On
Your Mark, Get Set, Read!
By: Kristi Woods
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
Students must learn to read quickly, smoothly, and with expression to be fluent
readers. The ability to do all of those things together will help a student
comprehend and enjoy the text. Doing repeated readings of whole texts helps
students to increase their fluency. In this lesson students will learn how to
read quickly, smoothly, and expressively in order to gain fluency.
Materials:
Speed Record Sheet for each student
Fluency Checklist for each student
Paper and Pencils for each student
Stopwatch for each pair of students
The Three Little Javelinas
by Susan Lowell and Jim Harris for
each student in the class
A copy of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That
Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Speed
Record Sheet
Name:________________
Date:__________
1st
time:______
2nd
time:______
3rd
time:______
Fluency
Checklist
Name:____________
Evaluator:____________
Date:___________
I noticed
that my partner… (color in the circle)
After 2nd
After 3rd
O
O
Remembered more words
O
O
Read faster
O
O
Read smoother
O
O
Read with expression
Procedures:
1.
Explain
the purpose of the lesson to the class. “Today we are going to be working on
reading skills that will help you to become fluent readers.
Fluent readers are able to read smoothly without stopping between words
as well. Reading a text several times will help you to become a fluent reader.
The more you practice reading a story, the easier it becomes to understand what
the story is about. We are now going to practice fluency by reading a text more
than once.”
2.
“I am going to read a sentence and I want you to
tell me if I am reading fluently. T-h-e-d-o-g-w-a-g-g-e-d-h-i-s-t-a-i-l.
You are right, I was not reading with fluency. I am going to read the sentence
again. The dog wagged his tail. This time I read the sentence faster and without
stopping because I have read the sentence before. Practice rereading the
sentence helped me to read more fluently.”
3.
“We are going to read the text
The Three Little Javelinas (give a
book talk). Hand out a copy of The Three
Little Javelinas to each student. “Read silently to yourselves and if you
finish before everyone else does, you may reread the text again.”
4.
Divide the class into pairs and ask each pair to
take turns reading the story to his or her partner all the way through once.
Then ask the students to taking turns reading again and the student listening
will fill out the fluency checklist while their partner is reading (explain what
the checklist is and how to fill it out before handing it to the students).
5.
To assess
the children I will call them individually to my desk and do a whole-text read
them. I will have them read Click, Clack,
Moo: Cows That Type three times and record their results on the speed record
sheet to see if they increase the number of words they read per minute. The
fluency checklist and the speed record sheet will help me figure out if the
students are making progress with becoming more fluent readers. I will also ask
the students to retell me what happened in the story to assist them in the
aspect of comprehension in building fluency.
References:
Lowell, Susan. (1992). The Three Little Javelinas. Reed Business
Information, Inc. Northland Publishing.
Cronin, Doreen. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. Simon & Schuster,
2000.
Gina
Thomas,
Quick as a Mouse
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/thomasgf.html
Kim
Holzapfel, The Buzzing Bumble Bee
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/holzapfelgf.html