Shhh! I’m
Reading!!
Rationale: Silent reading is an important component of fluency. Once the student has mastered decoding skills, then the next step to becoming fluent readers is silent reading. Silent reading helps create children who love reading, by giving them the opportunity to learn how to read by themselves. Reading silently will increase the automaticity, pace, and ease that the child reads as well as a love for voluntary reading. The students will learn to become silent readers by first whispering the text, then reading while only moving lips, and then reading silently in their heads. They will be assessed with a reading checklist.
Materials:
Class set of Iggy Pig’s
Silly Day! By Vivian French, sentence strip with “Iggy Pig was skipping”
written on it, and silent reading check list
Check List:
___ Reads Aloud
___ Reads in a whisper
___ Reads while moving lips
___ Reads silently
Procedures:
1. Say: “Today, class we are going to learn how to read
silently. All of you are really great at reading out loud so now
we are going to try something new! You are all going to learn
how to read silently! Silent reading is fun and it will allow
you to read in public places and not bother anyone! It will also
help you become better and faster readers!”
2. Review previous learning. Say: “Today we’re going to read silently. While reading,
remember to crosscheck, finish reading the sentence when you are
stuck to see if a puzzling word makes sense. Then go back and
reread the sentence after you correct yourself so that you get
the word instantly the next time you see it.”
3. Explain how to
read silently in kid language.
Say:
"It's just like reading out loud except you think the
words instead of saying them.
First read in a whisper, and then just move your lips,
then stop moving your lips but keep reading."
4. Explain why
they need the strategy
(Repeated
reading): “Repeated reading is how the experts get good
at reading aloud.
When you read something a few times, you know the word
when you see it again and it’s easier to understand ideas. It
also helps you get ready to read out loud so others can
understand what you're reading."
5. Model. Say: “Now I am going
to model how to read silently. First, we are going to read the
sentence on the sentence strip. It says Iggy Pig was skipping. I
am going to read the sentence
in a whisper:
Iggy Pig was skipping (read sentence). Next I will only move my
lips when I read (whisper read sentence). Finally, I will stop
moving my lips and read it in my head (read sentence in your
head).
6. Say: Now we are going to do
it together (pass out copies of the book). We are going to read
the first page of
Iggy Pig’s Silly Day!
in a whisper. Ok everybody lets read it in a whisper all
together. ‘Iggy Pig was skipping. ‘Watch me
skip, Mother Pig! Watch me skip!’(read sentence). Next we only
move our lips when we read (Read sentence all together).
Finally, we will stop moving our lips and read it in our head
(Make sure students are reading in their head).
7. Booktalk: Iggy the pig loves
to skip and skips all over town. A big grey hungry animal asks
to join Iggy and skip with him. Is the grey animal going to eat
Iggy? We are going to have to read to find out!
8. Say: “Now it’s your turn! I
want you all to practice reading
Iggy Pig’s Silly Day!
silently.” Give the children 10 minutes to practice reading
silently
Assessment:
As the children are reading, I will call them each up to my
desk. I will pick a page in the book and have them first read
aloud, then whisper read, then silently read while moving lips,
and then read silently. I will use the check list for each
child.
___ Reads Aloud
___ Reads in a whisper
___ Reads while moving lips
___ Reads silently
After the assessment is completed we will talk about what we
have just read. (Ask comprehension questions to make sure they
understand what is going on in the book). Comprehension
questions: What was the big grey animal? Why did the big grey
animal run away at the end of the story?
References:
Montiel, Frazier. Don't Say A Word
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/montielgf.html
French, Vivian, and David Melling. Iggy Pig's Silly Day.
New York: Scholastic, 2002. Print