Rationale: In order for a student to become a skillful reader they must be able to read fluently. Reading fluently allows students to focus more on comprehension rather than decoding words they do not know yet. In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become a fluent reader through modeling and practice. Students will practice accomplish this by using an activity called Reader’s Theatre.

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Materials:

·         The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

·         Sentence strips

·         Cover-up critters

·         Chart paper

·         Checklist questions

·         Books to choose from for practice reading

·         Pencil and paper for note taking on the children

·         Stop watch for time purposes for practice reading

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Procedures:

1.       Say: First, we will start out by identifying this purpose of today’s lesson. Today’s lesson will help us to become skillful readers! We will use our prior knowledge of phonemes and skill of decoding to help us in today’s lesson. Being a fluent reader means that we can read smoothly, effortlessly, with expression, and focus on our comprehension skills. During and after the lesson we will practice reading silently. Y’all will become pros in no time at all!

2.       To begin with I will model how a non-fluent reader reads a book. I will use a copy of the book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.

I will give a brief book-talk:

This little house lived out in the quiet country. It was a sturdy little house that was built very well, with a solid foundation. The little house could see the lights of the city and it was also curious about all the lights. Soon a city started to be built around the little house. Soon, no one wanted to live in her because they were too busy. What will happen to the little house?! We will have to read and find out!

Before I read the book I will explain to the children why and how to use a cover-up critter. I will explain that it helps readers break words up that they cannot say into smaller chunks allowing them to say part of the word, then blend the word together. Then I will begin reading the story as a non-fluent reader and show the children how the cover-up critter works to help me on hard words. After using the strategy on a sentence, I will reread the sentence without the cover-up critter and say the word or words correctly that I missed the first time. When I read the sentence for a third time I will add expression as well as not missing the word or words from the first time. Once I have finished reading the sentence three times I will encourage the students by telling them they can figure out hard words using those same steps.

3.       Next, I will tell the children that in order to become the best reader possible you have to practice reading a lot. Like the saying goes, “practice makes perfect!” I will then explain how I modeled reading. I will say that the first reading is usually the hardest because you don’t know what the words are but that after that the reading gets easier. The first time is spent focusing on decoding the word correctly. Then you practice reading it again to make sure you decoded correctly and it sounds correct. Last, you add smoothness and expression to your reading. These are the steps for fluency. We will practice using this sentence from the story, “She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built.” I will use the cover-up critter to help me say the word “strong”. It will be in chunks like this, str-on-g.

4.       Now, I will write a sentence on chart paper. I will read the sentence to them in a non-fluent way first and then fluently the second time. I will ask the children to clap twice if it is read incorrectly and clap once if it is correct. Then, I will read more sentences and ask them to do the same thing. After that I will model how a non-fluent reader and a fluent reader reads. I will go slowly while reading like a non-fluent reader making sure not to put any expression in my reading. Then, I will read fast and smooth for a fluent reader showing the children the difference. During the lesson, I will ask the children random questions such as “Was this a fluent or non-fluent reading?” “How do you know?” This will lead to discussion among the students and I. After our discussion, I will let the children get with a partner to practice reading sentences fluently. The children will get with their partner that they are assigned to during reading time for this activity. I will pass our sentence strips to each group of partners for them to practice with. I will also give the students a checklist to check off for their partner describing their reading.

5.       Checklist:           

·         Did he/she read smoothly? _________________

·         Did he/she show facial expression? __________________

·         Did he/she have voices changes? ________________

·         Does the student have an overall understanding of expression?

6.       Students will pick a book from a selection of books in their instructional level to use while assessing each other on their reading skills. I will go around and monitor each group of partners to see how they are doing. I will remind them to use the skills they learned during the lesson to help them during their partnered reading.

7.       Each day I will set a certain time for the students to get to go with their partners to practice reading for fluency. After a week of reading I will assess each student individually and change their partners up and let them see how another student is reading and what they could learn from them.

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References:

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

Charity Glaze, On the Road to Fluency!