F.A.I.T.H
(Faster, Accurate, Independent, Time, Hinge)

Rationale:
 Reading is the hinge to almost everything that we do in our society.  In this lesson children will improve on the speed and accuracy of their reading ability.  This involves time and providing enjoyable and interesting books that are on the children’s individual level and will capture their attention.  Once the children’s interest are caught and they think that they are able to read, they will more likely read independently.  In this lesson the child will choose a book in which they will re-read to improve their speed and accuracy while reading.
Materials:
-A variety of book with the child’s instructional level of learning
-Monkey chart
-Stopwatch

Procedures:
1. First the teacher must have an idea of where their children’s reading ability is.  Once the teacher knows this, bring the children over to the book selection and show them how you choose a book. You may pick up the book because it has an interesting cover; you may open the book and skim through it to see if it looks interesting.  You may read the back of the book to see if the topic interests you. If the book doesn’t interest you look for one that does. Show them how to hold up two fingers and read a page of the book.  Every time they come to a word they don’t know have them put a finger down.  If both their fingers go down, then the book is two difficult for them.  Once you have shown the children how you choose a book, allow the children to choose a book from a selection of books within their instructional level (95-98%).
2. “Now that we have a book that is within our range of reading we are going to read it a handful of times to get comfortable and familiar with it.”  Then we would read the book with the child.  “Everyday we are going to read this book together until you can read it all by yourself, without any help from me.  As we read, remember what we do when we come to a word that we don’t know.  We can use cover ups, that is, use our finger to cover up parts of the word so that we can blend the parts together.  After you figure the word out, go back and re-read the sentence. Do you think that you can do that while we read? ”  You can also have the child read with another person/student when they feel comfortable enough to do so.  That person can also help them.
3. “Now that you have a handle on the book we are going to use this chart to mark our improvement in speed while we are reading.  I am going to time you for one minute then we are going to move the monkey up the tree, charting your progress.  When I tell you to begin, try to read as fast as you can making as little mistakes as possible.”   The chart will be made with 10 word increments on one side and on the other will be how many words they missed.  This will be a good way of assessment, because I am encouraging the child to strive for a goal: the monkey getting the bananas!
4. Also sometime in the day have a time when the children can just read by themselves.  This time should be fun and relaxing.  There shouldn’t be any pressure to read a certain amount of books.  The child should also be reading with almost 100% accuracy the books that they choose.

Reference:    http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/fluency.html  Reading Genie: How to develop Reading fluency

Monkey Chart:

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