by asking them if they have ever done something that they didn’t purposely do, and it bothered people around them. Many of them had their hands up. Then, I moved on to my teaching point, ‘Good readers pay attention to the main character’s actions, dialogue and appearance’. During the read aloud, I stopped for students to turn-and-talk to their partners. I also stopped to point out the special text feature/font for Ruby’s dialogue. At the part where Ruby was singing on stage, I stopped again to ask if any of them was a musician. At the end, we discussed briefly about what Ruby learned in this story, and why it was important.

There are three reasons why I chose this book. First, the illustrations are really attractive. The interesting use of font size and style is part of the art, and it goes well with the illustration. The illustration also matches with the text, and quite often, gives out clues to the plot or unfamiliar words. Secondly, when Ruby is talking loud to her friends, the font size and style become bigger and bolder; it really caught the students' attention and interests during the read aloud. Nathan mentioned to the whole class that he noticed the change of font throughout the story as Ruby understands that her voice has been too loud, then the size of the font gets smaller. In this example, Nathan definitely showed interest and engagement during the read aloud. Thirdly, the whole class seemed to be really enjoying it because they could relate to Ruby’s character and her experience. The plot of the story is considered to be 'authentic' in their perspective because it is taken place in an urban community, where Ruby is not being accepted by her schoolmates and people in her community due to her ‘misbehavior’. During this part, Jesse opened his eyes wide, and began nodding to himself, which possibly indicates his aggreement and empathy to Ruby's situation and feelings. Nathan also shared his similar experiences with the whole class that he said one time, he did something not on purposse and he got the blame for it. He said he was really frustrated and sad at that moment, just like Ruby.

In this read aloud session, it is evident that clearly, both Nathan and Jesse showed great interest in the story because of its illustrations, Ruby's character, and authentic situation that they could relate to. I also encourage them to read Ruby Sings the Blues during their independent reading time, as a continuation to understand the character better and deeper.