Reading Proficiency

How to Teach Reading Lesson Plans: Demonstrates proficiency in the reading process.

1) Reads orally with fluency based on rate, intonation, phrasing, and naturalness
Have the students work with a partner until both can read a passage fluently and with expression.
Sustain silent reading with teacher in book of choice.
Conduct student/teacher conferences to listen to student read orally. Teacher will note the following:

Student reads fairly fast, but may have self-corrections and re-runs.

Student reads with automatic recognition of most words in appropriate level text.

Student reads continuously for 20 minutes per day.

Student reads at a comfortable rate comparable to normal speech.

Model fluent reading of a passage, poem, etc. Invite students to join in a choral reading by reading aloud together, saying words slowly and thoughtfully using correct pacing and inflection. Use a tape recorder to keep a record of students’ choral reading performances. Remind students to use tone of voice and facial expressions that the character might use.
Invite students to pay attention to how performers (actors) express characters. Encourage students to imagine that they are the characters in the story. Modify the story into a script or play. Have them rewrite a passage with dialogue and a narrator. Read the selection using appropriate dramatic tone. Go back and read original text using appropriate pacing and inflection. Tape record students performing dramatic readings.
Have a good reader model a line-by-line reading of a passage/poem/song, etc., while the class echoes each line (Echo Reading). Use karaoke machine to create reading model of passage, poem, or song.
Give the students an opportunity to read dialogue expressively and to mirror the action with tone of voice (Mirror the Action).
Model fluent reading of a paragraph by pausing briefly at commas, dropping intonation and pausing at the end of sentences, and reading with expression (Text Chunking). The students then are invited to practice reading the paragraph with a partner until reading is fluent. When the students feel they are proficient in their reading of the paragraph, they may make a reading cassette to place in their portfolio.
Read (oral and choral) a poem or rhyming reading. Identify strong accents by tapping hands on legs to express accents. Chart accents on a large chart by writing lines of poem and using (<) to identify the accents. Locate other natural accents and balance those accents.
Act out or create dance movements to a poem (or rhyming reading) using charted accent beats. Use video recorder to tape dance movements and share video with other class members and other classes.
Read poetry together as a class.
Have the students learn basic “do, re, mi” musical scale by demonstration (e.g., sing the scale). Simple instruments may be used to accompany the scale. Chart the “do, re, mi” scale on oversized musical staff paper or create own musical staff with five (5) lines and four (4) spaces. After the notes are charted, sing the scale together, emphasizing the sequence of increasing and decreasing steps from ‘do’ to ‘do’. Sing the scale several times, varying the tempo (speed) and rhythm (beats) each time.
Ask students to learn the song, Do, A Dear, from the musical The Sound of Music after learning the “do, re, mi” musical scale. In this song, the students will learn to sing the intervals of the “do, re, mi” scale forwards, backwards, skipping up and down, etc. Repeat the song several times, to learn the song from memory. After the song is memorized, practice varying the tempo (speed).

2) Self-corrects when reading miscues
Model oral reading each school day to the students. Reading material should include a wide variety of genre including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc.
Have the students read with a partner (buddy and/or paired reading). One of the students in the partnership should be a fluent reader.
Have the student record a passage and play back the recording, following along in the book while listening to himself/herself read.
Choral reading.

3) Reads fluently with understanding
Select a fairytale and have the students rewrite the tale in a present day setting.
Model to teach students to: use background experiences; draw logical conclusions; predict outcomes; connect text to personal experiences; identify main idea; follow plot sequence; compare and contrast; follow printed directions; interact with content; and infer motives, traits, or feelings of characters.
Model to teach students about who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. As you read text aloud to students, demonstrate how to pause and ask yourself questions as you read.
Ask questions relating to story elements (e.g., character, setting, theme, plot, mood or tone, conflict, and solution). Model how to ask questions to better understand the story. Point out how to draw on personal experiences for understanding concerning the inferred emotions of a character.
Have the students read for personal pleasure. The teacher will model daily sustained reading time. The students will then participate by choosing self-selected reading materials to read for a sustained silent time of a minimum of 20 minutes. Following a sustained reading time, a sharing time will be used for students to describe characters, setting, and plot. Students may also ask questions using who, what, when, where, why, and how questions (not mandatory, but by choice). Use audiotapes paired with text for students reading below grade level.
Have students work in small groups to write the story events on a map (Circular Story Map) in the order in which they occurred. Then, assign each story event to groups to describe in more detail. Have each group retell its event including the details. Create the story map using a brainstorming/mapping tool. .
Have students select one of the characters and rewrite the story from a first person point of view.
Divide the students into groups according to the story elements (e.g., character, setting, plot, theme, mood or tone, conflict, and solution). Have each group read a story to determine the assigned element. Have students report to the class their opinions and support those opinions with facts from the story. Have students create a presentation of student’s oral or written report.
Write a dialogue or short script to dramatize a selected passage of poetry. Ask students to work in groups to develop the dialogue. Read the finished scripts aloud several times, improving fluency with each reading.
Have the students take a familiar story and conduct a mock trial. Example: Students will participate in re-writing a familiar story into a dramatic script of a courtroom trial. The story must contain a conflict that may be dramatized (e.g., The Trial of the Three Little Pigs v. The Big Bad Wolf , or Billy Goat Gruff v. The Troll). Assign a role for each student to play in the trial (e.g., judge, jury, clerk, bailiff, prosecution [including attorney and witnesses], and defense [including the attorney and witnesses]). Read through the script several times, increasing the fluency and dramatic interpretation with each reading.
Have the students read a book or article about spiders. Divide the class into five (5) different spider groups and study the characteristics of each group (e.g., appearances, habitat, food, action, enemies). Use electonic/online resources to gather additional information on spiders.
Video tape or tape record students performing or retelling passages.

 

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