Squeal into Fluent
Reading!
Growing Independence and
Fluency
Rationale: To become
fluent readers, children must build their sight word vocabulary.
The best way to do this is to transition from decoding to
automatic word recognition. In this lesson children will build
fluency through repeated readings. By rereading text, students
will learn to read more words per minute. By working with
partners, students may learn new decoding skills and will get
more practice reading. The more students read, the more their
reading skills will improve. This lesson is designed to help
students increase their fluency by reading text and becoming
more familiar with it. By the end of this lesson, students will
learn a strategy to increase fluency in their independent
reading.
Materials:
-Class set of the book Iggy Pig’s Silly Day!
-Class set of Words Read Correctly
Record Sheet(see below)
-Pencils for each student
-Stopwatch
Words Read Correctly Record Sheet:
Name:____________________
Date:______________
The first time I read
______________words correctly and ______________ total time
read.
The second time I read
_________________words correctly and ____________total time
read.
The third time I read
_________________words correctly and _____________ total time
read.
Procedures:
1.
Say: In order to become better readers, we must begin to read
fluently. This means to read words smoother and faster. Once we
become fluent readers, we will be able to understand the text
more easily. One way to become fluent readers is repeated
readings of a text, each time reading it faster and more
automatically. Repeated readings are 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. Today we are going to learn to
become fluent in our reading.
2.
Using the sentence “We can skip all day,” I will show you how a
reader becomes fluent reading new words. First , I will
demonstrate nonfluent readers. . We can s-k-i-p all d-a-y. I had to decode two
words in that sentence 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.)
We can /sk//i//p/ oh,
skip- We can skip
all /d//a/. Hmmm.. ay says /A/, /d/ /A/ day? I’m going to read
it a third time because I know the words now, and I want it to
sound smooth: We can skip all day. It made sense when I read it
smoothly the third time. I wonder where they are going to skip
all day? In order to become more fluent you need to use decoding
to remember words that once slowed you down.
3. We
are going to read the text Iggy Pig’s Silly Day! three
times through silently. Reading silently is 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. Booktalk: This book is
about a little pig named Iggy. Iggy loves to skip. One day, Iggy
decided he would skip all day. Lots of animals began skipping
behind him like the big gray animal, the chicken, the lamb, and
the bunny. Soon the chicken, the lamb, and the bunny were tired
and decided to go back to the farm. What do you think Iggy and
the big gray animal will do? Continue skipping? We will have to
read to find out what happens to Iggy and the big gray animal.
When we read this book we want to practice our fluency. This
means to read this book automatically and smoothly with lots of
expression.
4. It
is okay if you do not know all the words in the book. When you
come across a word that is unfamiliar to you use the cover up
method. I am going to show you how to use the cover up method.
Write the word pig
on the board. If I saw this word, I would cover up everything
but the i. (cover up
p and g) I know that i=/i/. Now look at
what comes before the vowel p=/p/. Blend them together to get /pi/. Now look
at the letter on the end of the word g=/g/. Put it all
together and you have /pig/. Whenever you see unfamiliar words
use this method to decode it. After you have decoded that
unfamiliar word, you need to read to the end of the sentence and
crosscheck to make sure that you decoded that word correctly and
it makes since in the sentence. Then go back and reread that
sentence again to get you back into the story and so that you
get that word instantly the next time.
5.
After the students read the book three times through, pair each
of the students in groups of two. Have the students read
pages 1-4 if Iggy Pig’s
Silly Day! . Have one student read while the other listens
for errors. We will do this three times. Be sure to record in
your words read correctly in your record sheet to see how you
improve each time. Try to read with accuracy and expression. I
will walk around the room observing the students and taking
notes on my student’s progress.
Assessment: To assess the students’ progress
with fluency, I will collect the words read correctly record
sheets that the students completed with their partner. I will
look to see how each student increased their fluency and word
accuracy while reading the first 4 pages of Iggy Pig’s Silly Day ! by
examining their time sheets with how many words they read
correctly and how long it took them to read the passage. I will look to see
which students may need extra help and then pair them with a
student who increased their fluency and word accuracy. I will
also ask comprehension questions about Iggy Pig’s Silly Day!
to make sure the students understood what they read. The
questions might include, “When did Iggy Pig ever realize that
the big gray animal was trying to harm him?” this was not
explained in the book, but the students were given enough
information to make inferences about. “Who realized what the big
gray animal really was?” and “What did this animal do to protect
Iggy Pig?”.
References:
1. Adams, Marilyn. Beginning to Read:
Thinking and Learning about Print- A Summary. Champaign:
Center for Study of Reading Research and Education Center, 1990.
2.
French, Vivian. Iggy
Pig’s Silly Day!. First Scholastic printing, 2002.
3. Miller, Tiffany. Poof!! Let’s Become Fluent
Readers
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/millergf.html.