Hopping into a Good Book

Growing and Fluent Reading

Ashley Forster

Rationale: Being able to comprehend text and to be able to read words automatically with expression are important goals in becoming a fluent reader. A fluent reader should not struggle with words when reading, a fluent reader enjoys what he or she is reading and is able to read it fast, smooth and with expression. By reading and e-reading decodable words in connected text should help the students become more fluent readers.

Materials:

• The Birthday Cake a book that has a script in it for each child.
• Sentence strips with sentences saying: The pig and cow are in the barn eating cake.

Procedure:

1. First I will explain to my students what it means to be a fluent reader. 'Okay boys and girls today we are going to practice being fluent readers. Fluent readers are able to read sentences and even books fast, smooth and with expression. In order to become a fluent reader we must read, read, read and it is best if we re-read sentences and books. For example I have written on the board 'the pig and cow are in the barn eating cake.' Now if I was not a fluent reader it would sound more like this when I read it' the.. pp-pi-pig and the cc-co-cow are in the bbb-ba-bar-n- barn e-eat-eat-ing eating ca-cake.' Now I will read this same sentence again but I will blend my words together to make it sound smoother. 'the pig and the cow are in the barn eating cake and now that I have smoothed my words out and can read it faster, I am going to add expression 'the pig and the cow are in the barn eating cake!' so now that I can read this sentence faster, smoother, and with more expression I can consider myself a fluent reader, now boys and girl you are going to become fluent readers too!'
2. I will pass out The Birthday Cake book to each of my students. 'Now I want you to read The Birthday Cake silently to yourself for a couple minutes, to get use to the words yourself.' During this time I will be walking around the room observing each students to make a formative assessment, and if needed I will scaffold to the ones who need it.
3. after the student have read the script a couple times through, I will dived them into groups of four 'Now that you have read through the book a couple of times, I am going to group you into groups of four, and you will have time to read through each of your parts, and then come to the front of the class and act it out, make sure when you are reading your part that you are reading with expression.'
4. The group will be given time to read their parts to each other for the skit. Then once they have had enough time, they will come to the front of the room and perform the skit on front of the class. 'Okay class everyone has had enough time to practice I would like group one to come up and perform your skit, remember use expression when reading out loud.' Each group will come to the front of the room and perform their skit. This when I will assess them in how well they do.

References:

The Birthday Cake by Joy Cowley

Rachel Sparkman, Zoom Into a Good Book

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/sparkmangf.html
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