Flying High
in the
Goal: Growing
Rational: It is not enough to be able to read; you must
be able
to comprehend what you are reading in order to enjoy it. Because
comprehension requires so much of a reader's attention, you must
decrease the
time you spend on decoding.
Materials: Book talks on the following books: Come
and Have
Fun, Rube and the Tube, What Will the Seal Eat? (For
modeling), Sammy the Seal. (See references for authors of
books)
Also, a variety of other decodable books for them to choose from, a
stopwatch,
and the sentence, I want to go to
Procedures: 1. “Today we are
going to talk about the correct and incorrect ways to read a
book. First
I will read a book called What Will
the Seal Eat? It's about a seal that is hungry but can't
seem to
find anything that seals eat. Do you suppose he will eventually
find
something? Let's see if he does.” (Begin reading
the
first half of the book smoothly and with expression. Then read
the second
half slow, choppy and without expression) Ask the children a few
questions
about what they have learned thus far when you finish reading the first
half of
the book. (They may say seals don't eat beans, beets, beef, or
peas) Then
read the second half of the book and ask the children what they learned
during
the second reading. (They will have a hard time answering because the
reading
was so slow, choppy, and without expression that it made it hard to
comprehend) Explain
to the students that “in order to comprehend what we read, we
must become fluent readers and read with expression. We can do
this by
reading and rereading. For example: I want you to read the
sentence on
the board slow and without expression.” (Write the sentence I
want to go to
2. “Before
starting our reading, I would like for us to review what we do when we
get
stuck on a word. First, we take a shot by covering up part of the
word to
make it easier to sound out. If this doesn’t work we read to the
end of
the sentence to see what would make sense. If you are still
having
trouble you would change your guess to fit the sentence. Can
someone tell
me what we do after we know the correct word? Read the sentence
again. Right! Always reread the sentence from the beginning
so you
can get back into the meaning of the story. Very good
class! Now
let's read.”
3. “Class, before I
let you pick out a
book to read, I am going to give book talks. Now I want you to
listen
carefully to the book talks because you may want to choose one of these
books
to read. If you do not find these books to be interesting, you
can choose
a book from this stack here on the table. (Have the extra
decodable
books on a table) Give book talks on Rube the Tube, Come
and
Have Fun and Sammy the Seal. A book talk on Rube
the Tube would
go something like this: “ Rube
and the Tube is about a man by the name of Duke
who sells tubes for
the kids to use at the sea. Rube, Dukes mule, takes a huge tube
and runs
and hides. Will Duke find Rube and his tube? Now, can
someone tell
me how we go about selecting a book when we have not heard a book talk
on
it? Is it by the book's cover? No! You choose a book by
reading a
few passages from it or by reading the back of the book where it tells
you what
it is about. Also, remember the two finger test when choosing
your
book. If, while reading, there are more than two words on a page
that you
don’t understand, the book will more than likely be too hard for
you. Now
I want each of you to choose a book to read.”
4. “Now
that everyone has a book, I want you to find a spot in the room where
you will
be comfortable. I want you to read your book three times silently
over
the next fifteen minutes. If you finish reading three times
before the
fifteen minutes are up you may read the book again. As you read,
try to
put more and more expression into your readings. This will
enhance your
reading fluency.”
Assessment: (1 minute reads) “Now we are going to play a
game. Now that each of
you has read your book at least three times, I am going to use a
stopwatch to
see how fast you can read during one minute. I want each of you
to pick a
partner. Your partner will be responsible for counting the words
you read
during the one minute and for completing a check sheet after each
reading.
Remember you can't skip a word. Practice cover-ups and rereading
to
understand a word. Now let's read.”
Start the stopwatch. (Remind them to read fast and with
expression) “Very
good boys
and girls. Now let's switch places. Your partner will read
his/her
book while you count words and fill out the check sheet.”
(Repeat
the procedure three times) “Now let's see
who read the fastest, who read with the most expression, who read the
most
words, and who remembered more words.”
References: TheReadingGenie:http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/fluency.html
“Rube and the Tube” by: Cushman and Kornblum; Educational
Insights, 1990.
“What Will
the Seal Eat?”.
“Come and Have Fun.” Hurd, H: Educational Insights, 1990.
“Sammy the Seal” By: Hoff, S: Educational Insights, 1990.