Teaching Methods-Literacy and Elementary Reading, Research Paper Example

Reading Fluency Lessons

Over the course of three days, unique lessons will be implemented in order to assist students in specific skills they will need to increase their reading fluency.  The first lesson will pair struggling students with strong students in order for them to work together to improve.  Each student will take turns reading a page or paragraph out of a book.  Each student will not only work on practicing reading out loud, but will also have the opportunity to practice silent reading when following along and possibly identify words or phrases by learning from the other student.  This is very important for the lesser-skilled readers to have the opportunity to learn from stronger students while reading along.  As the teacher, I will work with each group and sit as a resource to help if students do not recognize a word or struggle reading phrases smoothly.

On the second day, we will use paired word-recognition flash cards.  In this exercise the pairs will be chosen at random and the class will be instructed to try to speed through the cards without making any mistakes.  The flash cards will have no pictures on them, so the students must read the word without using picture-recognition to assist them.  I will be available as a resource and will be taking notes on words that are giving students problems as well as students that may need extra one-on-one attention.  One student will be showing the card, while the other is reading the word aloud.  This exercise requires both students to read the words at the same time, one out loud and the other silently.  Both students need to recognize the words, which is a key benefit.  Concentrating on quick word-recognition will help students increase their overall reading fluency.

Finally, the third day will have the classroom split into two groups.  Each student will choose a piece of paper with a three-to-four word phrase written on it.  These phrases are meant to be paired with the group’s other pieces of paper to construct full sentences into a short paragraph.  The objective of this exercise is not only for the students to work together, but primarily to practice reading comprehension and asking themselves “does this make sense.”  It is one thing to practice word-recognition or reading from a book that already is understandable, but this exercise forces the students to construct their own sentences that may or may not be.  As the teacher, I will be the final judge during the competition but I will also work with each group as a resource if they are having problems comprehending a word or need additional instruction.

 Lesson Activity

General Information 

Topic or Location in Lesson: Increasing fluency in reading out loud, listening and silent reading

Activity Title and Subject(s): Paired Alternation Reading – strong readers with struggling readers

Grade/Level: 3^rd Grade

Objectives

Lesson Objective(s): 

Students will increase silent reading skills, listening skills and increase overall reading fluency through paired alternation reading.

Instructional/Learning Activities (What the Teacher Will Do)

Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):

This activity focuses on using partner work to help students learn from each other by hearing words and phrases read aloud.  The goal is to have a struggling reader paired with a strong reader to help boost the struggling reader’s fluency.  As the teacher, I will walk around the classroom spending time with each group and offer positive reinforcement and instruction to ensure words are pronounced correctly and smoothly.

Explanation and rationale for instructional strategy:

Ultimately, this strategy is meant to get as many students involved reading at one time making proper use of a class timetable.  This connection will help boost reading fluency proactively.  As the teacher, I will make my way around the classroom to ensure that students are reading smoothly and show comprehension when listening while taking time to work with pairs one-on-one.  This instructional strategy will provide individualized attention while also boosting reading confidence through positive reinforcement.

Learning Activity:

The students will be paired together by the teacher by choosing a strong reader to work with a struggling reader.  The students will be given their own books with passages to read out loud.  Each student will alternate reading each page or paragraph (depending on the book).

Explanation and Rationale for Learning Activity:

Having a strong reader paired with a struggling reader will help boost the confidence of the strong reader even further while providing the struggling reader with the opportunity to read along silently while hearing the strong reader read passages aloud.  By taking turns, each student is able to increase skills in reading out loud to focus on improving the clarity of oral reading while the other student improves upon their listening and comprehension skills.

Lesson activity

General information 

Topic or Location in Lesson: Word recognition Activity Title and Subject(s): Pair Word-Recognition Flash Cards

Grade/Level: 3^rd Grade 

Objectives

Students will increase skills in word recognition in reading aloud as well as silent reading through partner flash card exercises.Lesson Objective(s):

Instructional/Learning Activities (What the Teacher Will Do)

This activity focuses on using partner work to help students learn from each other by hearing and reading words out loud aloud to one another.  Similar to the previous lesson activity, students will be paired together by the teacher but not necessarily a strong reader and struggling reader.  Flash cards will be provided to each pair of students to take turns showing and reading the words.  As the teacher, I will walk around the classroom spending time with each group and offer positive reinforcement and instruction to ensure words are pronounced correctly and smoothly.  I will also work to record words that I identify students need work on as a class unit as well as individually. Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):

Explanation and rationale for instructional strategy:

This strategy works to have as many students involved reading at one time making proper use of class time in a constructive manner.  This lesson is most important for the teacher to identify specific students or words that are problems in the classroom.  Students who need more help should receive it and work with me during this lesson more than students who are not struggling.  This is important to provide one-on-one instruction without other students feeling neglected.

Learning Activity:

Students are provided flash cards and will take turns working through the flash cards.  One student will hold up a card and the other student will read the word.  This is meant to be a quick exercise and requires both students to read and recognize the word at the same time.  When one student has worked through the flash cards, they will change places.

 Explanation and Rationale for Learning Activity:

This activity is very important for quick word recognition practice.  The flash cards will not have pictures on them, so students cannot use picture recognition as a way to recognize the word in this activity.  Both students are essentially reading through the flash cards two times which is important so that each student is practicing during the entire lesson.   Using a fast-paced technique, the students will be required to test themselves to recognize words at a faster rate which will increase their reading fluency.

Lesson activity

General information 

Topic or Location in Lesson: Sentence Construction Activity Title and Subject(s): Team Paragraph Construction

Grade/Level: 3^rd Grade

Objectives

Lesson Objective(s): 

Students will work together with classmates to construct sentences together and ensure that all phrases are placed in order for proper comprehension.

Instructional/Learning Activities (What the Teacher Will Do)

Through cooperative learning, the class will be divided into two groups so that all students will have the opportunity to work together.  Each student is provided his or her own piece of paper with one three to four word phrase that is a piece of a sentence.  The two teams will then work together to construct full sentences that are both correct and make sense.  In this strategy, I will walk around the class and be available as a resource if students have questions about specific words or phrases.  However, the students should work together to ask questions and learn.Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):

Explanation and rationale for instructional strategy:

This instructional strategy provides the students with the ability to learn from others and work on skills that focus on ready comprehension fluency as opposed to solely word recognition.  As a resource and competition judge, I am able to allow the students to work together and learn from each other in this exercise.

 Learning Activity:

Students will need to work independently at first to read their phrases and understand them.  They will then work with their teams to place their phrases side by side constructing sentences.  Students can ask questions of the teacher at any time, but the main goal is to have students reading their phrases to each other and practicing reading comprehension.

Explanation and Rationale for Learning Activity:

This exercise is very important for students to learn from each other and work together in understanding how words are placed next to each other to construct sentences.  Oftentimes, very little effort is placed on sentence comprehension – the students asking themselves “does this makes sense”.  This exercise attempts to sway from simple word recognition exercises and concentrating primarily on taking word recognition to the next step in constructing full sentences.  Students can use each other as resources as well as the teacher.