Eating Our Way Into Fluency
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Rationale:
Being a fluent reading means that the reader can automatically recognize sight words and read quickly with a better understanding. One of the purposes of this lesson is to teach elementary students how they can become fluent readers. Students gain fluency when they read, decode, crosscheck and reread words. Reading classic literature and answering questions about the material encourages students to work on their comprehension.
Materials:
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Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Enough for a pair of students to get one. Example: 9 books for 18 students)
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Word Count sheet:
Name: __________ Date: ___________
The first time I read ___________ words. The second time I read__________ words. The third time I read__________ words.
https://sites.google.com/site/sophiessuperlessons/growing-fluency-design/fluency.jpg?
Procedures:
1) Teacher will say: “It is time to for us to practice being speedy readers! It is important to remember that we not only want to read fast, but we want to read the words correctly. We will be able to understand the story by reading faster. Okay, so today we are going to do repeated readings and our goal is to become faster each time we read the text.”
2) Teacher will say: “Let’s review before we begin. What should we do if we do not know a word? (Write the word crash on the board) Let’s say I was unsure of this word when I saw it in the text. I would use my finger to cover up the other letters except for the a. I would then say /a/, like the scared child says, and I would then uncover the first letter and say /c/. Next, I would uncover the second letter and put it with the first letter /c//r/ and then add the ending /sh/ like “shhh the baby is sleeping”. Blending it all together I would get /c//r//a//s//h/. Oh! That word is crash!”
3) Teacher will say: (Write the following sentence on the board: The caterpillar eats a berry.)“I will read this sentence that is written on the board, and I would like for you to pay close attention as I read it.” (read the sentence very slowly and without fluency). “The caaattterrrpilllllarrr eeeeeattss a berrryyy”… Did you see that I read it very slowly and it was kind of hard to understand what that sentence is talking about? Now I am going to try and read it again like a fluent reader. (Read sentence with fluency) “The caterpillar eats a berry.” Wasn’t that a lot easier to understand? By learning the words by sight, I was able to read and understand them better. That is why we are going to practice rereading sentences so that every time we can make it sound better than before. It is also great to add expression to your readings!”
4) Teacher will say: “I am now going to split you into pairs and give each pair a copy of the book: A Very Hungry Caterpillar. In this story, we learn about a caterpillar who seems to be very hungry. As he eats and eats, he begins to get sleepy. Let’s find out what happens after this caterpillar eats all the food and begins to fall asleep!”
5) I will assign partners. Each group will have a stopwatch, notecard, a word count sheet and evaluation form. I will have each student read the first six pages once to themselves. When they have read it through once, I will explain to the students how to use these sheets and what they are looking for when the reader is reading to them. I will assign one student to be the reader and the other student to be the recorder. Providing a model about how to use the timer, the recorder will keep track of how many times and how long it takes the reader to read the first six pages. The recorder will tell the reader when they can begin and when to end. Every time the recorder will record how many pages were read and the time. Once that reader has had three read alouds of the first six pages, the recorder will fill out the partner check sheet. The students will then switch roles.
Assessment: By calling up each individual student, I will ask them to read aloud to me. I will then ask comprehension questions to assess their reading.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
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What did the caterpillar eat first?
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Why was the caterpillar so hungry?
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What happens when the caterpillar wakes up?
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References:
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Burns, Bailey -"Crawl into Reading with Corduroy!" https://sites.google.com/site/lessondesignsbaileyburns/gf-design
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Word Count sheet:
Name: __________ Date: ___________
The first time I read ___________ words. The second time I read__________ words. The third time I read__________ words.
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Fluency recorder: https://sites.google.com/site/sophiessuperlessons/growing-fluency-design/fluency.jpg?
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Allison Pittman: arp0051@tigermail.auburn.edu
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