Growing Independency | legacy title

Growing independency Design

Rationale: To comprehend texts, students first need to be able to read fluently. Automatic word recognition along with faster, smoother, more expressive reading characterizes fluency. As students develop fluency, they may devote cognitive resources to comprehension rather just focusing on decoding and word recognition. To develop fluency, students must read and reread decodable words in a connected text. Therefore, in this lesson students will read, decode, crosscheck and then reread to improve their fluency. The teacher will model and scaffold to aid the students’ fluency gains. Improvement will be measured by the formula (words read x 60/seconds). This formula is used to determine the student’s words read per minute (WPM).

Materials:

Partner feedback sheets for each student
Partner time sheets (WPM tracker) for each student
Stopwatch for each pair
Class set of Days with Frog and Toad
Whiteboard and dry erase marker
Copies of reading comprehension questions
Rubrics for assessment for each student

Procedures:

EXPLAIN- In order for us to become the best readers we can be, we have to work on being fluent when we are reading. This means that we are able to read words quickly, automatically and with expression. When we become fluent readers, we can comprehend a story much better. One way to become more fluent readers is to read the same thing over and over. The more you read the same story, you are able to practice the words that you didn’t understand the first time. Today we are going to practice this! We are going to do repeated readings so we can start leaping into fluent reading!

MODEL- Say: To start, I am going to show you an example of a reader who isn’t fluent, and how they are able to become fluent. If I start reading and run into this sentence “He was slimy and green” (write on white board) and I am not fluent I might have to decode a word or two. The first time I read I might struggle with the word slimy (point to it). I can try and put it together /s/ /l/ /i/ /m/ /E/. and say sli-mee, and think about frogs and say that in the sentence. It doesn’t quite make sense when I finish the sentence. Then say “wait I think it’s /s/ /l/ /I/ /m/ /E/ because frogs are slimy. Then I can reread the sentence “He was slimy and green”. That was better, but this time I can read it more smoothly with expression, “He was slimy and green!”. I was able to read all the words smoothly and add expression because I understood the sentence!

CROSSCHECKING- Say: When I came across a word I didn’t know in the earlier sentence I used one of our self-helping strategies to figure out the word I didn’t know. I attempted the word and then went on to finish the rest of the sentence, when I realized the word I was saying didn’t make sense. I was then able to figure out the correct word using context clues, and made a mental note about how I should read it the next time I saw the word.

READ WHOLE TEXT- Say: Now we are going to read a book called Days with Frog and \! This story is about Frog who is ready to take on the year with his best friend, Toad. Frog is waiting for Toad to wake up from his winter nap. Let’s read and find out all about Frog and Toad’s adventures as best friends. We are going to read this book silently to ourselves, so instead of reading out loud, say the word in your head. We are only going to read chapter 1!

GUIDED PRACTICE- Say: if you did not know some of the words in this first reading, that’s okay! Let’s work together to get better! If you come across a difficult word that you don’t understand at first try and use crosschecking, by reading on to the end of the sentence. For example, if I saw the sentence (write on white board) “From that day on, I knew we would be best friends”, I might say “From that day on, I /k//n//ew/- k-new, hmm I’ll keep reading, we would be best friends. Oh! I think it is /n//EW/. “From that day on, I knew we would be best friends”.

PARTNER READING- Say: Okay now I want everyone to get with a partner and sit next to them! I am going to give you a stopwatch, two feedback sheets and two timer sheets. First you will count how many words are in the first chapter of the book. Then you will write that number at the top of the sheet. You will take turns reading Frog and Toad are friends out loud to your partner. They will time you and see how long it takes you to read the chapter. You will use your partners feedback sheet to keep track of your progress. If they read faster, smoother or with more expression mark that on their feedback sheet. After each partner has read the chapter three times and you have recorded that information, then you will switch feedback sheets. After you both finish, bring your sheet to me and I will calculate your RPM.

Total words in chapter:

Reader:

Checker:

______ words in _______ seconds

______ words in _______ seconds

______ words in _______ seconds

Turn number that sounded smoothest

Turn number that had the fewest mistakes

READER RESPONSE: Say: Since we have read the book multiple times now, I am now going to ask you a few questions about the book

Name three chores that Toad needs to take care of around the house
How are Frog and Toad different?

ASSESSMENT: I will review each of the student’s responses to the reading comprehension questions and review the partner feedback and time sheets to asses each student using the following rubrics

Student Name:

Date:

Evidence shown for reading three times

__/3

Responded to comprehension questions

__/3

Improved Fluency

__/1

Improved accuracy

__/1

Completed partner progress form

__/1