Reading at Home: Interventions and Skills Practice
This post is supplemental to a "how-to" on one way to manage fluency practice in a primary classroom.
We have started fluency practice in class this week. Students have a
reading folder where they track their growth as readers each week, the
passages they work on, and other reading comprehension and fluency
practice in class. Eventually they will start to come home, but we are
still getting used to the work in class.
Each week we read a short at- or slightly-below grade-level passage. There are many available on the internet for free. I simply did a Google search for "second grade fluency passage" and found this website. It starts with first grade ("G1") and continues higher. Shorter passages fit the attention span of second graders, and help build a sense of success around reading.
1. Good readers instinctively look over the reading material, asking themselves questions, making predictions, and thinking about what they already know on the topic.
2. We then read the passage several times, focusing on decoding the first few times, then more on comprehension. Repeated readings build confidence and fluency, as they are more familiar with the words. Repeated readings should take place not only in the same day, but over the course of several days. Here are some ways to make repeated reading more fun:
3. We then discuss what we read, what we still wonder, and ask and answer questions.
Each week we read a short at- or slightly-below grade-level passage. There are many available on the internet for free. I simply did a Google search for "second grade fluency passage" and found this website. It starts with first grade ("G1") and continues higher. Shorter passages fit the attention span of second graders, and help build a sense of success around reading.
1. Good readers instinctively look over the reading material, asking themselves questions, making predictions, and thinking about what they already know on the topic.
2. We then read the passage several times, focusing on decoding the first few times, then more on comprehension. Repeated readings build confidence and fluency, as they are more familiar with the words. Repeated readings should take place not only in the same day, but over the course of several days. Here are some ways to make repeated reading more fun:
- Read it as loud as you can (across the yard!).
- Read it in funny voices.
- Echo reading (one person reads sentence, then second person reads same sentence).
- Call or Skype with Grandma or another loved person and read aloud to them!
- Read onto a tape recorder (voice recording software?) and s/he can listen to self!
3. We then discuss what we read, what we still wonder, and ask and answer questions.
