Kylee Benefield                           Lesson Design #3: Beginning to Read                      November 1, 2002
Riley Edwards

Rational:  Reading voluntarily is a concept that needs to be addressed early in a child’s education.  If we can motivate children to read, they can be more enthused to read voluntarily.  Then if they enjoy reading voluntarily, they will read more on their own.  This would then help improve their reading fluency.

Materials:  Flat Stanley bookmarks, Flat Stanley (1964, Harper & Row Publishers), bulletin board materials

Procedure:  Introduce the lesson by introducing the class to Flat Stanley.  Explain the story behind Flat Stanley and give a book talk of the book.  Pass out the Flat Stanley bookmarks.  Everytime the child reads a book, magazine, etc. have the children put their Flat Stanley figure on the bulletin board along with the title of the book, or magazine they have read beside their name.   You need to set aside a certain time everyday for everyone to have a chance to read.   The teacher even needs to read.  However, this is voluntary reading so any book read at any time can be counted as a book read by the student and their buddy Flat.  Flat Stanley enjoys going places and reading books.  His job is to serve as motivation for the student to read.  Everyday the students will have a chance to present to the class their travels with Flat Stanley.  This can be a good way of doing book talks.  The students will get to hear about books other students have explored and hopefully be encouraged to try it out.

Assessment:  The bulletin board of the books read by the students and Flat Stanley will serve as a type of assessment.  There will be no grade for voluntary reading.
 

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For further information, send e-mail to benefsk@auburn.edu