Guikema Lesson Plan 1 (Fluency)

• Rationale: These three students are all very quiet readers, and one of them has been evaluated by a reading specialist and is thought to have a stutter. They will benefit from this lesson on fluency because it will help them become more confident readers and learners in the classroom.
• Objective: These three students will read their parts in the Reader's Theater script "Brer Rabbit Shares His Crops" with accuracy and expression. This will be evaluated by timing their first and last renditions of the play, and by listening to their expression throughout the lesson.
• Materials and Supplies Needed:
• A script for each student
• A highlighter for each student
• A pencil for each student
• Procedures and Approximate Times:
• Introduction (5 min):
• Good morning! Today we get to be actors and actresses. What is your favorite TV show to watch? Why do you like that show so much? How do the actors and actresses keep you interested in what is happening in each episode?
• Grace was in the group before Christmas break that did a play about Thanksgiving. We are going to do something similar to that today, but the things that we are going to do are also going to be very different.
• My goal for working with you today is to get you to become expressive readers. Who knows what expressive means?
• Am I talking with expression now? How about now? Good. Now that we all know what I mean when I say expression, we can get started on the play.
• Key Events During the Lesson (30-35 min):
• The play that I picked out for us to work on today is called "Brer Rabbit Shares His Crops". Have any of you heard of a story that has Brer Rabbit in it? Do you think that this story happened in real life? How do you know?
• There are four parts in this play, the Narrator, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Chorus. I am not going to assign anyone a specific part in the play. Instead, we will rotate who says which lines each time we read. The first time, I am going to read through all of the parts in this play. I am going to read with a lot of expression, so I want you to pay attention to the way that I say certain lines and the extra things that I add to the play to make it more interesting. I have given each of you a highlighter along with your copy of the play. Listen to me while I read, and highlight any words that you don't know the meaning of or would not know how to pronounce. After I finish reading, we will go through any words that you do not understand.
• [Read through the play one time]
• What kinds of things did you notice while I was reading? [If no one has an answer, point out the words that are italicized and in parentheses in the play]. We need to pay special attention to the clues that the script gives us. This will make it easier for us to become the best, most expressive readers that we can be.
• [Next, go through any words that they have highlighted. Be sure that everyone understands what these words mean and how to say them. If they are not sure of how to pronounce a word, have them write it out phonetically above where the word is written.]
• Okay, now it's your turn to have a chance to read this play. What I am going to do is assign each of you a part, and then have all three of you read the chorus lines together. Let's practice that with the first chorus line. I'll help, "Think, Brer Rabbit, think..."
• [Assign roles for first reading, be sure to time it]
• Narrator: Grace
• Brer Rabbit: Adam
• Brer Bear: Eli
• [Have the students read through their lines. Before they start, say:] When you read this through the first time, I want you to use that highlighter again, and mark any words that you have trouble pronouncing. Then we will practice them as a group, and it will be easier for you to read your lines the next time we read the script.
• [Assign roles for the second reading]
• Narrator: Eli
• Brer Rabbit: Grace
• Brer Bear: Adam
• You are all doing an excellent job reading with expression! Keep focusing on reading in a way that will be interesting for us to listen to.
• Assign roles for the third reading, time this one as well]
• Narrator: Adam
• Brer Rabbit: Eli
• Brer Bear: Grace
• Closing Summary (5 min):
• I really enjoyed listening to your expressive, actor voices today. I think that you have learned a lot about how to read aloud in an interesting way. One thing that is nice about reader's theater is that there is prompts for you that give you hints on how to read certain lines. These prompts are not present when you are reading through other things like your SRAs or series reading. However, there are other clues in those texts. Be sure to look for punctuation; that's a good clue for what kind of expression to use. Whenever you are reading something out loud, it is always a good idea to read with expression so that the people who are listening to you stay interested in what you are reading. Try to practice reading with expression whenever you can.
• I think that you all made a lot of progress today, and I look forward to working with you again on your expression while you read. Have a wonderful day, and thank you for letting me work with you!
• On-Going Assessment:
• Adam reads aloud to me often, almost every time I spend time in the classroom. In the future, I will pay attention to his expression as he reads to see if he has made the connection between what we worked on during this lesson and his everyday reading.
• Also, in the next fluency lesson, I will pay attention to the speed with which Grace, Adam, and Eli get through the script. I will use the same play, and by timing it I will know exactly how much they retained from this lesson.
• Adaptations:
• The main adaptation I have made to this lesson is having students use a highlighter to mark words that they have trouble reading. This draws their attention to these words while they are going through their lines, and helps them read with more accuracy.
• Also, drawing their attention to the notes in the script will help ease them into reading with expression without having to put too much thought into the ways that they are going to achieve fluency.
• Repeated readings and chorus reading is a way to support all three of these learners as the progress toward fluency in the classroom and beyond.