Fluency Design
By: Sarah Asbury
Rationale: In order for students to read more fluently they need to be able to be more expressive, fast and smooth whiile theyread. When children are able to decode words effortlessly reading becomes much more enjoyable for them, hopefully increasing the time they spend reading. They are able to have more fun reading. To improve fluency you need to take a direct approach with lots of repetitive practice. This lesson aims at helping children read smoother, faster and more expressively!
Materials: chalkboard, chalk, stopwatch for every two children, a copy of "In the Big Top" for every student, a copy of the lily pad progress chart for every student (see attachment), a copy of the leaping reading frogs for every student (see attachment), crayons, markers for students to use to decorate their frogs.
Procedure:
1. Introdue the lesson by talking about how important it is for us as good readers to be able to read fast and with lots of expression! Model this by reading a sentence like a beginning reader, sounding out each phoneme. "The little boy and his dad went to the park to play with thier new puppy." I am going to read it two ways, listen to both times I read this sentence and you tell me which way you like better. Th-e l-i-tt-le b-oy a-n-d h-i-s- d-a-d w-e-n-t t-o- th-e p-ar-k t-o pl-ay w-i-th th-eir n-ew p-u-pp-y. Then read the sentence with a lot of expression like a skilled reader would do. "The little boy and his dad went to the park to play with their new puppy" Now which way did you like better? The second way! Absolutely! The first way I read the sentence just didn't sound right did it? Why do yu think that it didn't sound just right the first time I read the sentenec? What are someways you think I could have improved my reading the first time? Write their suggestions on the chalkboard so they can be looking at them while they do their one minute reads.
2. Now I am going to hand each of you a "Let's Leap Into Great Reading" charts and your leaping frogs. I am going to give you each a couple fo minutes to decorate your frogs anyway you want to with your markers and crayons, also I want youto number your frogs one through four. Now you only have a few minutes to do your coloring so use your time wisely and don't chat with your neighbor. Give the students about fifteen minutes to decorate his or her frogs, go around and hand out each student a copy of "In the Big Top" and a stop watch for each pair.
3. Alright is everyone finished decorating? If not do not worry, you can finish your coloring later. Now I want each of you to find a partner. We are going to practice becoming smoother, faster, and more exciting readers. I have given each of you a copy of "In the Big Top." I want one person to read while your partner times you for one minute. If you have trouble with a word, try using cover-ups, if that doesn't wrok ask your partner to help you. I want you to do the best you can! Once a minute has passed then i want your partner to count the number of pages you were able to read in one minute, and put one of your leaping reading frogs on the right lily pad for that number of pages. For example, if I read three pages in a minute then I would put my first frog on the lily pad that has the number three on it. Does everyone understand? Great!! Start reading! If anyone is having trouble, don't worry I will be walking around to help you.
4. Stop them every minute so they can switch and everyone is on my same pace.
Assessment: I will assess each student by looking at his or her progress charts to see if they were able to improve. The frogs will be numbered so I will know how many pages the student read and the appropriate time.
Resources:
Eldredge, J. Loyd. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1995 pp. 122-145
Ourso, Jordan: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/discov/orsogf.html "On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!"
Adams, Whitney: http:www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/discov/adamsgf.html "Speedy Reader"
"Tin Man Fix It" Carson, Educational Insights
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