Growing Independence and Fluency
Gina Reynolds
You
Can’t Hear Me!
Growing Independence and Fluency
Gina Reynolds
Rationale
A very important part of reading fluency is the ability to read without
saying
the words out loud. As teachers, we need to explain to our class
that
reading out loud is a good idea when you are reading to a group, but
that most
of the time in life we will need to read silently to ourselves.
In these
times, it will only be important that we understand what we are
reading. Silent
reading increases reading comprehension as the students practice
advanced
decoding skills. It also reinforces reader motivation as the reader
learns to
associate the silent reading time as a positive, enjoyable experience.
This
lesson will provide students with practice reading silently by allowing
them to
read and reread decodable text until they achieve this.
Materials
Class set of the book Polly’s Shop by B. Grout, Modern
Curriculum Press,
1996.
Chart with the sentence “Her cat ran in the den.” and “I like to kick
the ball
with him.”
Silent
Procedures
Explain to students the importance of reading silently.
Now that we have become such good readers
out loud, we are going to learn how to read silently to ourselves. This is an important skill to learn since it
is not always polite or appropriate to read every word out loud.
Review with students the strategy of using cover-ups to decode
words. Show
the words cash on the board. Cover up all but the vowel and
read the
sound /a/. Then uncover the first letter to read /ca/. Last, uncover
the last
two letters to read cash.
Explain how students can use silent reading. Who
can tell me what the number one rule in the public library is?
That’s right – to be quiet! If you want to go to the library to read
books,
would you be able to read out loud so that everyone could hear you? No!
You
would have to read the book to yourself. You would also have to read
silently
if you wanted to read in our class after you have finished an activity
but others are still working. Today, we are going to learn how to be polite
readers who can read silently to themselves by practicing re-reading
text until
we reach that level.
Model to students how to read the sentence “Her cat ran into the
den.” First, I will read this sentence out loud.
“Her cat rrr…” I don’t know what this word is, so I will use cover-ups
to read
it. I know that a says /a/
and I know
that r says /r/.
Let me
try to put those together. /r/a/.
And I know that n says
/n/. So, let me see if I can put all of
those sounds together. /r/a/n/. Oh, that
says ran. “Her cat ran
in the den.” Now
I will try reading this in a softer voice. (Read sentence). Now I will
read
this sentence in a whisper (Read sentence). Now I will read this
sentence just
moving my lips. (Read sentence). Now here’s the last step. I can read
this
sentence silently. Also, it is important for me to think about if I
understand
what I have just read in my head. What did the cat do? He ran in the
den.
Simple practice will involve the students reading another sentence
on the
board (I like to kick the ball with him). As a class, follow
the same
steps used above in modeling to read this sentence (out loud, in a
softer
voice, in a whisper, moving their lips, and finally silently).
Whole texts used will be Polly’s Shop. Provide each
student with a
copy. Have students try reading the book silently. If they have
trouble,
instruct them to use the method taught above to try to achieve silent
reading.
Assessment will be in the form of a checklist. Make observations of
each
student while they read and mark the following.
___Reads aloud
___Reads in a
whisper
___Reads
while moving lips
___Reads
silently
Answer 3
questions for reading comprehension:
1. Whose shop
is the book about? (Polly’s)
2. What is the problem in Polly’s shop? (All of the items are mixed
together)
3. What did the boy and his dad want to buy? (a rug)
Reference
Fleming, Nell. Please Read Politely. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/fleminggf.html
Grout, B. Polly’s Shop. Modern Curriculum Press:
Schaum, Susan. “Now you hear me, now you don’t!” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/schaumgf.html
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