Diary of a Worm
Growing Independency
and Fluency
Rational This lesson will
focus on fluency. The goal of fluency is for students to be able
to read
smoother, faster, and develop expression. Also this lesson will
promote
independent fluent reading.
The students
will be given a copy of the text, Diary of a Worm by Doreen
Cronin. The
students will be instructed to read various days in his diary
with expression.
They will need to express the attitude of the text. The goal of
this lesson is
to practice reading with expression.
Materials A
board for the
teacher to write examples on. Markers or chalk for the teacher
to use on the
board. A class set
of the book Diary of
a Worm by Doreen
Cronin. Scholastic 2001.Check list for assessment A List of
Sentences
for the teacher to read and model fluency
Procedures
1.Today, we are going
to learn to read
with expression. I am going to read you a few sentences from
this book Diary
of a Worm. But before we learn to read with expression,
lets review what we
should do if we came across a word we do not recognize.
Remember, we can
use cover-ups, to figure out the words we do not know. To help
us figure out
the word we cover up part of the word so we can read it a little
at a time.
Also to help us make sure we have figured out the correct word,
we can
cross check, which means we read the rest of the sentence to see
if a word
makes sense.
2. The
teacher
should not tell students about using expression and read the
first page in a
very slow monotone voice. Wow. That page did not sound
very good, I
wonder why? How did you like the way I read the first
page? Now let me read
the same sentences again. Now the teacher reads the same page
again, but with
an expressive voice. Who liked the second reading better?
Well, why did you
like this one so much more? The class should discuss why they
liked the
sentences better the second time.You are correct. The
second
time I read the sentence my reading improved because I used
different tones of
voice. I read more smoothly. I did not take long pauses between
the words in
the sentence. I read quicker and my facial expression changed
with my tone of
voice. The teacher will write these reasons on the board.
3. As good readers we want our
audience to enjoy what we are reading and we want to enjoy it
too. Everyone
enjoyed listening to the story better when I read with
expression. We are
going to learn how to use expression when we read and write to
help us feel
what we read.
4. Who can tell me some
different
ways to read with expression? Call on students to create the
definition of expression. The students should form the basic
idea that
expression is how we change the volume, speed, and tone of our
voices as we
read the text. Write the definition they have created on the
board.
You can explain to the students that the reading speed will make
the story more
or less suspenseful. The tone of the reader’s voice will
help develop the
way the characters are feeling and the pitch of the reader's
voice can cause
the story to be scary or exciting.
5. I am
going to read a sentence
that I have written on the board. After I read each sentence I
want you
to lift your hand in the air and give me thumbs up if you think
I read with
expression or thumbs down if you think I did not use expression
when I read the
sentence. The teacher will read each sentence out loud to the
class some read
with expression and some without. If the students give me thumbs
down I
will call on a student to reread the same sentence I just read
but with
expression.
Sentences
·
Never
bother
daddy when he’s eating the newspaper!
·
Today,
I
tried to teach spider how to dig!
·
Tomorrow
he
is going to teach me how to walk upside down!
·
He
swallowed
a bunch of dirt!
·
It
rained
all night!
·
Worms
cannot
walk upside down!
·
Fishing
season
started today!
·
I
got so hungry. I ate my homework!
·
My
teacher
made me write: I will not eat my homework ten times!
6.
Today
you will be practicing your reading skills by trying to make
your voices
more expressive. We will be reading Diary of a Worm in
our reading
groups. This book is about a worm that keeps a diary of
his daily
activities. He encounters a spider that thinks he can teach him
to walk upside
down! Do you think worms can walk upside down? Will he be able
to? He also,
eats his homework and his teacher makes him write out sentences
saying: I will
not eat my homework! I want you to pretend that you are the worm
in our story.
As you read his daily activities remember to read the lines as
if you were
really speaking them.
7. The
teacher will say a line from the text to provide and example of
how a character
might sound. Explain that the characters will have different
voices and that
they will express their words differently depending on how they
feel about the
situations. If the character is excited, we should use an
excited voice but if
he is angry we should use an angry voice. Students should be
divided into
groups of three and given a copy of the text.
8. You will then
assign each student in
the group a day to read. Give them the opportunity to read
through their part
silently before asking them to read out load in their groups.
Instruct the
students to try to relate to the characters, to think about the
attitude of the
worm and how he might feel. Have the students reread the
text together in
their small groups. Remind them that they are to portray their
character to
their group members using expression.
9. Instruct
the students to practice
reading several more times. Tell the students, Each time you
read you should
try to become more expressive with your voice. This should make
the students
become more and more comfortable and fluent with the text. After
the group has
read the story two or three times together, ask the students to
discuss how
each group member portrayed their character and what was
happening in the story
that caused the students to read that way. I will rotate through
the groups and
monitor their progress. They are to help each other read
more fluently by
giving helpful tips to each other.
Assessment The students will have had time
to read the story a
few time out loud together. I will stop at each reading
group. I will pick
two or three pages of the book and have the groups read their
parts out loud
and with the expression they have been practicing. I will
check the
students mainly for fluency and expression as they read their
parts to
me.
Example of an assessment
checklist
-
Does the student read smoothly?
-Does
the
student vary their tone of voice?
-Does
the
student change tempo in the reading when necessary?
-Does
the
student show emotion with facial movement?
- Is the student
progressing?
References:
Cronin, Doree. Diary of a worm. Scoolastic
inc. 2001.
Leech, Traci. A fine,
Fine reader.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading-genie/begin/leechgf.html
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