What I See to Read Fluently
Reading to Learn
Rationale:
Fluency is
necessary in order for a student to be a successful and
confident reader.
One way to help a students achieve fluency is through
visualization.
By visualizing the story when reading independently, this
will help the student have a grasp on the concepts of the story
and the details that the author uses to convey the message.
It also aids in making reading fun for students.
Materials:
Justin and the
Best Biscuits in the World, The Unicorn by Shel Silversten,
projector, copies for each student of My New School by Ken
Nesbitt, paper, crayons, pencil, grading rubric.
Procedure:
1. First I will
remind students about the importance of reading fluently as we
have already discussed.
Remember that reading fluently means that you read at a
good speed with expression and that you comprehend, or
understand what you are reading.
Today we are going to work on reading fluently by using a
tool called visualization.
2. Did you know
that you could turn a book into a movie using only your mind?
That is something that we will be learning how to do today! When
I read a story, something that I like to do is to visualize the
story, or picture the story in my mind as I am reading it so
that I can better understand what is going on because of the
picture I have come up with in my mind using the story. This
helps me to become a fluent reader, and it will help you too!
Just like when you watch a movie, when you read, you can turn
the words into movie scenes, which help you understand what you
are reading! Remember, the more you read the more fluent you
become, and using visualization will help you to become a more
fluent reader.
3. Now I am
going to model for you what it is like to visualize a story. I
will then read the poem "The Unicorn" by Shel Silversten. I will
first read the poem once through.
I will then read the poem a second time, and while
reading the poem, I will describe to the students what I am
visualizing.
For example, "now I visualize, or am picturing, a big
boat with a bunch of animals lined up two by two and then I can
see the worried look on Noah's face because he can't find the
unicorns!"
4. Now I want
you to get with your partners and I want you to take turns
reading "My New School" together out loud. I then want you to
read the poem to yourself silently.
While you are reading it silently to yourself like we have
talked about, I want you to be visualizing the poem.
Write down some of the things you pictured, or visualized in
your mind while reading the poem to yourself. Students who would
like to can share what they wrote down. While students are
reading silently and writing down what they are visualizing, I
will be walking around the room getting an idea of how well
students are understanding the concept.
5. Okay, now I
want for us to continue on with our book Justin and the Best
Biscuits in the World. However, now that we have our new
tool, visualizing, we can use it when we read chapter 5 so that
we can comprehend the chapter, which will help us read the book
fluently. Remember yesterday in chapter 4 Justin and his Grandpa
were on their way to his ranch when they stopped at the lake to
pick up some fish.
Now in chapter 5, Justin and his Grandpa finally make it
to the ranch! We get to find out what the ranch is like, and
Justin gets to try to cook again! Now read chapter 5 silently to
yourself and really visualize the story to help you comprehend
what you are reading.
Assessment:
Once you have
finished reading the chapter, I want you to get a piece of paper
and crayons and I want you to draw one scene you visualized in
the story.
I want for you to do your best work.
I want for your drawings to have a lot of detail so I can
really see what you were visualizing. Once you have finished, I want you to
write on the back a title for your scene you drew as well as a
couple sentences explaining how you visualized the scene you
drew and how it fits in with the rest of the story.
I will grade the assessments using a rubric. When going
over the directions, I will pull my rubric up on the projector
so that the students will know exactly how I am grading their
drawings.
*I am not
grading on a good drawing, but I am grading on the details in
the drawing that match the story and especially the written
description describing the scenes drawn.
Did the student draw a
picture?
___Y___N
Were the drawings accurate for the
poem?
___Y___N
Were the drawings accurate for assigned
reading(s)?
__Y___N
Were the drawings
detailed?
___Y___N
Did the student describe in detail the
events?
___Y___N
References:
Nesbitt, Kenn. "My New School".
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poem.aspx?PoemID=487&CategoryID=37
Frasier, Mallie. Picture
Perfect.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/realizations/frasierrl.htm
Silverstein, Shel. "The Unicorn".
http://faculty.weber.edu/chansen/humanweb/projects/MeghanUng/theunicorn.htm
Walter, Mildred Pitts. Justin
and the Best Biscuits in the World.
http://www.amazon.com/Justin-Biscuits-World-Mildred-Walter/dp/0679803467