Nemo’s Fast Swim
Growing
Rationale:
In order for children to become
fluent readers, they must learn how to read faster, smoother, and more
expressively. Fluent readers have to be able to
read accurate and automatic. This lesson will teach students how to read
quickly, smoothly, and expressively. The students
will gain fluency through repeated readings, timed readings, and
one-minute reads. The more they read the more their reading
skills will improve!
Materials:
Procedure:
1.)
Introduce
the lesson telling the students that we are going to be talking about
the difference between a beginning reader and a fluent reader.
First, tell everyone what fluent means. “It
means fast and automatic. Some of the benefits to
reading fluently are that you can read faster, reading is easier, you
can read more, and you can comprehend the text better. A
beginning reader reads slowly and also struggles while he/she reads, so
reading is slower, harder, and they read less. I’m
going to read a sentence and you tell me if I’m a beginning reader or a
fluent reader. The frog jumped up into the sky.
(fluent) The ffffrrrooooggg
jjjjuuummmppeeeddd uupp iinnttoo the sssskkkkyyyy. (beginner)
Great job! Now, let’s practice to become
fluent readers!”
2.)
Practice
with the sentence strips. “First, everyone is going to get two
sentence strips with a different sentence on each one. Then, I
want you to get into groups of two and practice saying these two
sentences over and over again. A way to becoming a fluent reader
is to read and reread texts. I am going to show you how to do
it. I will read, ‘The frog jumped up into the sky.’ (several
times). I will read, ‘The cat went to sleep on the
rug.’ (several times). Then,
3.)
If you
get to a word that you do not know, what should you do? (use
a cover-up) Yes! Do not panic!
Remember for the cover-ups we first cover everything up except
the vowel and say the vowel sound…Like this (display on
overhead). Next, cover up everything except the letters before
the vowel and say it with the vowel. Last, cover up all of the
letters except the ones after the vowel and say them. When all is
done, put all of those sounds together to help you read the word.
If the cover-ups still do not work, read on or ask your partner for
help.
3.)
Next,
handout the practice poem, “The Acrobats” by Shel Silverstein, and work
with partner. Poem talk: “These acrobats are
swinging by their nose and toes. Let’s read to see
if they can hold on!” “You all did a wonderful job
reading and rereading sentences. Thank you for
following directions and working so well in groups! Now,
I am now going to hand out a poem to each one of you and I want you to
get your cover-ups out. You will again work with your partner to
read and reread the poem. Along with the poem, you will get one
stop watch per group. After you have read the poem a couple of
times, I want you to practice timing yourself for one minute noting how
far you get each time. Let me show you how to do
it… Dustin has his poem and Sara has the stopwatch. When
Sara says go, Dustin will start reading and Sara will push the start
button. Dustin will read the entire poem and when he is finished,
Sara will push stop and they will record his time. Afterwards,
they will switch places. What is one way that we
can practice becoming fluent when reading this poem? (reading
it a lot) Yes! We will be
reading the poem several times to practice becoming a fluent reader.
Again, I will be walking around to help you if you need it.
You may begin reading!”
4.)
After the
students have read the first poem, give each group the poem, “Warning”
by Shel Silverstein, for assessment. Poem talk:
“Something is biting off people’s fingernails and rings off when
they put their fingers in their nose. Let’s read
this poem and find out what it is!” Give them a one
minute assessment after they have had the opportunity to read through
the new poem. While a couple of groups are doing
this, the other groups will still be working on the first poem or the
sentence strips. Once they finish the assessment they may go and
practice the same skills with a book of their choice. “You all are
doing such a fabulous job reading fluently. Now,
you and your partner will receive a new poem. Read
the new poem a couple of times and then I am going to use the stop
watch to do the timing. Each of you will also
receive a reading chart that will help keep track of your improvement.
I will be writing the amount of words you read, in one minute,
on the chart and as you improve you get to move your Nemo closer to his
dad. After I finish timing your reading, you may go and get a book of
your choice. I am so proud of you all. I
want you all to continue practicing becoming fluent readers while I
finish assessing!”
5.)
I will
assess the student by how well they read the poem to me in one
minute. The reading charts will also serve as long term
assessments that will be continued in the future.
References: