Ready, set, read!!!
Growing Independence and Fluency:
Rationale:
In order for
children to read a significant amount of text in a certain amount of time and be
able to remember what they read, they need to be able to read fluently and
skillfully. Reading fluently is the
ability to recognize words accurately, rapidly, and automatically.
Fluent readers learn to read at a fast pace, but can also read smoothly
and with expression. When children
become fluent they are able to comprehend what they are reading because they
don't have to focus on sounding out words.
The goal of this lesson is to help students develop reading fluency using
timed, repeated reading.
Materials:
How Chipmunk got His
Stripes
by: Joseph Bruhac, and Rona Kornblum (enough copies for each student)
Dry Erase Board
Dry Erase Marker
Fluency Sheets for
each student
Stopwatch for each
pair of students
Pencil for each
student
Progress chart
(could be a mouse climbing a ladder to the tree)
Procedure:
1.
Explain the purpose
of the lesson to the students. "Today we are going to talk about how to improve
our fluency in reading." In order to become a successful reader, you must be
able to read fluently. Fluency is
when you are able to read fast without having to stop to sound out words because
you are able to recognize them automatically and read them with little to no
effort. Once you become fluent
readers, the text will begin to make more sense because you do not have to try
so hard to read each word. One way
that we can work on fluency is by reading a text or book more than once.
Each time you read a book, you get faster because you are becoming more
familiar with the text. "Today we
are going to read a text more than once and see if that helps us with our
fluency!"
2.
Model for the
students how to read fluently. What
it sounds like and feels like.
Write on the dry erase board the following sentence: How Chipmunk Got His
Stripes. Tell students, "first I am going to read this sentence without fluency.
Howww Chiippmmunnk Goooott Hissss Stripessss.
Now, I am going to read the sentence like a fluent reader would. How
Chipmunk Got His Stripes. Did you
hear the difference between reading with fluency and without? Listen as I read
the sentence once again. How
Chipmunk Got His Stripes. This
time, I read the sentence faster because it was not the first time I had read
those words. By reading the sentence twice it will help me read it fluently the
third time that I read it.
3.
"We are going to use
the book How Chipmunk Got His Stripes to practice improving our fluency.
Remind students to cross check if they do not automatically recognize a
word during their reading. "Do not forget that cross checking is a tool that
fluent readers use to make sense of the sentences that they read and to read
more successfully." Also, if you do not automatically recognize a word you can
use your critter cover-up to cover part of the word to help you sound it out.
Once you have determined the pronunciation of the word, go back and
reread the sentence to see if the word makes sense in the sentence.
If you and your partner cannot figure out how to pronounce a word
correctly, come to me and together we will figure it out. Model reading How
Chipmunk Got His Stripes aloud to the class as a fluent reader for the
students.
4.
"Now that you have
heard me read the book fluently you are going to practice reading fluently with
a partner." Divide students up into groups of two and give each student a copy
of the book. One student will be the reader while the other will sit and listen
and write down how long it took them to read. Then, the students will switch
jobs. "When it is your turn to read, I want you to see how many words you can
read smoothly and see how long it takes you to read it.
After each time your partner reads, I want you to fill out the fluency
sheet marking what you noticed about their reading and write down how long each
time took them to read. I want you
to keep switching with your partner until you have each read three times.
You may go ahead and begin!
5.
As the students are reading with
partners the teacher will walk around the classroom observing and providing help
to students when needed.
Assessment:
To assess the
students reading fluency, the teacher will call each student to her desk one at
a time. When the students come they will bring their book, progress chart, and
fluency checklist that was filled out by their partner.
The teacher will look over the checklist to be sure they did well with
fluency. If there is doubt, the
teacher will have the student read for one minute to demonstrate their fluency
in reading. Once the child has done this, the teacher will then ask basic
comprehension questions, to really see if the student understood what they read.
References:
Bruhac, Joseph.
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes. Turtleback Books, 1995.
"Even Little Red
Hens Read" by Kate DeGuenther
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invitations/deguenthergf.htm