Even Little Red Hens Read!!
Growing Independence and Fluency:
Rationale:
In order to for children to be able to read a sufficient amount of text in a
certain amount of time they need to be able to read fluently and skillfully.
Reading fluency is the ability to recognize words accurately, rapidly, and
automatically. Fluent readers learn to read fast and smoothly but also with
expression. By gaining fluency, students also gain comprehension skills
because they do not have to focus on sounding out the words. The goal of
this lesson is to help students develop reading fluency using timed, repeated
reading.
Materials:
The Little Red Hen
by Paul Galdone (enough copies for each student)
Dry Erase Board
Dry Erase Marker
Fluency Sheets (enough for each student)
Stopwatch for each pair of students
Pencil for each student
Progress Chart (could be a hen climbing the ladder to coup)
Procedure:
1. Explain the purpose of the lesson to the students. "Today we are going to
talk about improving our fluency in reading. In order to become a
successful reader, you must be able to read fluently. Fluency is when you
are able to read fast without stopping to sound out each word. You
recognize the words automatically and you read them with little or no effort.
Once you become fluent readers, the text will begin to make more sense because
you do not have to try so hard to read each word. One way that we can work
on fluency is by reading a text or book more than once. Each time that you
read the book, you get faster because you are becoming more familiar with the
text. Today we are gong to practice fluency by reading a text more than
once and we are going to see how much we can improve."
2. Model for the students how to read with fluency. Write on the dry erase
board the following sentence: The
little red hen wants to bake bread. Tell students, "First, I am going to
read the sentence without fluency. The
llliittle rrred hhennn wwwants to bbbake bbbrrreadd.
Now, I am going to read the sentence as a fluent reader would. The
little red hen wants to bake bread. Did you hear the difference between reading
with fluency and reading without fluency? Listen as I read the sentence once
again. The little red hen wants to bake bread. This time, I read the sentence
faster because it was not the first time I had read these words. The first two
times I read the sentence gave me practice and helped me read the sentence
fluently the third time."
3. "We are going to use the book The Little Red Hen to practice improving
our fluency. "The little red hen finds a grain of wheat.
She asks her farm animal friends if they would like to help her plant and
harvest her grain. The animals all
refuse and the little red hen takes care of her grain of wheat by herself.
You'll have to read to find out what the little red hen does with her
wheat once it grows." Remind
students to cross check if they do not automatically recognize a word during
their reading. "Do not forget that cross checking is a tool that fluent
readers use to make sense of the sentences that they read and to read more
successfully. Also, if you do not automatically recognize a word, use your
cover-up critter to cover part of the word to make it easier to sound out.
Once you have determined the pronunciation of the word, go back and reread the
sentence to see if the word makes sense in the sentence. If the word does
not make sense in the sentence, you can change your guess to a word that fits
the sentence. If you and your partner cannot figure out how to pronounce a
word correctly, come ask me and I will help you figure it out." Model
reading The Little Red Hen aloud to the class as a fluent reader for the
students.
4. "Now that you have heard me read the book as a fluent reader, you are going
to practice reading fluently with a partner." Divide the students up into
groups of two and give each student a copy of the book and each pair a
stopwatch. One student will be the reader and the other student will be
the timer. Then, the two students will switch jobs. "When it is your
turn to read, I want you to see how many words you can read in one minute
smoothly and fast. When your partner tells you your minute is up, put your
finger after the word you last read so you know where to stop counting the words
you read. Then, count the number of
words that you read in one minute and write that number on your hen on your
"little red hen" progress chart. After each time your partner reads, I
want you to fill out the fluency sheet marking what you noticed about their
reading. I want you to keep
switching with your partner until you have each read three times for a minute
each. You can go ahead and begin!"
5. As the students practice fluency with their partners, the teacher will walk
around the room observing the students and their reading and assist students if
needed.
6. Once the students have each
practiced their fluency three times, the students will be asked to read the
entire book all the way through. "Now, you are going to read The Little Red
Hen by yourselves. When you are
finished, I am going to ask each of you questions to see if you remember what
you read."
Assessment:
To assess the students reading fluency, the teacher will call each student to
their desk one at a time. When the
students come, they will bring their book, their progress chart, and their
fluency checklist that was filled out by their partner.
The teacher will look over the checklist to be sure they did well with
fluency and expression. If there is
doubt, the teacher will have the student read for a minute to demonstrate their
fluency in reading. Once the child
has done this, the teacher will then ask basic comprehension questions such as,
"What did the hen ask of her farm animal friends?"
"What was one of the little red hen's friends names?"
"What did the little red hen make with her wheat?"
References:
Red is Ready to Read by Sarah Frances Liles
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/lilesgf.html
Ready, Set, Read! by Anna Ludlum
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/insp/ludlumgf.html
Galdone, Paul. The Little Red
Hen. Harcourt, 1985. 32 pp.