On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
In order for children to read a significant amount of text in a certain amount
of time and be able to remember what they read, they need to be able to read
fluently and skillfully. Reading fluently is the ability to recognize words
accurately, rapidly, and automatically. Fluent readers learn to read at a fast
pace, but can also read smoothly and with expression. When children become
fluent they are able to comprehend what they are reading because they don't have
to focus on sounding out words. The goal of this lesson is to help students
develop reading fluency using timed, repeated reading.
Materials:
A Day at the Lake by: Matt Sims
(enough copies for each student)
Dry Erase Board
Dry Erase Marker
Fluency Sheets for each student
Stopwatch for each pair of students
Pencil for each student
Progress chart (could be a mouse climbing a ladder to the tree)
Procedure:
1.
The teacher will explain the purpose of the lesson to the students. "Today we
are going to learn how to improve our fluency in reading. In order to become a
successful reader, you must be able to read fluently. Fluency is when you
are able to read fast without having to stop to sound out words because you are
able to recognize them automatically and read them with little to no effort.
Once you become fluent readers, the text will begin to make more sense because
you do not have to try so hard to read each word. One way that we can work
on fluency is by reading a text or book more than once. Each time you read
a book, you get faster because you are becoming more familiar with the text."
"Today we are going to read a text more than once and see if that helps us with
our fluency!"
2.
The teacher will model for the students how to read fluently. She will explain
what it sounds like and feels like. Write on the dry erase board the
following sentence: A Day at the Lake. Tell students, "first I am going to read
this sentence without fluency. Aaaa Daaaay atttt theeee Laaakkke. Now, I
am going to read the sentence like a fluent reader would. A Day at the Lake.
Did you hear the difference between reading with fluency and without? Listen as
I read the sentence once again. A Day at the Lake. This time, I read
the sentence faster because it was not the first time I had read those words. By
reading the sentence twice it will help me read it fluently the third time that
I read it.
3.
"We are going to use the book A Day at the Lake to practice improving our
fluency. The teacher will remind students to cross check if they do not
automatically recognize a word during their reading. "Do not forget that cross
checking is a tool that fluent readers use to make sense of the sentences that
they read and to read more successfully." Also, if you do not automatically
recognize a word you can use your critter cover-up to cover part of the word to
help you sound it out. Once you have determined the pronunciation of the
word, go back and reread the sentence to see if the word makes sense in the
sentence. If you and your partner cannot figure out how to pronounce a
word correctly, come to me and together we will figure it out. Model reading
A Day at the Lake aloud to the class as an example of a fluent reader for
the students.
4.
"Now that you have heard me read the book fluently you are going to practice
reading fluently with a partner." Divide students up into groups of two and give
each student a copy of the book. One student will be the reader while the other
will sit and listen and write down how long it took them to read. Then, the
students will switch jobs. "When it is your turn to read, I want you to see how
many words you can read smoothly and see how long it takes you to read it.
After each time your partner reads, I want you to fill out the fluency sheet
marking what you noticed about their reading and write down how long each time
took them to read. I want you to keep switching with your partner until
you have each read three times. You may go ahead and begin!
5.
As the students are reading with partners the teacher will walk around the
classroom observing and providing help to students when needed.
Assessment:
To assess the students reading fluency, the teacher will call each student to
her desk one at a time. When the students come they will bring their book,
progress chart, and fluency checklist that was filled out by their partner.
The teacher will look over the checklist to be sure they did well with fluency.
If there is doubt, the teacher will have the student read for one minute to
demonstrate their fluency in reading. Once the child has done this, the teacher
will then ask basic comprehension questions, to really see if the student
understood what they read.
References:
Sims, Matt. A Day at the Lake. Novato, CA. High Noon Books 2002
"Ready, Set, Read" by Caroline Conner
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/connercgf.htm