Lessons Designs

Rationale: For a reader to be successful you must consistently read fluently, accurately, and with expression. To become fluent you must practice by rereading text over and over again. By participating in repeated readings, students will become a fluent reader by decoding words, which will lead to automatic word recognition or sight word recognition. This lesson will help students become fluent by testing their reading speed. The more fluent students become the better they can comprehend the message of the text they are reading, leading them to become successful readers. 

 

Materials:

1. Pencil

2. Repeated Reading Checklist (one for each student; to be used with a partner)

3. Stopwatch (one per partner group)

4. Copy of A Bump in the Mud (teacher only)

5. A copy of The Race for Cake (one for each student)

6. Reading Chart (one for each student)

7. Cover-up critter

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Procedures:

1. Say: "In order to be good readers, we must be able to read fluently. That means that you can read words quickly, correctly, and with expression (“FEELING”). If you can read a book fluently it will sound like you are having a normal conversation with a friend. This will help you to understand the story much better and you will know what is going on. If you can read the words correctly, and quickly you will be able to focus on the story better!”

2.  Model crosschecking and decoding by reading a sample sentence from the board. Say: I want everyone to listen to me say this sentence” (Model reading a sentence fluently and non-fluently.) “The more often you read, the more fluent of a reader you will become.” (read 2 times, fluently and non-fluently) “The m-o-o-o-r-e-e-e-e ofte-n-n-n you r-e-e-e-e-a-d-d, the mo-o-o-r-e-e-e fl-l-u-u-u-u-u-e-e-e-n-t-t-t you will bec-c-c-o-o-o-o-m-m-m-e-e.” Did I read that sentence fluently? (wait for response) NO! I did not. How about this time “The more often you read, the more fluent you will be”. That time I read the word fluently and it was much easier to understand!

3. Say:  Let’s learn how we will become fluent readers! What do we do when we see a word we don’t recognize? Do we just skip over it? No! One way to read a word that is unfamiliar to us is to use a “cover up”. For example, if you come across the word gate and did not know how to say it, we would cover up the g in the word and the t, leaving just the vowels a and e. I will then think to myself “hmmm what does the a sound make? There is an e at the end so what does that tell me?” (Wait for response) The e tells the a to say its name /A/. Next I will uncover the g and think about the sounds they make and combine them to say the word /g/ /A/  and then I will reveal the last letter that is still covered, /t/. Now combine the letters and their sounds to read the word- /g/ /A/ /t/ e…gate. Great job everyone! That is how you use cover-ups to read a word.

4. Say: Another reading strategy that we use if we do not know a word, is called crosschecking. When we are unsure about a word, we reread the sentence with the word we think it is to see if it makes sense. For example, if we read this sentence “For dinner I like to eat steak.” If you come across the word steak and were unsure what word it was, we would first try to decode it. If we could not successfully decode it we would try to put the word we think it is and read it in the sentence. When we reread the word in the sentence, we will see if it makes sense. If we thought the word was street we would read the sentence and know that , No we don’t eat the street for dinner! Then we know that that word does not make sense.

5. Say: To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the story A Bump in the Mud. This story is about Jan and Tim who play in the mud. The rain made all the dirt turn into mud and Slim has made a rut. A rut fun enough to play and have fun. But is it safe enough for no one to get hurt? And what about all the mud we would have to clean off? Let’s read and see what Jan and Tim decide to do. (Read to story aloud).

6. Children will be given a copy of the book Fun and Games with Lad and Slim, their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, comprehension worksheet, and one stopwatch per pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Each of you will take turns reading the story The Race for Cake, before we end you will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. Record the time on the worksheet. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. You should go back to your seat and fill out your reading comprehension worksheet and turn it in.

 

Assessment:

Walk around the room to observe and monitor students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review to see if fluency improvements were made. Calculating words per minute can be helpful (Words per minute formula: [Words read x 60]/total seconds it took to read the text). Call each student to your desk to read the passage to you. (Be sure to put the passage all on one page so the reader isn’t distracted by the illustrations or turning the page). Time the student while he/she reads the passage. Once you calculate their words per minute, allow them to put the airplane onto the appropriate number. The goal is to get the student reading 85 words per minute which would put the airplane into the air! Before you end the lesson, review the answers to the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story. 

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Reading Comprehension Worksheet: 

 

1. Who had a swim in the lake?

2. Where was Lad?

3. Who had the cake for Jess and Ben?

4. What happened to the cake Jess had?

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Reading Checklist:

Partner Reading Progress Checklist

Total # of words in story: ______

Reader: ___________________________

Checker: __________________________

1: ___ Words in ___ seconds

2: ___ Words in ___ seconds

3: ___ Words in ___ seconds

Which turn sounded the smoothest? _______

Which turn had the least number of errors? ______

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(Words x 60)/seconds= WPM 

                                                            

0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

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References:

The Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/  

Murray, G. (2019) The Train Trip. Hard copy.

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