“Fluency is Fun!”
Fluency
Rationale: This lesson will focus on fluency. To be fluent a
student must have accuracy, prosody, and automaticity. It is
important for a student to be fluent because he or she needs
fluency to have comprehension, which is the goal when in
reading. This lesson is going to focus on reading with
expression, or prosody. The students will read the book Amelia Bedelia. The
students will read this book multiple days. While reading this
book the students will be expected to change their expression
when different characters are speaking and change their
expression based on what the characters are feeling. The
students will keep reading
Amelia Bedelia
multiple times for practice.
Materials:
the book Amelia Bedelia
by Peggy Parish. Scholastic 1993 (one for each student),
sentence strips for the students to practice expression, a list
of sentences for the teacher to read to model fluency and mainly
point out expression, or prosody, and
whiteboard or smartboard
Procedures:
1.Today we are
going to read with expression. When I say read with expression I
mean to read how you think the character would say what he or
she is saying and to read how you think the character is
feeling. Let me show you what I mean. (Teacher reads a paragraph
with different characters speaking to show the class how to read
with expression.) Now let me show you how it would sound if I
didn’t read with expression. (Teacher reads the same paragraph
without expression in a monotone voice.) Now class, which one do
you think sounded better? The reason we need to read with
expression is so that we can become perfect readers. It is
important to read with expression because it helps you
understand the meaning of the text better and because it makes
it more interesting.
2.Before you read today and before you practice reading with
expression let’s review what you should do if you come to a word
that you don’t know. If you come across a word you don’t know
you can always use a cover-up. When you use a cover-up you cover
up part of the word to help you read small parts of it at a
time. Once you have used your cover-up you should crosscheck to
make sure it makes sense. Crosschecking is when you read the
whole sentence to make sure it makes sense all together.
3. Now let’s list some of the things you should do if you are
reading with expression.(List these things on the board.):
Different speed, have a high voice sometimes and a low voice
sometimes, feeling, raising your eyebrows.
4. Now let’s see if we can decide whether each sentence is read
with expression or not. (Teacher reads the list of sentences
from the board.) If I read the sentence with no expression I
will have one of the students reread it with expression.
·
Look out! That bird almost hit you.
·
Can someone please help me?
·
I think it’s time to go home.
·
I love my mother’s apple pie more than I love presents.
·
Those giraffes are really tall.
·
My favorite place in the whole wide world is New York.
5. Today we are going to read Amelia Bedelia. This book is about a little girl
who has to do a list of chores for Mrs. Rogers, but there was
miscommunication between Amelia Bedelia and Mrs. Rogers. Let’s
read to find out what Amelia Bedelia is going to do to Mrs.
Rogers’ house. Everyone remember that when you are reading in
your group you should read the story how you think the
characters are saying them. If the character is angry use an
angry voice. If the character is excited use an excited voice.
6. The students will read the book through multiple times. First
the students will read the book in their groups to help develop
their expression. After reading each time the students will
discuss certain parts where they showed great expression. They
will discuss what was happening in the story that caused them to
use such great expression.
7. After the students have read with their groups they will read
the whole text individually to help practice using expression.
Once the students have read it through a few times I will walk
around and ask them to read aloud a few pages and that will be
each student’s assessment. It will be a formative assessment and
I will mark on a clipboard notes about each student while he or
she is reading. Things I will be looking for during assessment:
Does the student change their tone? Does the student change
their speed if something is exciting or suspenseful? Does the
student show emotion through facial expressions? Has the student
made improvement? I will ask the student to name two of the
things Amelia Bedelia did that she wasn't really supposed to do.
References:
Clark, Leah Diary of a
Worm
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/clarkgf.html
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish Scholastic
1993