Reading Problems:
Fluency Fix -- Read-Aloud
Bookworm
Today's Snack: Make a colorful, edible "worm" by threading
strawberries down a wooden skewer. The "face" can be a large white marshmallow
with a little chocolate syrup for eyes, nose and mouth. Wash down your treat
with a glass of chocolate milk!
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Supplies:
Construction paper | coffee
cup | pencil | scissors
Pipe cleaners | tape |
marker pen |
Watch with a second
hand, or a stopwatch
Book that is easy and
fun to read for the child
Early readers and those who are struggling with reading benefit
greatly from fun, easy, short activities that help them build their reading
speed, expression and accuracy.
We
call that "reading fluency." Here's an idea that a child would enjoy if a parent
did it with him or her at home for a full week. Or an after-school program
could do this activity day after day. We will be doing timed, repeated readings
over 7 to 10 days.
Put
the paper bookworm up on the wall, fill in every day how many words the child
can read aloud in one minute, and you'll both enjoy watching the number of
words grow and grow as he or she practices and practices!
Simply give the child a coffee cup, a pencil, and several
different colors of construction paper. Let the child trace around the coffee
cup to get different colors of circles. Make one for the head, and then 7 to 10
more, depending on how many days you intend to do this. Then let the child cut
the circles out and line them up in the order desired.
Tape together on the back. Bend a pipe cleaner into
antennae (even though worms don't have antennae - kids just love pipe
cleaners!) and tape them down on the back. Let the child make a face with the
marker pen.
Then let the child select an easy, fun-to-read book. Try
to help guide the child to select a book that he or she doesn't already know by
heart. If it's familiar, that's OK, but we want to make sure the reader is
really reading, and not just parroting what he or she already knows.
Stay
away from books that are too "hard." Our goal is to make this really fun so
that each reader can feel successful and make improvements. If on the first
day, the child makes more than one error in every 15 words or so, the material
is too difficult, and start over with simpler text.
Books of nursery rhymes, jump-rope jingles, children's
poetry, and all kinds of kids' picture books are good choices. You're helping
the child enjoy the reading process and gain confidence, mastery and control.
Let the child select the book.
Then, using a watch or clock with a second hand or a
stopwatch, coach the child to read aloud with a lot of expression and
pronouncing words correctly. Start timing the child. Listen to the child read
the book aloud.
Again,
if the child makes too many errors that first minute or does not enjoy the
process, start over, choose an easier book, and shoot for one minute of the
child reading aloud with no more than one error for every 15 words or so. The
reading may be slow, but shoot for pretty good accuracy to start.
After one minute, stop the child, and then together,
count the number of words read. Record it on the first segment of the bookworm.
See? That's painless. Make sure the child has access to
lots of other books to read over the next 24 hours, and then do it again, with
the same book you started with, starting in the same place. Keep coaching the
child to read quickly, but with expression.
Keep
recording for 7 to 10 days. Wow! Make a big deal about the child's progress. Building
confidence is 90% of the battle when it comes to reading problems.
The child's enjoyment will grow with his or her improved
performance as a love for reading WORMS its way into the child's heart!
