FASTER AND FASTER!

Growing Independence and Fluency
Jane Moncrief


Rationale:  Successful readers must read consistently, fluently, accurately, and with emotion.  This lesson is designed to help students become more fluent readers by working on their reading speed.  This lesson will help students increase their fluency through one-minute reads.

 
Materials:

 
Procedures:

  1. Explain what it means to be a fluent reader.  Tell the students the steps they will take while working with groups to help them become better readers.  “Fluency means that you can read words fast and easily.  If you’re a fluent reader, you can read with emotion; for instance, it might sound like you’re actually having a conversation with somebody.”
  2. Pass out index cards with color-coded dots to each student.
  3. “Have you ever had a really good book, and just couldn’t get through it fast enough?  You were so interested in the book, but you just had a hard time reading it?  Well, today we’re going to work on that.  We’re going to learn to read faster and with emotion.  After today, you’ll be able to make what you’re reading sound happy, sad, scary, calm, or exciting!  I want everyone to go to the shelf and pick a book with the same colored dot that is on your index card.  Make sure that you get a good book that you might be interested in later.”  (Teacher should also go to the shelf and get a book.)
  4. After students finish getting their books and are back in their seats, show them your book.  “When I first read this book, I didn’t know some of the words in it.  It made it very hard to understand.  I read really slowly and couldn’t understand what the story was about.  So, I read the book again.  And, do you know what happened?  It was the strangest thing!  The words that I didn’t know before, I could read a lot better the second time.  I was amazed.  I started thinking, “How do I know these words this time but didn’t know them last time?  I figured out that the more times we read something, the easier it gets!  We’re all going to try reading something several times today so that we can get better at it.”
  5. “Now you all need to read the book that you chose.  Read until I tell you to stop.  If you finish reading your book before I say “stop,” just read your book again.  (Let them read for ten minutes.)
  6. After the students have read individually for ten minutes, pair them with students on the same instructional level.
  7. “When it’s not your turn to read, you need to time your partner to see how much time it took them to read.  You need to each read your book twice.  After you read, you need to record your time on the time chart.”
  8. After all students have read to a partner, say, “Now, let’s chart our results and see how we read just a bit faster the second time we read!”
  9. “I want you all to take your books home and show your families and friends how well you can read.”
Resources:


http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/constr/clarkgf.html  (Read and Reread by Seth Clark)

Click here to return to Inventions.