Growing
Racing to
Read!
Growing
Rationale:
“If a
sentence is
read too slowly-say, one word every 5 seconds-it’s structure collapses
and what
remains is a string of words producing little meaning” (Eldridge). Fluent readers are able to read quickly and
effortlessly, allowing them to focus on comprehending what is being
read. The goal for this lesson is to teach
students
how to speed up their reading, and improve fluency.
The students will be given time to read and reread
decodable text to each other while doing one minute timed readings.
Materials:
1. Stopwatch for
each pair of students
2. A copy of the
book Jane and Babe (published by Educational Insights
c.1990) for each
pair of students
3. A sheet of
paper with a banana tree on it for
each student. The banana tree should
have lines going up the tree to the bananas for the students to write
in
numbers.
4. A cutout
picture of a monkey for each student
5. Chalkboard and
chalk
6. Pencil for each
student
Procedure:
1. Begin
the lesson by reviewing the a_e=/A/ correspondence.
Teacher will give the word babe as an example,
and write it on the
board. Ask students to display their
knowledge
of the a_e correspondence by naming words with that correspondence. Teacher will write the words that the
students name on the board.
2. Next, do a book talk for Jane and Babe. “Have you ever been
to a zoo and seen a lion? Jane is a girl
that works at the zoo. Every day she plays with Babe the lion.
She likes
to take care of him. One day Babe falls
asleep and Jane needs to wake him up. Even though Babe is tame,
Jane has
to be careful because lions can get very mad.
How do you think Jane will wake Babe up without getting hurt?
Read
the book to find out!!”
3. Today, we are
going to
practice reading with fluency. This
means that we are going to practice reading very quickly.
When we read quickly, we are able to
understand the story much easier than if we read slowly.
The teacher will model how not to read by
reading the first page of Jane and Babe (reading very slowly without
fluency,
sounding out each word, taking long pauses between each word). “B-abe
(pause) st-ay-s in his (pause)
c-age. (pause) The c-age has B-abe’s
(pause) n-ame. (pause)
The c-age h-a-s a (pause) g-ate.”
4. Now read the
same page; this
time reading with fluency and expression.
“Babe stays in his cage. The cage
has Babe’s name. The cage has a
gate.” Tell students the difference
between the two ways you read the same page.
(One way was slow, choppy, and boring.
The other way was quick, smooth, and entertaining.)
Emphasize how important it is that we read
quickly so that we can understand and enjoy what we read.
5. Divide the
students into
pairs of two. Give each pair of students
a copy of Jane and Babe and a
stopwatch. Give each student a piece of
paper with a banana tree with lines going up the tree to write numbers
on, a
cutout of a picture of a monkey, and a pencil.
Teach the students how to use a stopwatch. Explain
to them how to do one minute
reads. Model by having a student time
you for one minute while you read Jane
and Babe. Show the students that you
must count all the words you are able to read in one minute. You should
not
count the words that you read incorrectly.
Model counting words that you read in Jane and Babe.
Tell the students that they are going to practice
fluency by doing one minute reading with their partners.
They will take turns reading Jane and Babe to
each other. One person will read aloud
while the other person
times a minute with the stopwatch. However
many words you read in a minute the first time you read, that is the
number you
write on the first line on the bottom of the banana tree.
The next time you read, if you are able to
increase the number of words per minute, then you get to move up to the
next
line of the banana tree. Every line you
move up, you get to move your monkey closer to the bananas. The object is for you and your partner to make
your monkey reach the bananas at the top of the tree.
In order to do this, you have to keep
increasing your words per minute. Write
your words per minute on the lines on your banana tree.
Give the students time to read at least three
times each. Tell the students that if
they didn’t make it to the top of the tree, we will be practicing
fluency again
in the lessons to come.
Assessment:
Have
students write their names on the banana tree charts.
Compare the number of words per minute the
first time they read to the number of words per minute the last time
they
read. See if it increased.
References:
Auburn
University
Reading Genie Web site, Growing Independence and Fluency Design,
Estill,
Laura. “Sail into
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/estillgf.html.
Eldridge,
J.
Lloyd. Teaching Decoding:
Why and How, Second Edition. “Improving
Decoding, Fluency, Comprehension,
Motivation, and Writing” pg. 151. Pearson
Education, Inc.
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