My turn, your turn

Last week I sat down to start my first guided reading lesson of the year. Unfortunately one of my students was absent so I ended up with a group of one. After my very peppy and excited book intro where we looked through the book and labeled the pictures, I planted the needed vocabulary words I handed the book to the student.

"You're turn!" I said with excitement. "Let's read and find out what happens!"

The student responded with a huge smile, "Great!" she said and practically grabbed the book from my hands. Ahhh, such a love of learning, I found myself thinking, taking a moment to bask in the excitement of a student with a new book.

I was quickly brought back down to earth when I realized that the student was holding the book up in front of me, just like I'd done moments earlier, and was copying my book talk with just as much pep and excitement as I'd shown.

"Mrs. Lipstick, what is the baby doing? Is she crying or laughing?" she pointed to the picture using her best teacher voice, even pausing to give me just enough wait time to answer.

Needless to say she was a bit disappointed when I explained it was her turn to read the book, not be the teacher.