I
Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for
Growing
Anne Joseph
Rationale:
Becoming a fluent reader takes lots and lots of practice.
Materials: Poster
board
Ice cream cone for
each student
Scoops of ice cream for them
to add to their cone
Stopwatches for each pair of
students
Clifford’s Sports Day,
Norman Bridwell
A book for each pair of students, must
be on their instructional reading level
Procedures:
1. First I will begin by introducing the
lesson to the students. I will explain
what fluent readers are and demonstrate how they read.
“Today we are going to do a lesson that will
help us become smoother, faster readers.
I know that if I read something over and over, I will be able to
read it
faster and smoother. This is what you
are going to practice today.”
2. “I am going to read a sentence out of this
book and I want you to tell me which way sounds better and which way
you want
to read like.” “The gym teachers had planned a day of races and games.”
Or
“Th-e g-g-y-m t-e-e-a-c-h-e-r-s h-a-d p-l-a-a-n-n-e-d a d-a-y f-u-u-l-l
o-f
r-a-c-c-e-s a-n-d g-g-g-a-m-e-s.” While
I read it the second way I am going to struggle with some words and use
the
cover-up method to teacher them how to do it. If
you need to cover-up, then remember that you can cover up letters to
help you figure out the word. The more we read and the better we
get, the more fluent we will become.
3. Next I will write another sentence on the
poster board, I saw a crazy monkey swinging on a branch far in the
jungle. I will have the students in pairs
(kind of in
ability groups for a later activity) and have them read this sentence
out loud
to each other. “I want you to read this
sentence to your partner out loud then I want you to practice it
silently about
five times. We want to be able to read
this sentence very smooth and fast. After you finish reading it
silently, I
want you to read it out loud to your partner again.
Did it sound better the second time you read
it our loud? Rereading things help you
be able to read with speed.”
4. “Now I am going to read you a story. This is Clifford’s Sports Day by
Norman Bridwell. This is a story about a
big, red dog named Clifford. He decides
to go to field day with his friend Emily.
Clifford is so huge, I wonder if he will be able to participate
in the
field events. Let’s read and find out
what Clifford gets to do.” I am going to
read this story very smoothly and give them an example of how we want
them to
read.
5. Next I am going to give each of the pairs a
book and a timer. I have the books by
ability so I will assign them according to the pairs I put together. “I am giving each group a timer and a book. While one person reads, the other person will
be the timer. We will read for one
minute. Mark how far you got so next
time you read, you will be able to see if you read further than the
time
before. If you come to a word that you
are not sure about, use the cover up method to help you out. Read as many words as you can.
6. “After one minute is up, you will count how
many words you have read. Write it down
so next time you can see you if went further.
If you went further on your next try, you can get a scoop of ice
cream
and add it to your cone. Continue to
switch off with your partner.”
7. I will assess the children as they work with
their partner. I will walk around to
make sure they are reading and understand the directions correctly. I will also have the scoops of ice cream to
hand out to the students who have read further each time.
I will have the students turn their cones in
for me to assess as well.