Only
Let
Your Brain Hear You!
Growing
Rationale: Learning to read
silently is an important step to
learning to be a fluent reader. This skill is not always
automatically acquired
and implemented by children. It is an important strategy that
children
must learn. Children must be able to extract meaning from the
text that
they read in a seemingly effortless manner. Learning to do this
helps
children obtain the desire to read on their own. Silent reading
is a necessary
component in this process. This lesson helps children grasp how
to read
silently and provides practice in this area.
Materials: Kids
and Pets at
Camp from the Reading Genie website, chalk, chalkboard and paper,
checklist
with lips moving/reading in a normal voice, lips moving/whispering,
lips
moving/no sound, lips not moving/no sound to assess students.
Procedure:
1. Explain
to the
students what silent reading is and why it is important. "Have
you
ever been to the library and seen the ‘Please Be Quiet’ sign? Do
you ever
wonder how all the people are reading without making a sound?
This is
called silent reading. Silent reading is when you read a book to
yourself
without making a sound and eventually without even moving your
lips!
Today we are going to practice reading silently. Silent reading
is so
important that we all need to learn how to do it in order to become
better
readers."
2. Explain
cross checking
with the students and why it is so important when you are silently
reading. Cross checking is when you read a sentence and it
doesn’t make
sense so you go back and reread the sentence to see what word you might
have
misread. "Sometimes when you are reading out loud, you may
misread a
word and someone might hear you and correct you. Well, when you
are
silently reading, there is no one to correct you so you have to cross
check for
yourself.” Model crosschecking for the students. Write the
sentence I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
on the chalkboard. "I am going to read this sentence aloud.
I
love peanut butter and juice sandwiches. Now, that sentence
didn’t make
sense to me. Did it make sense to you? I am going to go
back and
reread the sentence to see if I misread a word. I love peanut
butter and
juice, no jelly sandwiches. I love peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches. That makes a lot more sense to me. Does it to
you? Crosschecking is very important because if what we read does
not
make sense to us, we will not understand the book that we are
reading. It
is important to remember to cross check if you come across a sentence
that
doesn’t make too much sense."
3.
Distribute Kids
and Pets at Camp to students to read for silent reading.
"Today
you are going to get to read Kids and Pets at Camp to practice
silent
reading. I want everyone to read the
first page to themselves. Remember to
crosscheck if some of the words don’t sound right to you.
When you are comfortable with the first page,
raise your hand and let me hear you read it out loud to me before you
continue
with the rest of the book.” Use this
opportunity to make sure the text is appropriate for all of the
students.
4. Explain
to the
students how to silently read and model it for them. "Silent
reading
is not hard to learn how to do and can be learned easily with a little
practice. To learn how to silent read, start off by whispering
quietly to
yourself as your read. Watch me as I read this page in this
book." Read a page in a book and whisper as you read for the
students. "Now you try it. Whisper read the first page of
your
book. Great! After you have learned how to whisper read,
you read
even quieter. You do this by only moving your lips while you
read.
You should not be making any sound when you do this. Watch me as
I read
this page." Read the next page by only moving your lips as you
read
and not making any sound. "Now I want you to try it. Remember not
to
let any sound come out of your mouth. You should only be moving
your
lips. Good job! Next is silent reading. To do this,
you read
without making any sound or moving your lips. I want you to watch
as I
silent read this page in my book." Read the third page of the
book
silently without moving your lips or making any sound. "Did you
notice how I didn’t move my lips or make any sounds at all? Now I
want
you to try it."
5.
Allow students to silent read for a short time
period (approximately ten minutes). "Remember to cross check as
you
read silently so that you will understand what you are reading."
6. For
assessment, walk
around as the students are working on silent reading with a checklist
for each
student with: lips moving/reading in a normal voice, lips
moving/whispering,
lips moving/no sound, lips not moving/no sound.
Complete the check list for each student and ask the students
who appear
to be silent readers a question or two about their book to make sure
they are
comprehending the text.
Reference:
-Eldredge,
J. Lloyd. 1995. Teaching
Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.
- Murray, Geri.
2001. Kids and
Pets at Camp. The Reading Genie website. http://www.auburn.edu/~murrag1/Geniebooks/KidsPets.ppt