Jennifer Reinhart
Bananas
for Fluency
Rationale.
Students increase their oral reading fluency
by participating in a readers theater and practicing it multiple times
before
performing it with the class. Students
will also be able to recognize and read high-frequency words in the
story. Students will also be able to read
sight
vocabulary words in the story. As the
students reread their lines they will develop more fluency in their
reading and
be able to use their learned decoding skills to read harder words.
Materials.
Strips
of Jack and Jill
Paper
with sentence I want to go out to play today
Paper
with word Tim on it
decodable
book, Jane and Babe
stopwatch
progress
charts of Monkey and tree with bananas for one-minute reads
fluency
checklists (1 per student)
pencils
Procedures
1. We have been
working hard on our
reading skills. Today we are going to
work on something called fluency.
Fluency is being able to read fast and smooth, and with
expression so that
we can make the stories we read aloud more interesting.
2. The first time we
read something we
may not always know what the word is so we use our reading strategies
to figure
out the word. What is one thing that we
can use? (Cover-ups) Good
we can use cover-ups to figure out words
we don䴜t know. When we look
at the word
we cover up everything but the vowel.
Then we start with the first letter of the word and read one
letter at a
time until the end. If we were trying to
read the word Tim. First I would look at
the I and realize that I says /i/. Next
I would look at the first letter t that says /t/. So
I would say Tttttiiiii then add the last
letter m. /T/ /i/ /m/.
The next time we read those sentences we will
be able to figure out the words easier by using cover-ups.
3. Can anyone think of
other ways to help
ourselves if we get stuck on a word. (Cross-checking)
Good!
When we read a sentence if we read something that didnt make sense we go back and try to figure out
what the word that didnt make sense would be.
When we figure out what the word is we can go back and reread
the
sentence to make sure it all makes sense.
4. Now that we know
how to figure out a
word we don䴜t know we are going to work on reading fluency. Let䴜s look at the sentence I want
to go out
and play today. The first time I read
this I might read it as I wwwwaaant, want to go out and pppllllaaaayyy
todddaaayy. The next time I read it
I
might say I want to go out and play (really fast).
The last time I read it I might say I want to
go out and play today (with expression).
The third time I read the sentence I was able to read it fast
and
smoothly and with expression to make it sound more interesting.
5. Now we are going to
do a small
readers theater in our small group of four.
We are going to read Jack and Jill.
(Distribute each strip of paper with one sentence on it.) First I want you to read your part to your
partner three times to practice it. Your
partner is going to use a checklist to see how your reading improves
the more
you read your part. Then your partner
will read you their part 3 times. Next, you are going to take turns
reading
your part aloud to just me so I can make sure you are reading fluently. Lastly, we will read the whole story together
as a readers theater.
6. After we have done
readers theater
students will return to their seats and read silently a book of their
choice. One at a time I will call them
up to do one minute reads of Jane and Babe. They
will read the book 3 times. I will show
them their progress by moving a
monkey up a tree to get the bananas. If
they reach the goal I have set the monkey will get the bananas. This will help me assess how much they
improve after each reading.
Checklist:
Jack and Jill Text:
Reader 1: Jack and Jill went up the hill,
Reader 2: To fetch a pail of water,
Reader 1: Jack fell down and broke his crown
Reader 2: And Jill came tumbling after.
Reference
Phonics
Readers LongVowels: Jane and Babe. (1990).
Carol.
Readers Theatre K-3.
http://www.readerstheatre.ecsd.net/