Wolfing Down Words
By: Nikki Tucker
Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson
Rationale:
Comprehension is the main goal of reading for children to
be able to understand what they are reading. For comprehension to happen easily,
children must be fluent readers as well.
Fluency helps children to read smoothly and quickly
with expression. This lesson is designed to help children reading for
understanding and with efficiency.
Materials:
-
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig books
- Laminated and cut out paper wolves, a brick house scene with Velcro tabs
- One-minute timer for each student
- Tape recorders
-
Chalk and chalk boards
Procedure:
1. Begin by
explaining to the children that they have started to decode very well and it is
time to use those decoding skills to read smoothly and become fluent readers.
Explain that reading fluent is a way of making reading sound like everyday
speech and a good way to make reading sound clearer. Write a sentence on the
board and then read it in two ways out loud to demonstrate the difference in
non-fluent and fluent reading to the children "I am going to read a sentence
twice and I want all of you to tell me which one sounds more like regular
talking and one does not.
Y-o-u
c-a-ca-n ha-ve
d-e-sss-e-rr-t
a-f-tt-er-er
y-o-u
e-a-t
d-i-nn-er-er OR You can have dessert after you eat
dinner. Which one was better? That’s right! The second one because it was easier
to read with a fast and smooth voice."
2. We are going
to read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and time
ourselves to see how many words we can read smoothly and quickly in one minute."
Pass out book, stopwatches, and tape recorders, have students read once with you
while you time in front of the class. Show them how to mark a stopping
point after the minute is up and then how to count all the words up to that
point. "Ok, now that we have practiced it once, get with your partner, and
read to each other for one minute. Whoever is reading needs to be
recording their voice while your partner times you, then switch up. Once
you have both finished reading into the recorder for one minute, total up your
words and put that number on the bottom of the brick house. Add ten to that
number and place it on the line above, then keep adding ten until you get to the
second floor of the house. Keep reading and timing with your partner.
Move the Velcro wolf up as the number of words you read increases! The
challenge is to read fluently enough to get your wolf to the top floor of the
house. This means that you are reading more fluently and reading more
words in a minute’s time! You will only have to record yourselves on the
first read."
3. Have students
read quietly to each other a few times until they get their wolf as high as they
can. Once they have done this, they can get a book of their choice to read
while you assess each child. Remind students to reread the sentences that
they have trouble with in order to be more fluent readers and to better
understand the story.
Assessment:
Call students to
your desk and have him or her bring their first recording with them. Have
the students read for one minute again while you record. Then you and the
student can both listen to their progress from the first time to the last and
discuss their improvements and the benefits of fluency.
References:
Reading
Genie Website- Willett, Elana, Let’s Book It Into Reading.