The Shrunken Head
I can read
Rationale
Successful readers, or fluent readers, read fluently, automatically, and consistently. Fluent readings can comprehend what they are reading and read at a quicker paste. Instead of attempting to decode each word, fluent reader reflect on what they are reading. Through rereading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, practice reading, students build confidence in fluently reading and become successful readers with decodable words and connected texts. A reader’s goal should be to become a fluent reader that can comprehend what they are reading.
Materials
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One copy of the Shrunken Head for each pair of students in the class
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Stopwatches (one for each pair of students)
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Personalized graph to chart reading time (one for each student)- shown below
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Cover-up critters (one for each student)
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Sentence “I want to play outside today.”
Procedure
- Say: “Who wants to be an fluent reader? A fluent reader understands what they are reading and can read at a quicker speed. In order to become a super good reader, we have to be able to read fluently. When we read fluently, we read without hesitation, we read effortlessly, and we recognize words immediately, which means quickly. To recognize words automatically, we have to develop a large sight vocabulary that includes words that are common to find in books. When we have a large sight vocabulary, we can understand what we’re reading better, we can read with better expression, we can read with more speed, and we can read more complex and difficult texts. In order to be a fluent reader we have to reread our books to become faster readers and build our sight word vocabulary.”
- Reveal the sentence on the board: ‘I want to play outside today.”
- “I am going to try and read this sentence like a non-fluent reader”- read the sentence choppy and decode each word. Make sure to use the cover-up critter.
- “Does anyone want to read like that, it’s not very fast and it’s hard to understand what I am reading? Now I am going to read like a fluent read where it is easier to understand what I am reading and I read at a fast paste.” –Read normally, no cover-up critter.
-Explain that you want to be a fluent reader to make it clear what you are reading.
Now use the chart below for paired reading.
Book talk
- Say: “All of Barney’s family was helping cure Barney’s chicken pox, they itched him really bad but he wasn’t allowed to scratch them. His family wanted to distract him so they told him stories and grandma told Barney a really strange story about someone’s head getting shrunk. You’ll have to read to find out what happens in grandma’s story.”
Reading
- Say: “Now we will be reading the story of The Shrunken Head. It is important to remember that we are trying to become fluent readers, not speed-readers. So make sure to read the story clearly and carefully We will be re-reading it so it is okay if you mess up and don’t understand a word.”
- Divide the students into reading pairs, making sure each pair consist of one struggling reader and one skilled reader. Each pair should be given a copy of “The Shrunken Head,” a timer, a pencil, a fluency checklist and a reading time sheet.
- “For this activity one of you will be the reader and one of you will be the recorder. The reader will be the student with the first letter of their name closest to the beginning for the alphabet. As the reader you will start reading once your partner tells you to and you will read the first chapter. Do not race! This activity is not to help improve your speed of reading but rather your fluency of reading so take your time and don’t rush. We are going to take turns so once you are done reading your partner will be the reader and you will be the recorder. As the recorder it is your job to tell your partner when to start reading. When you tell your partner to start reading you must also start the timer. You will time your partner’s reading for the entire time and only stop when the chapter is complete. Write the total time it took them to read on the time sheet and fill out the fluency checklist based on your partner’s reading. You will repeat this 3 times, meaning each of you are the reader and the recorder three separate times.”
- Before beginning have two students model what is expected of the class.
- While students are completing this activity make sure to walk around and monitor their progress and make sure students are doing what is expected of them. You may have to remind them.
- After students have assessed their partners you can assess their fluency by using the formula
- (Words read x 60) / seconds it took to read
- To monitor students comprehensions have students write down a summary of what they believe the chapter was about.
References
The Shrunken Head: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062270818/curiosity-house-the-shrunken-head
Payne, Growing Independence in Fluency: http://jordanpayne95.wixsite.com/jordanslessondesigns/growing-independence-in-fluency
To return to application
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/applications/
