Feeding Red

Growing Independence and Fluency

Rationale: Students must learn to decode in order to read. However, decoding is not all that is needed. Students also need to read fluently. For fluent readers text is more enjoyable. They can focus on the meaning of the text instead of just the sounds of the individual words in the text. Children can become fluent readers by reading and rereading text. In this lesson, students will work on the speed in which they read.

Materials:

v Stopwatch

v Copy of the book Red Gets Fed for each child.

v A chart with a dog on it that is at a distance from a bowl of dog food. Each time the student reads move the dog to the number of words that the child read in that minute.

Procedure:

v “WELL STUDENTS NOW THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO DECODE WORDS YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN HOW TO READ WORDS A LOT FASTER. WHEN YOU CAN READ THE WORDS IN A SENTENCE FASTER AND WITHOUT STOPPING YOU WILL BE FLUENT READERS! BUT IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE FLUENT READERS YOU HAVE TO READ WITH EXPRESSION. LET’S PRACTICE.”

v “I AM GOING TO READ YOU A SENTENCE IN TWO DIFFERENT WAYS. YOU TELL ME WHICH SOUNDS THE BEST.” Read on sentence by saying one phoneme at a time in each word. Then read it again in a normal voice. “I “L-O-VE TH-E AU-B-UR-N T-I-G-ER-S! NOW I’M GOING TO SAY IT AGAIN. I LOVE THE AUBURN TIGERS! WHICH SENTENCE DID YOU LIKE THE BEST? THE SECOND ONE? GREAT! WHY DID THAT ONE SOUND THE BEST? BECAUSE I SAID WITH SPEED AND EXPRESSION!”

v “NOW WE ARE GOING TO READ A BOOK CALLED RED GETS FED. THIS STORY IS ABOUT A LITTLE DOGGIE NAMED RED. RED GETS VERY HUNGRY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. HIS OWNER MEG IS IN BED. DO YOU THINK THAT MEG WILL GET UP TO FEED RED? LET’S READ THE STORY TO FIND OUT.”

v “GREAT! NOW THAT YOU HAVE FINISHED READING, WE ARE GOING TO PLAY A GAME AND SEE HOW QUICKLY WE CAN READ. I WANT YOU TO READ THIS BOOK FOR ONE MINUTE. AFTER I TELL YOU TO STOP, WE WILL COUNT HOW MANY WORDS YOU READ. THEN WE WILL MOVE READ CLOSER TO HIS FOOD BY PUTTING HIM ON THE SPOT WITH THE NUMBER OF WORDS THAT YOU READ. TRY TO GET RED ALL THE WAY TO THE FOOD SO THAT HE WILL GET FED!”

v Now put the students in groups. Allow one student to read and one student to watch the time. When a minute passes they will count the number of words that they read and then they will switch jobs. Allow them to move Red accordingly to the number of words that they read.

v Assess the students by comparing their first read to their last read. The students should have been able to read more words per minute on their last read.

References:

http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/overstreetgf.html

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