I’m
bananas for faster, fluent reading!
Growing
Rationale: In order to
increase fluency in
reading with students, the focus should be on reading faster, smoother,
and
with more feeling rather than on accuracy. As a students’ fluency
increases, their comprehension grows. This will help students to
enjoy
reading more. One research-based method of improving fluency is
through
repeated readings (Eldredge, 2005). This lesson will help
students
increase their reading fluency through charting one-minute reads.
The
lesson also includes a review of an effective decoding strategy
students should
use when they don’t know a word.
Materials: Class set
of What Will the
Seal Eat? By Cushman and Kornblum with marks after every ten words;
Class
set of laminated banana tree illustrations with words per minute
written on
them and accompanying Velcro monkey by: Dr. Bruce Murray; one stop
watch for
every pair of students; paper and pencils.
Procedures:
1. The
teacher will begin by
saying, “Who remembers the way to figure out a word you’re having
trouble
reading?” Give the students time to think of an answer and then
proceed
with a review of how to use cover-ups. “When we use cover-ups,
what part
of the word do we want to look at first? Yes, the vowel. And
next, we add
the beginning sounds, right? And then we’ll have most of the word so we
can
finish figuring it out by last sounds.”
2. Talk to
students about
decoding. “I’m going to figure out this word as an example of our
vowel-first cover-ups (write the word scoop on the chalkboard).
First,
I’m going to cover everything other than the vowel up. Okay, this vowel
says /oo/.
Now I’m going to look at the beginning- s and c. S says
/s/
and C says /c/. So, lets put the s and the c together to
form
/sc/. So far I have /sc/ and /oo/, that’s /scoo/. Now the end—it
says p.
P says /p/. So /scoo/ /p/, scoop. Now,
students, lets
always try to remember to use the vowel-first cover-up method when you
need
help figuring out a word.”
3. “It is very
important to become
faster at reading because the faster we can read the more we can
understand
what we’re reading and we’ll like reading better. Now we’re going to
work on
reading faster. Have you ever noticed that the first time you
read
something it sounds broken up and slow, a little bit like a robot?”
(Demonstrate reading the sentence—He likes to jump up and down—very
slowly and
haltingly. He- likes- to- jump- up- and- down). “If you read that
sentence
again and a little bit faster then it sounds better.” (Demonstrate
reading the
same sentence a bit faster. He likes to jump- up and- down). “The more
you
practice—the faster you get. Once you can read a little faster,
then you
can add feeling and different voices. I will read the sentence
one more
time and this time with expression. He likes to jump up and down!”
4. Introduce
the book What
Will the Seal Eat? to the students. After introducing the
book tell
the students a little bit about the book to get them interested in
it.
(Give a book talk). Show all students the front cover. Ask
the
class, “Does anyone know what seals eat?” It is important to
acknowledge
all responses, but don’t give away the correct answer. Go into
explaining
a little about the book. “This seal is having a really hard time
figuring
out what he is supposed to eat. Let’s see if he ever figures it
out.” It is then important that each child gets a copy of the
book and
one banana tree chart and monkey. Each child should then be
allowed
a few minutes to read the book silently.
5. Next,
have students get with a
partner. Pass out a stop-watch to each pair of students. Explain
to the
class that students should take turns reading and timing one-minute
reads. Show
students how to quickly count the words by using the marked spots in
the books
to count by tens. Explain that “by moving the Velcro monkey after
each
timed read we get to see how much better we’re getting at reading!”
6. Have each
student take out
paper and pencil to record how many words per minute he/she reads
during each
timed read. Have each student do four one-minute reads.
7. Walk
around the room as
students begin, making sure everyone understands the process. Continue
monitoring students as they engage in the fluency activity.
8. For
assessment, have each
student write their name on their sheet of paper with their words per
minute
recordings on it. Collect each sheet of paper from each
child.
Compare the words per minute of the first read to the last read to
measure
progress.
9. Encourage
students to choose a
book from the classroom library to read several times at home.
Ask them
to show their family how well they can read. Mention that the
next day
you’ll be eager to have a few volunteers read their book to the class.
References:
Eldredge, J.
Lloyd. (2005) Teach
Decoding Why and How. Pearson Education, Inc.
Cushman, Shelia
and Kornblum, Rona.
What Will the Seal Eat? Phonics Readers. Educational
Insights, 1990.
Miller, Meg.
Speedy Readers.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/millermgf.html