The Speediest Reader of All
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
The goal of this lesson is for the students to read faster and
learn how to grow in their sight vocabulary so that they can
turn from decoding words to automatically recognizing words.
Students begin by decoding, cross checking, and mentally marking
to understand spelling; then they re-read passages to build
instant access to newly decoded words. In this lesson, students
will work in pairs to increase fluency by reading and rereading
two pages of text to reach a speed criterion of 85 wpm.
Materials:
Student copies of “Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes” by Louis Sachar
Stop Watch
Speed Reading Record/ Partner check list
Speed Reading Record:
Name:_________________________
Date:___________
Time:
- After 1st read
_______
-
After 2nd read
_______
- After 3rd read
_______
-Partner Check Sheet for students to assess their partner's
fluency:
When I listened to my partner read:
After 2nd
After 3rd
1. Remembered more
words _______
_______
2. Read
faster
_______
_______
3. Read
smoother
_______
_______
4. Read with
expression _______
_______
Procedures:
“We are going to be learning how to read faster today children.
The faster your reading gets the more words you can read over
time. To be able to read fast, you will need to turn most words
into words that you can automatically recognize. We will learn
this by learning how to turn a decodable word into a sight word
.”
“I also want you all to keep rereading sentences that are
difficult to you. The more you reread words the more
understanding you have of them and the more you will remember
the word for future reading. When you start automatically
remembering words, it allows you to be more concerned with what
is going on in the story instead of trying to decode words. It
will also allow you to read more words per minute and understand
what is going on in the story. Reread as much as you can so that
all words become sight words to you.”
I will now model how to become fluent with a sentence that you
might not know at first glance. First I will demonstrate a
nonfluent reader. The /c//a//t/
/r/a/n/ in the /s/t/r/ee/t/.
I
had to decode three words I wasn’t sure of and I’m still not
sure what they are.
I’m going to try that again.
[The teacher repeats the text by blending the phonemes together
and crosschecking.] The /ca//t/ oh, cat – The cat
/j/u/m/p/s/ jumps – The cat jumps in the /s/t/r/ee/t street?
I’m going to read it a third time because I know the more I
reread the more smooth and easy the sentence will become: The
cat jumps in the street. Do you see how much easier and
smoother it was the third time I read the sentence.
I hope a car did not hit the cat!
Split class up into pairs and if there is not an even number
teacher can be a student’s partner. I will then pass out a book
to each pair along with a time sheet and a partner check sheet
to each student.
“Now we are going to work on fluency. Within each pair one
person is going to start by being the reader and the other
person will be the recorder. After one round we will alternate.
The reader will begin by starting at the beginning of the book
and reading the first two pages. When the reader is done
reading, I want the partner to stop the stop watch to see how
long it took to read two pages. The recorder needs to fill in
the time sheet along with the partner check sheet after each
round. We will do three rounds per person and we will alternate
jobs each round. Read the same two pages each time!
After the three
rounds are finished, I want each partner to answer three
comprehension questions. Who is the main character? What is a
conflict that has already been addressed in the story? Summarize
the two pages? This presumes they know what main character
means, conflict means, and how to summarize – a difficult
procedure. Better to ask direct questions that are very specific
from the book. If you need the book, it’s probably still in
2423, or the AU library may have it.
Open ended questions invite more response.
“Today we will be reading “Dogs Do Not Tell Jokes”, by
Louis Sachar. This book is all about how to become a true class
clown. It will teach you to be a clown that everyone loves and
someone who never talks bad or puts down anyone. We are going to
have to read the whole book to find out how to become truly
funny.
I will give them thirty minutes to finish this assignment. I
will assess the students by taking up their time sheets. I will
be looking for an increase in the student’s fluency the more
times they read.
Resources:
Shealy Melton. (2005) Ready to Race!
Reading Genie:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/connect/meltongf.html
Copenhaver. (2005) Vrrrm Vrrrm…Speed Reading:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/connect/copenhavergf.html