Reading with Silly Seals
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
In order to increase fluency in reading, students' focus should be on
reading faster, smoother, and with more feeling rather than on
accuracy. As students' fluency increases, their comprehension
grows, helping them to enjoy reading more. 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; one stop watch for every pair of students; paper and
pencils.
Say, before we begin our new lesson, how do we figure out a word
that we have trouble reading?
Right, we use cover-ups. Which part of the word do we
look at first? Yes, the
vowel. Then what do we add?
That���s right, the beginning sound.
Say,
I'm going to figure out this word as an example of our vowel-first
cover-ups
(write the word salt on the chalkboard). First, I'm
going to cover everything other than the vowel up. Okay, this vowel
says /a/. Now I'm going to look at the beginning- s. S says /s/.
So far I have /s/ /a/, and now we���re adding l. So I have, /s/ /a/
/l/, /sal/. Now
the end, it says t. T says /t/. So /sal/ /t/, salt. So don't
forget to use the vowel-first cover-up method when you need help
figuring out a word.
Say,
it's important to become faster at our reading because the faster
we can read the more we can understand what we're reading and we'll
like reading more. 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 leaps in the sea," very slowly and haltingly.
He- leaps- in- the- sea. Then say, if you read that sentence
again it sounds better. Demonstrate reading the same sentence a
bit faster. He leaps- in the-sea. Say, the more you practice, the
faster you get, and you can add feeling and different voices. Read the
sentence one more time, this time with more expression. He leaps in the
sea. I will also explain that it's easier every time because you
learn the words in the sentence and become familiar with them.
For the book talk hold
up the book, What Will the Seal Eat? So that everyone can see
the front cover. Ask, does anyone know what seals eat? Acknowledge all
responses, but don't give away the correct answer. Say, well, 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. Pass out one copy of the
book and one banana tree chart and monkey to each student and allow a
few minutes for students to read the book silently.
Next, have students get
with a partner. Pass out a stop-watch to each pair of students. Explain
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. Say, by moving the Velcro monkey
after each timed read we get to see how much better we're getting at
reading!
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.
Walk around the room as
students begin, making sure everyone understands the process. Continue
monitoring students as they engage in the fluency activity.
For assessment, have
each student write their name on the paper with their words per minute
recordings on it and take them up. Compare the words per minute
of the first read to the last read to measure progress.
Encourage students to choose a book from the classroom library to read
several times at home, and then 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:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/fordgf.htm
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/9/d/2/9/1237915017466196499warszawianka_Banana_tree.svg.hi.png
