Rounding
the Bases!
growing independence and fluency
Rational: In order for students to read in a
timely manner, fluency is needed. Gaining fluency is an important part
of reading education. Reading fluency includes automatically
recognizing words. The goal of this lesson is to increase fluency with
timed one minute readings.
Materials:
-Stopwatch for each group of students
-A baseball field with a baseball that goes around the field (use
velcro to move the baseball). The field will have numbers all the
way around it from 0-100 counting by 5䴜s. Each time the
student reads,
calculate the number of words read correctly in one minute. Then
move the baseball around the field to the number of words read
correctly.
-Chalk and chalkboard
-Book: Lee and the Team (Educational Insights book)
-Pencil and paper
Procedures:
1. I will begin by explaining to the students how important fluency is
in reading, and give examples of a fluent and nonfluent reader. "Today
we are going to practice reading passages quickly, smoothly, and with
expression. When we read fluently our reading sounds more like
we‰¥úre ‰¥þtalking‰¥ÿ because it is much
smoother! Then I will model
for the students how to read with fluency. Write on the
chalkboard the following sentence: The pig went up the hill. Tell
students, "First, I am going to read the sentence without
fluency. T-t-t-the p-p-p-pig w-w-w-went u-u-u-up t-t-t-the
h-h-h-hill. Now I am going to read the sentence as a fluent
reader would. The pig went up the hill. Did you hear the
difference between reading with fluency and reading without
fluency? Listen as I read the sentence once again. The pig
went up the hill. 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."
2. I will now introduce our book by doing a book talk: Lee is the
leader of a baseball team. His team is going to be late for the game
because they don䴜t want to run. They want to sit under a
tree. Will
they make it to the game on time? You䴜ll have to read the
book to find
out!
3. Pair students up. "Read the second sentence out of our book to
your partner. Then each of you read the sentence 5 times to
yourself. By reading it over and over you will be able to
understand it better and read it quickly and smoothly. Now, read
the sentence to each other out loud again. Notice how each other
reads the sentence." (Read sentence out loud to students.)
4. I will give stopwatches to each pair of students. I will tell them
they are going to read the books to one another. "One person is
to read the book while the other times for one minute. Then count
the number of words read in one minute. Write down the number of
words to keep track. The student then should move their baseball around
the bases to the number of words in the book. Keep reading the same
passage and book 3 times. Practice makes perfect." There
are 102 words in the book. Before turning the students loose to
do the activity, model timing and reading for one minute.
‰¥þTommy is
going to read the passage for me while I time him. When I say go, he is
going to start reading and I am going to push the start button on the
watch. After one minute, I am going to tell Tommy to stop while I push
the stop button. Ready, go! Ok, stop! I stopped it at one minute and
Tommy stopped reading. Now I am going to record the number of words
that he read to keep track. Tommy will now move his baseball to the
number of words that he read on the bases. He will reread the passage 3
more times to practice. Now it is your turn.‰¥ÿ
5. "Now that everyone has gotten all the way around the bases its time
to write your name on the paper where you wrote down the number of
words per minute. Please bring those papers to me."
6. Assessment: Have students turn in paper with number of words read
correctly in one minute. There should be a steady increase in the
number of words.
Refrences:
Cushman, Shelia and Kornblum, Rona. Lee and the Team Phonics
Readers. Educational Insights, 1990.
Watts, Abby
Http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/catalysts/wattsgf.html