Sailing on to
In order for children to become fluent
readers, they must be able to read faster and smoother than when they
started to read. Reading becomes much more enjoyable
child when he or she is able to decode words automatically and
effortlessly. This can be accomplished
by having the child read and reread decodable words in connected text. The more the child reads the same text, the
more fluent the text becomes to him or her.
The goal of this lesson is to help the children learn how to
and more smoothly by providing practice reading and rereading books.
- Chalk Board
- A copy of, Kite Day at Pine
Lake (Educational Insights) for each child
- Checklist for Assessment (time for one minute read, how many words
correct, and what are they struggling with)
will begin by asking, “what does it take to make a
sailboat sail?” Hopefully the students
will respond by saying, wind. I will
then say, “today we are going to sail our way to reading fluently. This
that we are going to read fast and smooth, like the wind pushing our
sailboat. If you are wondering how we
are going to do this I will tell you. The
first stage in becoming a smooth sailing, fluent readers
learning how to decode and blend words. It
is important to remember that fluent readers do not
word that they are going to read.
we begin our journey to reading
review what happens if we come to a word that we are not familiar with. Do we just skip it and keep reading like it
wasn’t written in the book? Who can tell
what we should do first? That is right;
we should start with the vowel sound. What
is it that we should do next? Good, we
should add the beginning sound to the vowel. What
is the final thing that we should
do? That is right; we should add the end
sound to the beginning and vowel sound. What
is another technique that we could use? We
could cross check. You are right! Another
method would be to read the rest of
the sentence to see if the word that you think it is makes sense in the
- “I am now going to read a sentence to you two
ways. Ready? Jim wishes he
had a sister. Now
I am going to read the sentence very slowly. Jiiim
wiiishes heee haaad aaa siiister. Now I am
going to read the sentence fast and fluently. Jim
wishes he had a sister. Which way did you
like me reading the
sentence? Slow? Fast? I agree I think that it sounds much better
when I read the
and fluently. Which one would be more
likely to sail our boat, reading slow or fast? You’re
right, fast. As we read a sentence several times, we
read the sentence faster and therefore more fluently.
“Now, I want you to turn to the person sitting to the
left of you that is going to be your partner for the day.
I want you and your partner to read the
sentence that I have written on the chalk board as many times as you
I say STOP. The
sentence is: Matt jumped up and down when Kim came to
play. After you read this a couple of
should all be fluent readers with
am now going
to do a book talk with the children about Kite Day at Pine Lake. I
will first begin by asking the children
“Have any of you ever seen a kite flying in the air?
What does it take for a kite to fly? Wind, just
as it takes wind to make our sailboat sail. Have
any of you ever flown a kite before? Well,
I am going to read you this book, Kite
Day at Pine Lake, and I want you to pay attention, because when I
finished you are going to read it too! In
this book, it is kite day at Pine Lake,
and everyone has their own kite. Except
for Bob. That is sad.
What do you think Bob’s friends will do?
they share their kite with Bob? Will they
help Bob make his own kite? Will they just
make Bob watch them have fun
flying their kites? What would you do
- “Now I want you to get back with the partner
were with for the previous activity. Find
a place on the floor to read with your partner. I
want everyone to remember to read like the
wind, so that our boat can sail. I want
you to read the book two times to your partner and then have your
the book two times to you. When you have
finished, you may pick another book from the reading center and read it
your partner, again practicing reading like the wind.
Remember do not get frustrated reading the
books. If there are more than two words
on a page that you can not decode then you might need to choose another
book.” I will then allow about 5 to 10
minutes for the children to read to each other.
I will call the students one by one to
come back to my table (the teacher’s desk) and have him or her read for
minute from the book out loud. I will
have a checklist to record their speed, smoothness, and fluency. The checklist will contain the following
information: How many words the child
read in one minute, How many words the child read accurately, What
child struggled with. By doing this, I
know the areas that the child is having difficulties with.
- “Read like the Wind!”
Growing Independency and Fluency Design: Anna Choron. Summer 2004.
- “Ready, Set, Read!”
Growing Independency and Fluency Design: Leah Steiner. Summer 2004.
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