Reading is Bearable
Growing Independence and Fluency Design
By Jessica Campbell
Rationale: To help a reader to be a successful reader, the reader must be able to read fluently. When we have fluency in reading, this means most of the words we are reading are in our sight vocabulary. Other results from reading fluency can also be speed while reading. The way a reader can achieve fluency is from reading and rereading. In repeated readings, the student will decode words and be able to recognize words automatically. Throughout this Reading Fluency Lesson on the different types of bears throughout the story, the students will become fluent readers by testing their speed during their readings. While the students begin to read faster, the teacher will chart the student's reading time. Helping our students on their reading fluency will also benefit their reading comprehension skills so our students will better understand what they read and become overall more successful in reading. We can best do this by mapping out the children's progress with a chart and you can even make it a friendly competition to see who can read the fastest and is most fluent.
Materials:
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Timer for the teach to use
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Write and go over the sentence "I want to play outside together!" and "I have never eaten a vegetable" on the board
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A set of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See By Eric Carle
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A bear Cover-up Critter for each student
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Class set of Pencils
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Teacher Fluency Checklist
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Fluency Graph for board
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Comprehension Exit Questions
Procedures:
1. Say: "Today, we are going to work on our fluent reading. To become a great reader, we must be able to read fluently. Fluent reading means that you can read fast but also understand what you are reading. When we become fluent readers, we can better understand the text we are reading and read it with more excitement! We will be practicing this today by reading the same book twice, one as practice time and one to see how fast you can read while I time you. Every time you read the book, you will get more comfortable with the text and words! ".
2. Say: "I am now going to show you how to read a sentence, even if I do not know all the words yet". "I want to play outside together!". (Reveal sentence on the board that says: I want to play outside together!'). Say: "I will show you how I read this sentence. “IIIiii wwaaanntt ttooo ppllaaayyy ooo...side tttoogggeeetttthhheeeerr”. When I got stuck on the fourth word, I finished reading the rest of the sentence. I still can not figure out what the word is so I will now use my cover-up critter. First, I uncover the first letter in the word, this tells us to say /o/. I will continue to move to each letter in the word: /o/ /U/ /t/ /s/ /I/ /d/ /e/. I need to remember that the i_e says /I/, so this word is pronounced o-u-t-s-I-d-e. Let me read the sentence again, "IIIiii wwaaanntt ttooo ppllaaayyy ouuuttsssIIIddee tooggeetthheerr: Oh, it's outside! It is like when we go outside for recess. I continued to reread the sentence and used crosschecking until I understood what the sentence was saying! (Model saying, "IIii wwaanntt ttoo ppllaaayyy ouuttssiiddee tooggeetthheer". I want to play outside together".) Say: "The more practice I have reading and rereading a sentence, the better I get at reading it and the more I understand what I read. Now, I can mentally mark the spellings so when I see them again, I will remember how to say each word.
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3. Say: "Now, we will see the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader. I am going to read this new sentence on the board". (Display sentence on the board that says, "I have never eaten a vegetable"). Say: "This is how I may read the sentence the first time I see it: 'I hhaaaavvvee nnneeevvveerrr eeaatteenn aa vveeggttaabbllee'. "When I read it as slow and as stretched out as I just did, it is difficult for me to understand what I just read. If I read it again, I can try to read it faster and smoother, which will help me understand it better. (Model saying it again faster and smoother). Say: "(I h-a-v-e n-e-v-e-r e-a-t-e-n a v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e” See! That was much better! Let me try reading it again and see if I can read it with more expression. (Read faster and with more expression) 'I have never eaten a vegetable!' Say: "That time I read this sentence, it was much easier to comprehend what I said and you could even see how I felt because of how I read the sentence expressively! This is how a fluent reader should read a sentence. Now, you try reading the same sentence on the board! (Have students read the sentence and practice using expressions while saying the sentence).
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4. Say: "It is going to take some practice for you to become fluent readers! For example, in the sentence we just read, 'I have never eaten a vegetable', I did not get it right the first time. It was more difficult because I had never seen it before. However, the second time I read it, the easier it was because I had already decoded the words in the sentence. By the time I read it the third time, I was able to read it faster and with more expression because I had read the sentence before. I became fluent reading this sentence by reading the sentence multiple times until I understood what it was saying! Now, you can practice to become fluent readers!".
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5. Say: "Now, we are going to practice our reading fluency by reading the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See.Everyone, please take out your book and open it. Booktalk: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I see a red bird looking at me. Red Bird, Red Bird What Do You See? I guess we are going to have to continue to read to see what other animals we are going to see!
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6. Introduction: Say: "We are now going to practice our reading by reading silently to ourselves at our desks until our timer goes off. Now let's see how I will set the timer for 10 minutes. You can read the text as many times as you want within these 10 minutes. (Set timer depending on my student's abilities). While practicing make sure to use your Cover-up Critter when you need help as well as decoding the text.
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7. Activity: Say: "Now, as I call each one of y’all to come up we are going to see how fast everyone can read the book as I set the timer. I will document the score to see how fluent you are reading but also to check on progress with your reading. I am hoping you are improving each and every time! Continue to practice so that you are reading smoother. faster, and with more expression!
8. Assessment: Say: Now we are going to put your reading comprehension to test to see if you understood what you were reading. Here are a few questions I will give you after y’all finishing doing your timed reading with me. I would like you to take the questions back to your desk and quietly answer them.
Comprehension Exit Questions:
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What did you like about the book?
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What other animals do you like that Brown Bear didn’t see?
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Which was your favorite animal that Brown Bear saw? Why?
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What is your favorite color? What other colors are there, besides the different colors of the animals in the book?
Reference:
Eric Carle, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”
Taylor Hoff’s, “Reading is not unBEARable!”
https://taylordhoff.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/growing-independence-and-fluency-gf
Caitlin Brown, “First, Fluency!”
https://raisingareaderma.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Brown-Bear-Brown-Bear-Story-Guide.pdf