Go, Go Speed Reader!

Fluency Literacy Design





Sarah Stanley

 

Rationale:

When children first learn to read, they read slow and choppy.  Much effort and emphasis is placed on decoding.  The reading does not sound like a story or a connected text.  Instead it sounds simply like a string of words.  In conjunction with the child’s reading is also his/her understanding of the text.  Their reading success is based on decoding new words, but rarely can they explain to you what they just read.  It is important for children to gain fluency in their reading.  This is the first step in future reading comprehension.  When their reading sounds like speech, it will begin to make sense.  A good lesson for fluency involves rereading texts.  In this lesson, the students will practice reading and rereading with a partner.  They will assess each other on fluency and expression.

 

Materials:

The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most (Several copies for each child)

Stopwatch

Racetrack for each child

 

 

Procedure:

  1. Now that we know all of our correspondences, it’s time that we get to be better readers.  A lot of time when we read it is slow and kind of choppy.  Don’t you think?  Well today we are going to try and read faster and a lot smoother!  This is what we like to call fluency.
  2. I am going to read you a sentence and I want you to tell me which sounds better.  “I….li…ke….ice….cr…cr…eam.”  or  “I like ice cream”.  Which sounds better?  The second one! Right!  That is what we are going to try and focus on today!
  3. “We are going to read ‘The Cow That Went Oink” today.  Wait a minute, a cow that went oink?  That doesn’t sound right!  I wonder what is going to happen to this cow to make him say oink!  What animal says oink?  A pig!  That’s right!  What do cows say?  Moo!  Let’s read to see if you can figure out what is going to happen to this cow!”
  4. Let the children read the book to themselves silently.
  5. Finished?  Ok, now we are going to do something called “quick reads”.  I am going to time you for one minute and I want you to try and read as many words in that one minute as you can.  After that we will count the number of words and move our racecar on our Go, Go Speed Readers racetrack.  We are going to try to make it further around the track every time we read!  Watch me!
  6. Model for them by reading for one minute and then have them help me count my words and move my race car.
  7. Put the students in pairs.  Each child will count the other child’s words and move their racecars.  Repeat 3 times.
  8. Graph their reading times to assess how the children did on their reading!

 

 

References:

http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/hensleygf.html.  Reading Racers.

                                Melissa Hensley.

Eldredge, J. Lloyd, (1995). Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Prentice Hall Inc. pg. 8, 19.


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