Flying to Fluency!
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
The goal of reading instruction is to get children to read fluently. Reading fluently is when words are recognized
easily and automatically. Once fluent
reading is accomplished, comprehension becomes easier and students can
begin to
work on their silent reading capability.
This lesson will allow students to perform repeated readings in
the
hopes of becoming fluent readers.
Materials:
Speed reading
sheet
Partner check
sheet
Pencils
Stop watches
for each pair of students
Dry erase
marker
Laminated
butterfly WPM sheet (butterflies will have Velcro on them, and the
laminated
poster will have Velcro on it, their will also be numbers on it marking
how
many WPM students read, as students read more WPM the butterfly goes up
the
chart and the number where the antenna touches is the number of words
they read)
Sentence
strips- "James wakes up." and "It will be a good day."
Cover-up
critters
Sentence
strip with the word plan
Copies for
each student of James and the Good Day
by Sheila Suchman and Rona Kornblum. c1990.
Speed
Reading Record:
Name:_________________________
Date:___________
Time:
- After 1st read
_______
- After 2nd
read _______
- After 3rd
read
_______
Partner
Check Sheet:
When
I take note of my partners
read, he/she can:
After 2nd
After 3rd
1. Remembered more
words _______
_______
2. Read
faster
_______ _______
3. Read
smoother _______
_______
4. Read with
expression _______
_______
Procedures:
1.
Begin
the lesson
by letting children know that you will be working on reading fluently.
"Boys
and girls, can anyone tell me what it means to read fluently? You are
absolutely right, it means to read fast where you can read the words
automatically. When we first begin to
read, we sometimes stumble over the words, but with lots of practice we
can
read words easily. One way we can become
better and faster readers is to reread stories over and over again. That is what we are going to be doing today!
2.
"But
first I
want us to work on reading some sentences together.
If I were to ask a nonfluent reader to read
this sentence (put up sentence strip with the sentence "James wakes
up.")
they might read it like this JJJJJJJJaaammss wwwwwaaaakkkeeesss up. But they would probably go back and think
that Jams doesn't really make sense. So they would say "Oh, James wakes
up!" They would probably still read
it very slow though, maybe even sound like a robot.
But if you were to see this sentence many times, it would
get easier and easier and you would read it quickly.
Let's read this sentence quickly and fluently
as a class. "James wakes up." Good job! Now
what about this sentence? (put up
sentence strip of "It will be a good day.") A
non fluent reader would have to sound out
each word and would probably be very slow.
It would sound like this, IIIIt wiiillll be a goooood
dddddaaayyy. We don't want it to sound
like that though do
we? We want you to read it fast and with lots of expression. Can someone tell me what that would sound
like? (call on student to demonstrate) Great job, I love how you read
with
expression that time!
3.
Explain
to kids that sometimes when we
read we come across words that are very difficult.
"Boys and girls, sometimes a very hard
word may jump out at us that we don't know how to read when we first
see
it. I want to show you an easy way to
tell what that word is. These are called
coverup critters, they are going to be your new best friend. Everyone is going to get one. Now
I want you to listen very carefully, if I
showed you this word (put up sentence strip with the word "plan")
that word may be very
difficult for some people. You would
coverup everything but your vowel. Your
vowel is a so we know it makes the /a/ sound.
Then you would uncover the beginning, p and l sounds like /pl/,
add that
to your /a/ sound and it gives you /p//l//a/ and then you add your
ending, oh
that says plan! That wasn't hard was it?
I want you to keep your coverup critters and if you ever come to a hard
word
you don't know right off the bat, let them help you figure it out.
4.
Next,
students will be put in pairs
and each child will be given a copy of James and the Good Day. I will perform a book talk saying that "This
book is about a boy named James who wakes up and decides he is going to
have a
good day! He sails his boat in his bath water but as he's running the
water he
becomes impatient and walks off. I
wonder if he ends up having a good day? Lets read and find out.
5.
Students
will go off to a part of the
room with their partner and their books.
I will explain to them that they are going to be given
stopwatches to
time their partners reading. We will
discuss the Speed Reading Record and the Partner Check Sheet. "Okay
class,
we are going to be timing ourselves reading.
We are going to each read the story three times and your partner
will
tell how many words you read each minute and whether or not your read
smooth,
fast, and with expression. Remember that
reading with expression is when you really get into the story. Also, every time you read you need to move
your butterfly on your chart, so we can see how much you have
progressed. Make sure that the antenna is
at the number
of words you read. You may start when
you are ready." During this time, the teacher walks around and makes
note
of how the students are doing.
Assessment: For
assessment, I will individually each
child come read the story to me. I will
look at the notes I made about the students when I was walking around
and listening
to them, I will look at what their partner put down on their sheets and
I will
note any progress the child has made. I
will have students bring their butterfly posters with them and when
they finish
reading their story, we will place the butterfly where it needs to be!
References:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
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