Growing
Rationale:
Fluent readers must read
consistently,
fluently, accurately, and with emotion. In order for the students
to
become fluent readers, we will work on reading speed.
Materials:
Stopwatches for each pair of
students
Race car reading chart for each student (this includes a race car
trying to
make its way down a drag strip. Each time a student reads, you
move the
car to the number of words they read in that minute)
A copy of the book Red Gets Fed for
each student
Procedure:
1. Now that we have learned all of our letter correspondences, it
is time
to become the best readers we possibly can. In order to be the
best
readers, we have to try to make our books sound interesting and read
without pausing
very much. This is called expression and fluency. We are
going to
try to say all of our words with emotion and to read them very fast,
without
messing up.
2. I am going to read you all a sentence in two different ways, I
want
you to listen carefully and tell me which sentence sounds the best.
Read one sentence sounding out each phoneme, short and choppy, and then
read it
again in a normal reading voice. Let’s
go p..l..a..y o..n the p..l..a..y…grou..n..d
af…ter s..ch..oo..l.
Now here is the sentence a second time, Let’s go
play on the playground after school.
Which sentence sounded best? That’s right, the second one
did.
That’s because I read it the best that I could.
3. We are going to read a book called
Red Get’s Fed! This is
about a pet dog named Red. Red’s owner’s
named is Meg. Red is hungry and wants
Meg to give him some food. Will Red get
fed? Let’s read and find out!
Allow each student to read the book to themselves.
4. Now, we are going to try to read this book even better and
faster. We are going to do something called quick reads. We
will
read for a minute. After we do that, we will count all of the
words we
read in that minute. Then, we will move our race car on our chart
to that
number of words. We are going to try to get our race care all the
way to
the end of the drag strip. Model for the children by setting a
timer and
reading for a minute. Then, count the words and move your car
accordingly.
5. Put the students in pairs and allow them to read while a
partner times
for a minute. They will then count the words and move the
cars.
Each reader will do this 4 times.
6. Assess the students by recording their first reading and
comparing it
with their last reading. The students should have been able to
read more
words per minute during the last read.
References:
Racy Reader by Jill Overstreet
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/connect/overstreetgf.html
Red Gets Fed Educational Insights