Reading
Race Cars
Growing
By
Rationale: Comprehension is very important to being a good reader. Beginner readers tend to spend quite a bit of time on decoding words and that breaks down comprehension. However, if fluency skills are taught it will help students with their comprehension skills. Fluency is reading smoothly, accurately, and automatically. Fluent readers use less time on decoding and more time on comprehension.
Materials:
·
Kitchen
timer
·
Progress
chart
for each student: a race track on paper with numbers labeled on the
side of the
road and a car to move along the track
·
Sentence
strips
with sentences written on them. One sentence strips per group of 2
students. “I
like to play with my pet dog and cat.”
·
Class set of the
book Lee and the
Team by Sheila Cushman, Educational Insights:
·
Pencils
·
Fidgety Fish
by Ruth Galloway
Procedures:
1.
Introduce
the
lesson by explaining what fluency. Today
we are going to practice reading quickly and smoothly.
2.
Have each
student to partner with another student. Give each group a sentence
strip with
a sentence on them. I want you to
practice reading your sentence to your partner one time. I want you to
listen
to each other and notice how they read out loud to you. Children then will
read their sentence to the other student. Now
that you have read it out loud, I want you to practice it over and over
to
yourself. If you need help with a word ask your partner or raise your
hand I
will help you. After
a couple of times of reading it to themselves, have them
to read it out loud again. Now I want you
to read the sentence again out loud to your partner. I want you to
notice if
they read faster and smoother than the first time. How did they sound?
Smoother? Faster? Good Job!
3.
Model the
progress chart to the students so that they will know how to use it
when it is
their turn to read. I’m going to read
this book to you. While I am reading, I am going to time myself. When
the timer
rings then I will have to stop reading. Read Fidgety Fish or any book to
class. Read slowly so that you will not finish before the timer rings.
(RRIING) That was the timer, so
I have to
stop reading. Now I am going to count the number of words that I have
read so
far. I have read 75 words in one minute. So I take my
chart and I put my car on
number 75 because that is the number of words that I read. I want to be
faster
so I want to read more words than 75. So I am going to practice and
read it
again. Every time I read, I mark it with my car on the chart. I want my
car to
go further and further down the track.
4.
Give books to
each group. Now I want you to read to
your partner. I am going to set the timer and you will read as much as
you can.
When the timer rings, then your partner will mark on your chart the
number of
words that you read. After you have had your turn then I will set the
timer
again and your partner gets a turn. After your turn, make sure you show
me your
car so that I will see how you are doing. When the students show their
chart, make notes on a class chart to keep track of each student’s
progress. You
want to try to get your car further and further down the track. If it
goes
backwards, don’t worry because it happens to everybody. We will keep
practicing
and you will get better and better each time! Good Job!
5.
For assessment, I
will walk around and listen to the students as they read and they will
show
their chart after each read and I would call each student up to my desk
for one
minute reads also to make sure the charts are accurate.
Reference:
Eldredge, J.L. (2005). Teaching
and Decoding: Why and How/2nd Ed.
Galloway, R. (2001). Fidgety Fish.