SWIMMING FOR
RAPID
Growing
Independence & Fluency
Rationale: The
purpose of this lesson is to help students improve their pace of
reading. They
can better comprehend what they are reading if they do not read with a
slow
monotonous pace.Ê In this lesson the
students will be practicing and charting timed reads in order to become
motivated to read faster and more fluently.
Materials:
~copy of the poem "It's Raining Said John Twaining" By, N.M. Bodecker.
Athenuem Books for Young Readers, c1973
~stopwatches for each
group
~paper people with
students names on them
Ê ~bulletin board with a
swimmersâ pool on it
Ê ~progress chart for each
student that has: starting date, starting time, goal time that is a
swimming pool
Ê ~schedule that will record
their time twice a week in a chart form
Procedure:Ê
1.
Introduce the
lesson by explaining to the children what fluency means and why they
need to
increase their speed in reading.Ê ãWe
are going to work on increasing our reading
speed. When
you increase your reading speed you will be able to better understand
what you
have just read and will be able to read a longer book in a smaller
amount of
time. ã
2. ãNow we are going to read a
poem in several different speeds and styles and I want you to tell me
which way
is easier to understand and why.ä Read a poem slow and
choppy and
then read it fast and upbeat. I
think it was harder to understand the slow and choppy reading.Ê Now Iâm going to read another sentence two
different ways and you tell me which is harder to understand.Ê Next ask the students which speed and
style was easier to remember what I had just read. Have
them
comment on why it was easier to understand the faster and more upbeat
reading.Ê Explain to the students how I improved.Ê I was
able to read the words fluently without stopping and it was fast enough
that I
could understand what I was reading.
3. ã I
want you to practice reading faster with a
partner.ä Give the students a copy of the poem I have just
read
and a stopwatch for each group. ãOne
partner will read as the other one times them then you will swap turns.
ÊYou can do this several times with your
partner.ä
4. Give the children a progress chart, to record their progress.Ê Record times twice a week. Explain to
them that two times a week they will get with their partner and do this
timed
reading activity again only with a longer text. We will use a
longer
book. ÊTell them that with more practice
their speed will get faster and faster and this will make them more
rapid
readers!
5. In order to assess their abilities, set three specific goals,
individualized
to their abilities, for each child to accomplish within the five weeks
of
charting their speed on reading their poem. Each child will get a
paper
person with their name on it that will be placed at the starting line
of a swimmers
pool on the bulletin board. Under the pool will be the numbers
one
through three. When the child accomplishes their first set goal
their
paper person will move to the number one. This process will keep
going
until the child meets the finish line, which is their last set goal
under the
number three.
References:
J.
Llyoyd, Eldredge
(1995). Teaching Decoding In Holisitic
Classrooms.
Tamra SwindallÊ Speedy ReadersÊ http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/inroads/swindallgf.html
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