Growing Independency and fluency
adriane harden
Rational: Reading silently is an imporant goal for all students and helps to build a love for voluntary reading. Once children have mastered decoding words and are working on building their sight vocabulary, fluency is the next step to becoming successful readers. Reading silently will help children to become more fluent and reading will become easier and automatic for them. By giving the children the option to chose thier own books, reading is voluntary and fun!
Materials:
The children will each need a book of thier choice (preferably from the library)
The child's own pencil and journal
The teacher will need a rubric to monitor the children's progress while reading:
Name: Date:
Minutes of reading silently:
Goals accomplished?
Material understood?
Copy of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Procedures:
1. The children will all go to the school library and be encouraged to choose a book of interest to them.
2. It is important that the book is on the child's independent reading level, so each child should read the first page and if more than one word is missed, they should pick another book. After the child agrees that they have found their book, they will be required to read the second page to either the classroom teacher or the librarian to check for reading level.
3. Once the correct book is found for each child, the children will return to the room to begin reading!
4. First the teacher will model silent reading as follows; " Who knows why silent reading is so important? It is important to read silently in public places, but also in school so we do not bother anyone while reading. Silent reading will help all of us to read better because we will be able to read whenever we want without bothering anyone. First I will show you how to move from whisper reading to silent reading. I will start with the first page and read it in a quiet voice. Next I will read the second page using only my lips without any words coming out."
5. Now it will be the children's turn to try to whisper read and then silent read by counting to ten. "First we will count to ten as quiet as a mouse, ready? Go! 1,2,3... Great job! Now I want everyone to try and count to ten using only your lips and don't let any sound escape. Ready, Go! 1,2,3...Great job! Now this is how we read silently, we read with our lips and our brains but don't let any sound come out.
6. Each child will read for 15 minutes practicing thier silent reading. Then each child will get the opportunity to write about what they have read in their journals.
Assessment:
Each child will be continually assessed based on their success reading silently and then understanding what they have read using the ruprict provided.
References:
Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print 1990.page 116
Murphy, Megan. Shhh I am trying to read.
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