Go faster, faster!!
Reading Fluency- Speed
Rationale:
When children first start reading, it is
very slow and drawn out. One of the goals of reading instruction is for
students to read fast, accurately, and automatically. In order for
students to do this they must learn how to decode words. This lesson
will help students read faster and more fluently by letting them read
and reread and read with partners and practice assessing each other.
Materials:
You will need
several copies of the book (each child having their own copy), Kite Day
at Pine Lake (Educational Insights). Each child should have a
check-sheet for fluency and expression to evaluate one another.
The teacher can have a chart to put students progress on.
Procedures:
1.
Explain to the students that good readers read fast, and their
words are strung into sentences. Say: You have all done a
great job with your new reading today. You used the cover-up and
crosscheck method to read words you have never seen before. You
cover-up parts of the word to make it easier to sound out. Then you
blend the parts together to form a whole word. You also
cross-check by reading on and finishing the sentence to see if the word
you said makes sense in the sentence. But, good readers read fast and
they donât spend time using cover-ups. A good way to become a
fluent or fast reader is to reread books you have already read.
2. Say: I will demonstrate for you how a good reader reads
fluently or smoothly. (Take out the book Kite Day at Pine Lake).
I will read the sentence twice and you tell me which one you like
better. Say this one slowly and deliberately, segmenting each
phoneme. K-i-t-e D-a-y A-t P-i-n-e L-a-k-e.
Say this one smoothly. Kite Day at Pine Lake. Let children
raise hand and tell you which one and why. Say: Yes, the second
one sounds much better. It sounds like I am talking and not
reading. That is how we want our reading to soundálike talking.
This is what I want you to do today when you read.
3. Say: The book we will be reading today is Kite Day at
Pine Lake. Book talk: It is a great day at Pine Lake. Lots
of children are at the park flying their kites. Jeff is flying
his big kite. Fay is flying her colorful kite. Ike is
flying his polka-dot kite. They are having so much fun! Jan is
also at the park flying her kite. Bob decides to go to the park.
When he gets to the park, he sees all the other children flying
their kites. Bob is sad. He has no kite. Find out
what he does?
4. Hand out a copy of the book. Say: I want you to read
this book silently to yourself. You can read it as many times as
you like.
5. Divide the class into partners. Let partners take turns
reading to one another. The students listening will fill out a
check sheet with these items on it read fast, read slow, read smooth,
read choppy, read with expression, read with no expression.
6. I will assess students by having them read the passage aloud
to me during a one minute read. I will record each students time
and chart it on a graph for him or her to see.
References:
Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read:
Thinking and Learning about Print. Illinois:Center for the Study of
Reading. 1990.
Kite Day at Pine Lake. Educational Insights: Carson, CA. 1990.
How To Develop Reading Fluency
Angela Atkins:
http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/discov/atkinsgf.html