Language Arts: REading and Literature Genres
reading Strategies, Book Leveling, Book Club, Active Reading/During Reading, Making Meaning During Reading, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Questioning, The Daily 5, Fluency, Reading at Home, Story Elements, Reading Notebooks, Response to Reading, Nonfiction & Poetry
Reading Strategies
Book Leveling
Book Club, suggestions and exchanges
Active Reading/ During Reading
Making Meaning During Reading
Making Connections
Making Predictions
Questioning
The Daily 5
Fluency
Struggling Readers Need to Learn to Read with Fluency
Struggling Readers Need to Learn to Read with Fluency
July 19, 2011 by thisreadingmama 2 comments
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been posting about struggling readers. If this is your first time joining me, WELCOME! To get caught up, click on the image above and you can read the background and the topics we’ve covered thus far. Today we’re going to focus on how struggling readers need to learn to read with fluency. The last three topics we’ve covered directly relate to reading with fluency. How? You might ask. Let me break it down:
Why do some readers have fluency problems? While it varies from child to child, here are a few ideas to chew on.
What Can you Do for a Disfluent Reader? Just a few resources…
The ultimate goal of fluency isn’t to “attain faster, more fluent oral reading. The goal is improved comprehension of the material read and…improved reading confidence.” (pg. 99 of What Really Matters for Struggling Readers)
Quick examples of how fluency is related to comprehension:
Struggling Readers Need to Learn to Read with Fluency
July 19, 2011 by thisreadingmama 2 comments
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been posting about struggling readers. If this is your first time joining me, WELCOME! To get caught up, click on the image above and you can read the background and the topics we’ve covered thus far. Today we’re going to focus on how struggling readers need to learn to read with fluency. The last three topics we’ve covered directly relate to reading with fluency. How? You might ask. Let me break it down:
- Books they Can Read- It’s extremely hard (or near impossible) to read with fluency when you can’t read or decode most of the words, since a large part of reading with fluency is being able to quickly recognize words. Calkins says in The Art of Teaching Reading, “A child who has problems with fluency often reflects the accumulated experience of reading at frustration level. Our first intervention will be to make certain that this child is on steady course of books he can read with ease.” (170)
- Books they Want to Read- Struggling readers are more likely to persist in reading when their motivation is high. It’s hard to get motivated if you are consistently reading books that may be on your reading level, but are “baby-ish” or uninteresting to you.
- Uninterrupted Blocks of Time- Fluent reading doesn’t come through worksheets, drills, and elaborate lectures. Kids need time to practice and kids need uninterrupted reading time to do just this.
Why do some readers have fluency problems? While it varies from child to child, here are a few ideas to chew on.
- I’m not trying to sound redundant, but struggling readers may not have a steady diet of books they can read, books they want to read, or uninterrupted blocks of time to read.
- Phonics Skills: Most of the students I tutor(ed) 1-are missing some foundational phonics skills, making it difficult to decode or read word patterns, or 2- have difficulty applying their phonics knowledge to real reading. That’s why I am such a big fan of Word Study. By having them spell a few words from the Primary Spelling Inventory, I am able to see exactly which phonics skills they may be missing. The word sorts and accompanying activities allow me to spend short amounts of time on the phonics skills in isolation to leave time for real reading and application of those skills.
- I’ve also noticed that many times disfluent reading happens because these readers are not confident with their sight words. Sight words make up about 50% of what we read, so they are a necessary part of learning to read with fluency.
- Gay Su Pinnell, another great reading researcher, makes another observation that students have been taught to finger-point as they read, which leads to exaggerated pauses in between words. She suggests to encourage students to only use their finger if they encounter difficulty. (pg. 347-The Art of Teaching Reading)
- Here’s an old post of mine listing some authentic activities to help with fluency
- Sight Word Games
- Sight Word Phrase Cards
- Michelle has some great ideas on her blog in this post; scroll down for her fluency ideas
- Lucy Calkins gives these suggestions of things to say to a disfluent reader: (pg. 115 of The Art of Teaching Reading)
- Can you put your words together, say it quickly?
- Say it as if you’re talking.
- Look at me. Say it to me as if we’re talking. Try to read like that.
- Listen to me read it and copy me. (model fluent reading)
- Can you read it again and help me really feel what is happening in the story?
The ultimate goal of fluency isn’t to “attain faster, more fluent oral reading. The goal is improved comprehension of the material read and…improved reading confidence.” (pg. 99 of What Really Matters for Struggling Readers)
Quick examples of how fluency is related to comprehension:
- If a child is not using correct phrasing while reading, it is a sign to me that the child is not comprehending the text on a basic level. (And when sentences run together, the text can take on a whole new meaning.)
- With older readers, passages of texts get longer and longer. If a reader isn’t able to read the passage in a timely manner, it may be near impossible to remember what she read 20 minutes ago from the previous page; negatively affecting comprehension.
Reading At Home
Story Elements
Reading Notebooks
Response to Reading
Nonfiction
Poetry
POETRY IDEAS
www.creative-writing-now.com/poem-starters.html/
Poetry ideas - Write a poem about:
· Night-time
· A particular color
· Being underwater
· A person whose life you're curious about
· Your mother's perfume
· Falling asleep or waking up
· Growing older
· The feeling of getting lost in a book
· How to know if you're in love
· A bad dream
· A ghost
· Your city, town, or neighborhood
· An important life choice you've made
· Spring, summer, fall, or winter
· Something most people see as ugly but which you see as beautiful
· Jealousy
· Becoming a parent
· An event that changed you
· A place you visited -- how you imagined it beforehand, and what it was actually like
· The ocean
· Forgetting
· The speed of light
· A voodoo doll
· Reflections on a window
· A newspaper headline
· Your greatest fear
· Your grandmother's hands
· A particular toy you had as a child
· Being invisible
· A time you felt homesick
· Having an affair, or discovering your partner is having one
· Birthdays
· A favorite food and a specific memory of eating it
· An imaginary city
· Driving with the radio on
· Life in an aquarium
· Dancing
· Walking with your eyes closed
· What a computer might daydream about
· Time travel
· Brothers or sisters
· Your job, or a job you've had
· Weddings
· Leaving home
· Camping
· A zoo
· A historical event from the perspective of someone who saw it firsthand (You will have to do some research for this).
· Holding your breath
· Intimacy and privacy
· A time you were tempted to do something you feel is wrong
· Physical attraction to someone
· A superstition you have
· Someone you admire
Poem starters- the five senses
· Write about the taste of: an egg, an orange, medicine, cinnamon
· Write about the smell of: burning food, melting snow, the ocean, your grandparents' home, the inside of a bus, pavement after the rain
· Write about the sound of: a radio changing channels, a dog howling, a football or baseball game, your parents talking in another room
· Write about the sight of: lit windows in a house when you're standing outside at night, someone you love when he or she doesn't know you're watching, a dying plant, shadows on snow
· Write about the feeling of: grass under bare feet, a really bad kiss, the headrush when you stand up too fast, sore muscles, falling asleep in the back seat of a moving car.
Poem starters- three elements
· Write a poem that contains all three of the elements in any of the lists below:
· A dessert, a memory, and someone in your family
· Dancing, a pitch-black room, and the smell of lilacs
· A balloon, smoke, and a keyhole
· A secret box, an ice cube tray, and a velvet ribbon
· A betrayal, soap, and a plane ticket
Poetry prompts - Write a poem about:
· Rain, snow, or a storm
· An animal you think is beautiful or strange
· Your parents or children
· How a kiss feels
· The house where you were born
· A smell that brings back memories
· Being a teenager, becoming an adult, middle age, old age
· Feeling lonely
· The moon
· Getting lost
· Marriage or divorce
· An imaginary friend
· Life in the future
· The hottest, coldest, or most exhausted you have ever felt
· Having a fever
· A new version of a fairy-tale
· The shapes you see in clouds
Write a poem in the form of any of the following:
· A letter
· A recipe
· A horoscope
· A fragment from an unusual dictionary
· A prayer
· A shopping list
· A magic spell.
Write a poem from the point of view of:
· One of your parents
· Your child (real or imagined)
· A historical figure (You will have to do research for this one.)
· A very old person
· An athlete who has just lost the big game
· The most popular/unpopular kid from your school
· An inanimate object in your home.
Where to get more ideas for poems:
· Listen to a piece of music and write about the images that it brings into your mind.
· People-watch, eavesdrop, and write about your observations and imaginings.
· Sit in a park and close your ideas. Notice all of the sounds and smells. Write about them afterward.
· Keep a notebook next to your bed and write down your dreams at night to turn them into poems later.
· Make a list of words you think are unusual, then try to use them in poems.
· Watch an animal and write a poem about what it looks like and what it does.
· Smell different spices in your kitchen and write about the memories that they inspire.
· Look through old family photographs and choose some to write poems about.
· Go on a "field trip" -- a museum, the zoo, a greenhouse -- to hunt for poetry ideas.
· Get inspiration from books on an area of science or history that interests you.
Writing Ideas from ED 100:
· Write a restaurant review
· Write a story using all the letters of the alphabet in it, in order and with each letter of the alphabet as the first letter in the word
www.creative-writing-now.com/poem-starters.html/
Poetry ideas - Write a poem about:
· Night-time
· A particular color
· Being underwater
· A person whose life you're curious about
· Your mother's perfume
· Falling asleep or waking up
· Growing older
· The feeling of getting lost in a book
· How to know if you're in love
· A bad dream
· A ghost
· Your city, town, or neighborhood
· An important life choice you've made
· Spring, summer, fall, or winter
· Something most people see as ugly but which you see as beautiful
· Jealousy
· Becoming a parent
· An event that changed you
· A place you visited -- how you imagined it beforehand, and what it was actually like
· The ocean
· Forgetting
· The speed of light
· A voodoo doll
· Reflections on a window
· A newspaper headline
· Your greatest fear
· Your grandmother's hands
· A particular toy you had as a child
· Being invisible
· A time you felt homesick
· Having an affair, or discovering your partner is having one
· Birthdays
· A favorite food and a specific memory of eating it
· An imaginary city
· Driving with the radio on
· Life in an aquarium
· Dancing
· Walking with your eyes closed
· What a computer might daydream about
· Time travel
· Brothers or sisters
· Your job, or a job you've had
· Weddings
· Leaving home
· Camping
· A zoo
· A historical event from the perspective of someone who saw it firsthand (You will have to do some research for this).
· Holding your breath
· Intimacy and privacy
· A time you were tempted to do something you feel is wrong
· Physical attraction to someone
· A superstition you have
· Someone you admire
Poem starters- the five senses
· Write about the taste of: an egg, an orange, medicine, cinnamon
· Write about the smell of: burning food, melting snow, the ocean, your grandparents' home, the inside of a bus, pavement after the rain
· Write about the sound of: a radio changing channels, a dog howling, a football or baseball game, your parents talking in another room
· Write about the sight of: lit windows in a house when you're standing outside at night, someone you love when he or she doesn't know you're watching, a dying plant, shadows on snow
· Write about the feeling of: grass under bare feet, a really bad kiss, the headrush when you stand up too fast, sore muscles, falling asleep in the back seat of a moving car.
Poem starters- three elements
· Write a poem that contains all three of the elements in any of the lists below:
· A dessert, a memory, and someone in your family
· Dancing, a pitch-black room, and the smell of lilacs
· A balloon, smoke, and a keyhole
· A secret box, an ice cube tray, and a velvet ribbon
· A betrayal, soap, and a plane ticket
Poetry prompts - Write a poem about:
· Rain, snow, or a storm
· An animal you think is beautiful or strange
· Your parents or children
· How a kiss feels
· The house where you were born
· A smell that brings back memories
· Being a teenager, becoming an adult, middle age, old age
· Feeling lonely
· The moon
· Getting lost
· Marriage or divorce
· An imaginary friend
· Life in the future
· The hottest, coldest, or most exhausted you have ever felt
· Having a fever
· A new version of a fairy-tale
· The shapes you see in clouds
Write a poem in the form of any of the following:
· A letter
· A recipe
· A horoscope
· A fragment from an unusual dictionary
· A prayer
· A shopping list
· A magic spell.
Write a poem from the point of view of:
· One of your parents
· Your child (real or imagined)
· A historical figure (You will have to do research for this one.)
· A very old person
· An athlete who has just lost the big game
· The most popular/unpopular kid from your school
· An inanimate object in your home.
Where to get more ideas for poems:
· Listen to a piece of music and write about the images that it brings into your mind.
· People-watch, eavesdrop, and write about your observations and imaginings.
· Sit in a park and close your ideas. Notice all of the sounds and smells. Write about them afterward.
· Keep a notebook next to your bed and write down your dreams at night to turn them into poems later.
· Make a list of words you think are unusual, then try to use them in poems.
· Watch an animal and write a poem about what it looks like and what it does.
· Smell different spices in your kitchen and write about the memories that they inspire.
· Look through old family photographs and choose some to write poems about.
· Go on a "field trip" -- a museum, the zoo, a greenhouse -- to hunt for poetry ideas.
· Get inspiration from books on an area of science or history that interests you.
Writing Ideas from ED 100:
· Write a restaurant review
· Write a story using all the letters of the alphabet in it, in order and with each letter of the alphabet as the first letter in the word