Amelia Bedelia Wants You to Read More Fluently!
Growing Independency and Fluency
Rationale:
Students read slowly when they first begin reading, but increase speed as words
become more effortless and automatic. Word recognition becomes quicker and
more involuntary as the student learns to decode. Fluency allows students to
concentrate on comprehending and retaining what they read instead of struggling
to decode words. Some signs of fluency are rapid, more expressive,
unvoiced, and instinctive reading. Fluent readers also have a more
positive experience and enjoy their reading because they are not having a hard
time with each and every word. Their developed sight vocabulary helps the
reading process to go more smoothly. Reading and rereading decodable words in a
connected text helps students become more fluent readers. This lesson will
help children learn how to read more rapidly and confidently. They will
work on their reading fluency through timed readings and repeated readings.
Materials:
-Class set of decodable
books, Amelia Bedelia By Peggy Parish (one per student)
-Stopwatch ( one per pair)
-Pencils
-Reading charts for each
student
-Fluency rubric for each
child
-Reading Progress Chart:
Name:______________________
Date:____________
1st reading: ______
2nd reading: ______
3rd reading: ______
-Fluency Rubric:
Name:______________________
Evaluator:_______________________ Date: ____________
I noticed that my partner:
(put an X in the blank)
After 2nd After 3rd
Read
Faster
______ ______
Read
Smoother
______ ______
Read with
Expression
______ ______
Remembered more words
______
______
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by
explaining what it means to be a fluent reader.
"Today, we are going to
practice reading more fluently. Who knows what fluently means? Good
job! Fluent readers read quickly. Their reading is also very effortless
and automatic. (Write the following on the board: 'My dog is big') A
beginning reader sounds like this when
reading the sentence on the
board: 'Mmmmyy dddoooggg iiisss bbbiiiiggg.' Then they might say 'Mmyy-
my- ddooggg dog- is- bbiigg-big' struggling with the unfamiliar and repeating
those they do not recognize. A beginning reader who can read the words
automatically might say 'My dog is big' but sound like a robot or read without
expression, but a fluent reader who recognizes words automatically and reads
with expression sounds like this: 'My dog is big!' Fluent readers sounds
like this because they are able to read the words effortlessly and
automatically. The only way to become fluent is to practice. Just like
anything in life: sports, dance etc, practice makes perfect. The more practice
that you have with a book, the faster you are able to read it. Reading a
book that you have already read before also helps you become more natural with
books that you have never even seen before. Let's start practicing so that
we can become fluent readers!"
2. First say: "Today we are
going to review the cover up critter strategy class. Okay, what do we do
when we come to a word that we cannot read? Exactly! We use our cover-up
critter! For example, if I saw this word (write stack on the board) when I was
reading and did not know it, I would cover-up all the letters (s, t, c, k) but
the vowels because I know that a= /a/. Now look at the letters
before the vowel a, the st. Blend these phonemes with the vowel a.
This sounds like /s/t/a/. Then blend the letters at the end of the word,
the ck, with the rest of the letters to make /s/t/a/c/k/. When you see a
word that you don't know how to read, use the cover-up method to help you decode
the word. Breaking it down into little pieces is a lot less intimidating and
makes it much less frustrating when you come across a word you do not know."
3. Tell the students: "To
understand what we have read, we cannot just concentrate on reading fast.
We can crosscheck what we read to make sure our sentence makes sense. For
example, if I read this sentence (Write on the board: "The cake tasted good.")
as "The cack tasted good" then I could use my crosschecking ability to decide
that “cack” doesn't taste good because the word “cack” doesn’t even exist so the
sentence I read doesn't make sense. I would then reread my sentence
correctly as "The cake tasted good." realizing that the e makes a say its name.
4. Break the class up into
pairs. Then give selected book, Amelia Bedelia to each child; hand out a Fluency
Rubric and Reading Progress Chart to each student. Also, give the following book
talk about Amelia Bedelia, but will be careful not to give away the ending so
that the students are eager to continue reading. “A rich couple hires a maid to
do chores while they are out for the day. Amelia has the best of intentions and
wants to please her new employers. She does the chores exactly how they are
written, word for word. We will have to read more to figure out how Amelia
interprets each of the chores. Will she lose her new job?
5.After the students have
heard the whole story out loud and tell them to take turns reading a portion to
their partners. The person who is not reading, “the recorder”, will write down
how long it takes the "reader" to read pages 6-14 of the text. The
"recorder" will record the "reader’s" time by using the stopwatch. The
"recorder" will then make a note on the Reading Progress Chart about how many
long it took the reader to read pages 6-14 (154 words). They will then switch
turns (the "reader" becoming the "recorder" and vice versa) and do the process
again.
6. After both children have
finished reading, have them practice by doing a repeated reading of the same
text. This time also remind each "recorder" to fill out the Fluency
Rubric after the "reader"
has read the book. This will give them a chance to focus on expression and
smoothness not just speed. This will also show me how well they read the text
not just if they could read it quickly.
7. Let the students to do
one more rereading of the book for a total of three readings of the book.
Remind the children to carry on recording their partner's reading in the Reading
Progress Chart and to complete the Fluency Rubric. Let the students discuss how
they got better within their readings and rereadings of the book with their
partner.
8. Then collect the
students' completed Fluency Rubrics and Reading Progress Charts. Compare
the students' first, second, and last readings to check for development in
fluency and divide the 154 words that each child reads divided by the amount of
time that it took them. This will give me the words per minute for each student
and enable me to make a graph of their progress.
Assessment:
Have each child read a section to me in the reading center out of Amelia Bedelia.
The passage will contain approximately 60 words. Measure how fast they
read by timing them and recording their time on a checklist. They will
then be able to read the passage through two more times and try to better their
score. Make a chart of their progress. The class will also have a conversation
about Amelia Bedelia to make sure that everyone has understood the text and did
not just race through the reading without understanding the text. At the end
each child will write about three mistakes that Amelia Bedelia made while
completing her checklist. This will show whether or not the students understand
and remember the text. Afterwards, they will choose one mistake that Amelia
Bedelia made and draw a picture of what the list intended literally and how she
interpreted it.
References:
Parrish, Peggy. Amelia
Bedelia. Harper Collins: New York, 1963
Murray, Bruce. Developing
Reading Fluency.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html.
Harry, Amanda. Racing to
Read Fluently.
hhttp://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/solutions/harrygf.html