Smooth Sailing
Growing Independency and Fluency
Rationale:
Fluency is important skill to master in reading. Fluency
is when you can read more automatically because you have developed more
sight words. This lesson will teach children that you become more
fluent by reading then re- reading. Students will complete three one
minute reads of the same passage to see how rereading helps you become
familiar with more words.
Materials:
Beginning chapter book- I will use The
Know- Nothings- you should have enough for at
least half the class.
Stopwatches or timers- enough for half the class *countdown
timers work best.
Class set of copies of these sentences- I like to hike in the
woods.
We will eat lunch and watch the
bulls at the rodeo.
You can cut the lawn after you do your homework.
Chart for each student that can show how they moved up. I will use laminated sailboats and a laminated graph sheet so students can Velcro their sailboats
to show progress and also reuse the chart with different books
.
A piece of paper for the reader to record how many words were read each time to turn in so you can see progress
.
An observation of the reader
.
Glue
Dry Erase Board or Smart Board
3 colors of highlighting tape
cover- up critter (Popsicle stick with googly eyes)
Procedures:
1) Explain what fluency is,
children need to know what it is and why it is important. Fluency in
reading is when you are able to read more accurate and without trying
very hard. It is important because you begin to understand the story
when you are able to read it more smoothly.
2. I will then go over the cover-up
technique with the students. I will remind them how we use our cover-up
critter and how it helps us decode words we do not know. Say:
Sometimes, we come across words that we do not know right away.
Something we can use to help us figure these words out is to use our
cover-up critter. I will show the class the cover-up critter and model
how to decode a word using my cover-up critter. Let's see if we can use
our cover-up critter to figure out this word. I will write the word
slime on the whiteboard. Now watch what I do. I will cover up the
sl and the m. I know that i_e says /I/, so next I
will sound out what becomes before the vowel, which is sl. I
will say each sound that these letters make, and then blend them
together to get /sli/. Last, I will look at the end of the word m=
/m/ and I will blend /sli/ together with /m/.
So, the word is slime. This strategy of covering up the letters
and starting with the vowel sound will help us figure out tricky words
more easily. Therefore, next time you come across a word that does not
look familiar to you, you can use your cover-up critter. The
students should already have cover- up critters or should make one.
3)
Say: Some ways we can become more fluent is by
rereading to become more familiar with words. I am going to read this
sentence two times and I want you to judge which one sounds the best.
Write, I went to her house the other day, on the board. 1st
time, say: I wwww-eee-nnn-tt, went, to hhh-eee-rrr, her,
hhhh-oooouuuu-sss-e, house, the oooo-ttthhh-eee-rrr, other, dddd-aaayy,
day. Then ask: Was that easy for me to read? No, it
wasn't I need to reread to get better with those words. 2nd
time: I w- ent to her h-ou-ssse the oth- er day. Ask:
How did that sound? Right it did sound better, I still had to blend
some words but I was able to read smoother because I was familiar with
all the words. Which time was easier to understand? Right the 2nd
it is easier to understand when you are reading more fluently.
The first time I read I was not fluent and it was hard to
understand because all the words were chopped up but by rereading I was
able to read the sentence smoother and it made more sense.
4)
Say: I am going to give you some sentences. Get with
your partner and practice reading them and see how you get better when
you reread. The first two times you whisper read and then the third
time you and your partner can read aloud together.
Give students copies of the sentences. Walk around and
listen as students read to see if they are reading and to see if they
are improving.
5)
Say: Did you see how you get better as you read the
same thing? We are going to do a couple of one minute reads using The
Know- Nothings and you will chart your progress so you can see how
it helps to reread.
6) You are going to get with your
partner. One person will be the timer and the other will be the reader.
The timer will time for one minute while the reader whisper reads or
reads silently as many words as they can. You will put highlight tape
on the last word you read. You will do this three times. Use a
different color tape each time you read. The timer will count the words
from each read and the reader will write them on his sheet and place
his sailboat in the appropriate range. The timer will also observe the
reader and fill out a checklist after each read. You will then switch
spots. After you both go you can finish
the book together.
Give a book talk: The Know- Nothings do not know
anything except that they like each other. One of the Know- Nothings
decided to cook lunch when she noticed one of them was missing.
They searched until they found the missing Know- Nothing. They could
never decide what to eat because the noodles were to hard even after
they jumped on them, the banana would get cold if you took off his
coat, and you had to go to France to get French fries. So they sat and
waited for breakfast but it never came. Will the Know- nothings ever
find something to eat? You will have to read to see.
7) Allow students to break off and
remind them they need three small pieces of highlighting tape. Walk
around as students read to make sure they are not having trouble and
are staying on task.
8)
Assessment: After students have read to each other,
have them individually come up to your desk and read two one minute
reads. Ask them questions about what they just read to see if they are
gaining comprehension skills as well. Make notes for each student on
what you noticed they did as they read and if they understood or were
just reading. Also collect their graphs they made to see if
improvements were made.
Resources: Emily Cole. Hopping into Fluency. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/colegf.html
Greer Montgomery. Read
fast to Win the Race. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/projects/montgomerygf.html
Spirn, Michele. The
Know- Nothings. Harper Trophy: An I can Read book. 1995.