Crabs Can't Nap But You Can Read!
Growing Indepence
and Fluency
Rationale:
Good
readers decode rapidly
and automatically. Human attention is limited so in order to understand
connected text, our attention cannot be directed to the identities of
individual words and letters. To learn to read skillfully, children
need
practice in seeing and understanding decodable words in real reading
situations
and with connected text.
Materials:
Copy of Nat
the Crab for
each student
Stopwatch
for each pair of
students
Pencil and
a few sticky notes for
each student
Sentence
strip: I can tap and spin.
Checklist
for teachers
Fluency
Sheets:
Name of
Reader:
Name of
Partner:
Words read 1st
time:
Words
read 2nd time:
Words read 3rd
time:
I noticed
that my partner:
2nd
time 3rd time
O O
Remembered more words
O O
Read faster
O
O Read smoother
O
O Read with expression
Procedure:
Explain to
students the
purpose of the lesson. "Today we are going to talk about
improving
fluency. In order to become a successful reader, you must be able
to read
fluently. Fluency is when you are able to read fast without
stopping to
sound out each word. You recognize the words automatically and
you read
them with little or no effort. Once you become fluent readers,
the text
will begin to make more sense because you do not have to try so hard to
read
each word. One way that we can work on fluency is by reading a
text more
than once. Each time you read the text, you get faster because
you are
becoming more familiar with the text. Today we are gong to
practice
fluency by reading a text more than once and seeing how much we can
improve."
Remind
students to cross check
if they do not automatically recognize a word during their
reading.
"Do
not forget that cross checking is a tool that fluent readers use to
make sense
of the sentences that they read and to read more successfully. If
you do
not automatically recognize a word use your cover-up critter to make it
easier
to sound out. Once you have figured out how to pronounce a word,
re-read the
sentence, making sure to include the word that you just sounded out. If
that
word doesn't make sense with the rest of the sentence, try another word
and
re-read the sentence again. If you and your partner just can't figure
out what
the word is, raise your hand and I will be sure to come over and help
you out."
Model for
the students how to
read with fluency. Display a sentence strip with the following
sentence:
I can tap and spin. Tell students, "First, I am going to
read the
sentence without fluency. I cccaaannn tttt..ttttaaa..p and
ssssppp..spppiiinnn.
Now I am going to read the sentence as a fluent reader would.
I can
tap and spin. Did you hear the difference between reading with
fluency
and reading without fluency? I didn't spend a lot of time sounding out
my
words. I was able to read the sentence quicker and more
fluently. Listen
as I read a different sentence and you tell me if I am a beginning
reader or a
fluent reader. The dog licked my face. Did I read the sentence as
a
fluent reader or as a beginning reader? A fluent reader, that's
right! Good job!"
We are
going to use the book Nat
the Crab to practice improving our fluency. The book is divided up
into two
parts: Nat's Nap and Nat's Trip. Give the
following Book Talk for Nat's Nap: It's
time for Nat the crab to take a nap but Nat says crabs don't nap!
Crabs can do a lot of other things but naps are not one of them. Is Nat
telling
the truth or is he just trying to avoid a nap? We'll have to read to
find out
what happens! I will instruct the students to stop on page 9 of the
book
which is the end of the section of the book entitled Nat's
Nap. Students will read Nat's Nap more than once to
improve their fluency.
Divide the
students up into
groups of two and give each student a copy of the book and each pair a
stopwatch. One student will be the reader and the other student
will be
the timer. Then, the two students will switch jobs. "When
it is
your turn to read, I want you to see how many words you can read in one
minute
smoothly and fast. Remember: do not skip any words. You can
put a
sticky note of where you left off so that you will know where to stop
counting.
When you are finished reading, count the number of words that you
read in
one minute and write that number on your fluency sheet. I want
you to
keep switching with your partner until you have each read three times.
You can start now."
As the
students begin their
reading, I will walk around the classroom to hear them reading and to
give them
assistance if needed.
Assessment:
To assess,
I will call each
student to my desk one by one and have them bring up their fluency
checklist. I
will have a checklist of my own that I will mark on as I have the
student read Nat's Nap to me once through. As they
read it, I will write down whether they are reading fast and fluent or
stumbling
over their words. I will write down miscues as well. Then, once they
are
finished reading, I will assess their comprehension by asking the
following
questions:
What kind
of animal is Nat?
What does
Nat try to tell the
boy he can't do?
What are
some of the things that
Nat can do?
What ends
up happening at the
end of the story?
For further
assessment, I will
have students practice reading Nat's Trip
starting on page 10 of Nat the Crab. They
will time themselves and practice their fluency on their own a few
times at home
and then come back the following day and come to my desk one by one
again for
me to make an assessment.
Checklist
for teacher to use:
Can the
student identify which sentence is read with fluency?
Can the
student read the story to the teacher smoothly and
quickly?
Can the
student comprehend the text and answer the questions for
comprehension?
References:
Adams,
Marilyn Jager. Beginning
to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. 1990. pp.88-94.
Cary,