Allison Bagwell
FASTER FLUENCY!!!
Allison Bagwell
Rationale: Comprehension is an
important part of learning to read. Beginning
readers can spend so much of their effort trying to
decode the words, that they do not spend much time comprehending what
they
read. These readers need to learn fluency, which is the ability
to
recognize words accurately and automatically. Fluent readers use less
of their
time decoding, leaving more time to comprehension. This lesson will
help
students become more fluent through repeated readings of text.
Students
will be working with partners to help them learn different decoding
strategies
from their peers and to get more time to read.
Materials:
Stopwatch
pencil‰¥¬
sentence
strips with a few decodable sentences: The dog ate the food on the
table. Tim
likes to play with cars. Bess is fun to play with.
Class
set of the book Jack and Gail go to Spain
Reading
Recovery Sheet
1)
OK
class; remember when we
learned about cross checking? Who can remind me of what cross checking
is?
Sometimes when we read a sentence, we might read a word wrong.
When we do
this, sometimes the sentence no longer makes sense. So, when we hear a
word
that didn䴜t make sense we can cross check to make sure that the
sentence makes
sense. ‰¥þJill fill down the hill‰¥ÿ That does make sense‰¥Ï.it should be
‰¥þJill fell
down the hill‰¥ÿ.
2)
"Today
we are going to
work on learning to read faster. Sometimes when I read a sentence
once, I
don't understand what I read. Today we are going to practice
reading one
book a few times to see if we can get faster. First we are going to
practice
with sentence strips " Take the first sentence strip and model reading
it
slowly, then a little faster and smoother, then faster with expression.
"The first time that I read this sentence, it might sound like
this.
‰¥þTh-e d-o-g a-te th-e f-oo-d on the t-a-ble. If I read it again it
might
sound smoother, like this ‰¥þThe dog ate the f-oo-d on the t-a-ble.‰¥ÿ
And if
I read it again it might sound faster and I would have expression, like
this
‰¥þThe dog ate the food on the table.‰¥ÿ Do you hear the difference in
those
sentences? Let䴜s continue trying to make our ready more fluent and
faster‰¥Ï.
3)
Pair
each student up with a
partner. Put the other two sentence strips up on the board.
"I
want you and your partner to take turns reading these sentences to each
other.
Make sure that you read all of the words correctly. Each of you should
say the
sentence three times each. Try to say the sentences faster and
smoother
each time."
4)
Give
each student a copy of
Jack and Gail go to Spain. Ask the class to spread out to different
parts of
the room and read the book to them.
5)
When
everyone is finished I
will partner you up with another classmate. Each partner group will
need the
book Jack and Gail go to Spain, speed recovery sheet, and fluency
literacy
rubric.
6) Tell
the partners that one person will be the ‰¥þreader‰¥ÿ and the other person
will be
the ‰¥þrecorder.‰¥ÿ After the first person has read, tell them that
they will
switch roles. The ‰¥þreader‰¥ÿ should start at the beginning of the
book and
read for only one minute. Be sure the partner ‰¥þrecorder‰¥ÿ knows to start
the
stopwatch when the ‰¥þreader‰¥ÿ begins and announce ‰¥þstop‰¥ÿ when the
stopwatch gets
to one minute. Then the ‰¥þreader‰¥ÿ will point to the word he or she
stopped
on and the ‰¥þrecorder‰¥ÿ will count the amount of words that the ‰¥þreader‰¥ÿ
read
within that one minute. The ‰¥þrecorder‰¥ÿ will write down the amount
of words
on the Speed Record Sheet in the first blank. Then the partners will
switch
roles and repeat the same steps.
7) Assess the students by observing each pair
as
they read to each other. Make sure that they are doing everything
correctly and listen carefully to them as they read. Have the
students
turn in their speed recovery sheet so that you can see if they are
improving
through this activity. Have each student read one of the sentence
strips that
they practiced with earlier to you so that you can see if they got
faster,
smoother, or more expressive through this lesson.
Jack
and Gail go to Spain www.readinga-z.com
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/fluency.html (web page entitled
‰¥þDeveloping Reading Fluency‰¥ÿ)